Jungle Red Writers: Writer's Work Spaces

JENN McKINLAY: I recently cleaned my desk, so I figured it was as good a time as any to share what my work space looks like. I follow several publishers on Instagram and I am always fascinated when they share their authors' work spaces. I love the ones that have windows to look out and I am resentful of the ones that are super tidy. So, here's me, trying to build some resentment:

Jenn's Desk

This is where I work, mostly, when I'm not writing at the kitchen counter, standing up so I can stretch or hunkered in the car waiting for Hooligan 2 while he's in guitar lessons. A lot of writing has been done in my car! But this is where I toil the most. To the right is the window where I can look at the dogs running around the backyard and at the pool where I lifeguard the Hooligans, mostly to keep them from doing dumb things since they've been swimming since they were toddlers. The portrait over my desk is a canvas of my fam reproduced from one of our old Christmas cards, which brings me joy.

How about you, Reds? What's your desk look like?

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I have an ancient computer desk tucked into the bay window of my parlor. Not shown in this picture: a VERY messy oak table to the right, where I keep files, stacks of correspondence, and some house plants struggling to stay alive. Also not shown: my Shih Tzu Louie, on his bed behind my chair (but not TOO close behind!) and my black cat Neko, who likes to go from the windowsill to my desk, cross my laptop, and then perch at my left hand, the better to receive tribute in the form of skritches. I try not to keep too much on my desk, but everything I have there pleases me: three crystals from a friend who swears they improve concentration and creativity, a crystal typewriter paperweight from Front Street Book Shop (now, sadly, closed), a mason jar from a wedding for my pens and pencils, and a pretty Lilly Pulitzer agenda for notes, etc.

Julia's Desk

The view from the window would look out over my front lawn to the road, if it weren't for the fact I have a gigantic overgrown rhododendron in the way. It's nice, really; it keeps me from glancing up at each passing car, and in the spring and summer, it's a popular place for birds. If I could change one thing about my work space, it would be the temperature - it's cold most of the year. In the picture, you can see the woven woolen shawl I keep to toss around my shoulders. In the worst of winter, I have to slide an electric heater beneath the desk to keep my feet from freezing.

HALLIE EPHRON: Here's my office where I work when I'm not on the couch in the living room under a pile of blankets, or like Jenn standing at the kitchen counter. It's windows on 3 walls, and last year sparrows nested in the forsythia bush RIGHT outside the window by my computer. Yup, it's cold in there in the winter. Can you see my orchid and my streptocarpus (blooming again!) in the window? And beside the orchid is the green-glass swan I bought to celebrate Never Tell a Lie.

Hallie's OfficeJenn: I have orchid envy, Hallie!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I have a perfectly nice proper office upstairs, in the bedroom across from ours. But ninety-five percent of the time, I work here, in our sunporch. For years I worked in here on a little rolling laptop table, then a couple of years ago I snagged this vintage oak library table at a garage sale down the street. So much open work space! Ha, that didn't last long, as you can see.

Deb's Desk

Isn't it interest how many of us work in rooms with windows? Our porch is really, really cold in the winter (when I am forced to go upstairs) and blazingly hot in the summer when the west sun hits all those windows. But I love the view over the whole back yard. I can let the dogs in and out, and make endless cups of tea. And of course there is the sofa for plotting (napping) and a good reading chair.

INGRID THOFT: After several years at the dining room table, the condo we moved into three years ago provided me with “a room of one’s own.” It’s small, but my desk faces Puget Sound and Pike Place Market: The view is endlessly fascinating. When it’s chilly and dank in the winter, I turn on the gas fireplace, and when the sun—yes, we do have sun—shines in from the west, there are blinds that cut the glare, but keep the view somewhat intact. One of the best things about my office, in addition to the deep blue wall, is the mementos that remind me of favorite people and places. These include challenge coins from my police friends, plates from Turkey, and the blue Santa Claus I created in second grade. Santa is a constant friendly reminder to go out on a writing limb and not be afraid to try something new.

Ingrid's Desk

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: So I had two options. One, clean up like a banshee and lose hours of writing time but convince you I'm organized or two, whatever. I chose whatever. You will see I have a wonderful window overlooking a big sugar maple. This is a semi-circular hunting desk that was my mom's. The wall color is Ralph Lauren Antelope Tusk, which is hilariously meaningless. Name badges from ten years of conventions, so heavy that if I get up wrong, the chair falls over backward. There's bottle of chardonnay, a gift from Sue Grafton. A rock that says "imagine" and one that says "patience." My words-a -ay chart. My easel with ads and pictures of Mercer Hennessey from TRUST ME (Tea Leoni) and Rachel North from THE MURDER LIST (Rachel Evans, whose photo I saw AFTER I picked Rachel's name). Bookcovers and posters and lots of stacks of paper. BUT! I know where everything is. And I didn't even show the piles of files/stacks of books part of the room. I really really love it.

Hank's Desk

RHYS BOWEN: This is one side of my office. On the other wall are bookcases with all my reference books. Do you notice the harp ( to sooth and give me an excuse to stop working) and Eleanor Roosevelt sitting on the bookcase to cheer me on?

Rhys's Desk

Wait...what? Rhys, you play the harp? How did I not know this? Fascinating!

LUCY BURDETTE: I had to really think about this--show my desk? or show Yoda the cat sleeping on the bed next to the spot where I spend most of time?

The desk has a slanting wall, where I've taped photos I've loved over the years. Behind the computer are my favorite photo of the kids with my brother nephew and assorted guinea pigs, John with his golf buddy John, a Sherlock Holmes bear that Diane Vallere sent me for reading and blurbing her wonderful costume shop mystery, my favorite lamp, and assorted other mementos from my golf mystery days.