Writing Spaces
I finally have a personal writing space. For years, I have used whatever was available. The dining table at home, always moving stuff around for meals, was a primary spot. The only adequate space for quite some time. Before the pandemic reset, I travelled a lot with work and would write in hotels, cafes, and coffee shops—literally wherever I could. Times on the road spanned the chaos of Las Vegas to the idle peace of a cabin in the Texas Hill Country. Not having a set writing space was difficult, in that distraction was easier to encounter. Ideas would come and I would jot them down in a notebook or use the note function on my IPhone. Writing in pieces late at night or early in the morning, I churned out stories, stitched together my notes into outlines, and gathered character moments or plot necessities that would spring from my imagination. Once home, I would return to the familiar table to revise and write while fighting domestic distraction.
The pandemic amplified that as my traveling job ended and the old apartment in DC took on the pall of a prison cell with only a view of a Russian style courtyard outside. Lockdowns, riots, an insurrection, and more US troops than were deployed in the Middle East made life strange and dystopian. When we moved there in February of 2020 the world was open. A year later it was fenced in with barbed wire and National Guard checkpoints. The experience was quite jarring to live through. Seeing and feeling the difference in a world drastically changed over the past year led to the decision to get out. Moving to Virginia, to a larger space, has changed my routine and my day to day life for the better. The omnipresent could of despair that hung over the capital was gone. I did not realize its effect until I was away from it.
One of the first things I bought was a desk and I created a nook to finally having a writing space of my own. Having a stable, non transient, place to write has brought a new aspect, a separation of my creative life. I still get ideas and jot notes, but my primary zone is now set. It feels so freeing to have a nook to create without interruption. I have read the call for pictures of writing spaces in the HWA (Horror Writer’s Association) for quite a while and have always wanted to contribute with a photo. Later this year when my new space has been worked in, some memorabilia is put up, and the character of use is apparent in the details, I will post one.
Upcoming projects for my new writing space include some housekeeping on past works, a revision of my Rebel’s Edge series and Lane Bowden 1973, a second draft of Future-Thrill, and a new giallo screenplay.
Wild Boys — A Peculiar Western Novel is now available in e-book as three separate novellas, Dusty’s Revenge, Jake’s Tale, and Trail’s End with alternate artwork. The original paperback and ebook editions are pure pulp western in style while the new editions feature some male models for the cowboy romance angle with backdrops from Almeria, Spain, where the Man with No Name films were shot in the 60s, for the violent western aspect that sets the story apart as a true western with a gay twist.
Timber Tantrum is a script finalist in the Grindsploitation Film Fest in Winchester, VA April 23rd-25th. My co-writer and friend Lee Webster would be proud of the continuing success of our women wrestlers vs killer trees exploitation epic.
DS
