Wonderful Workspaces!

by Anna Campbell

We have a new arts channel on cable TV here (STVDIO) and I'm having a lovely time, especially on a Monday which is devoted to writers and writing.

My favorite show on this network over the last few weeks is The Book Show which is produced for the British cable outfit Sky TV. And my favorite part of The Book Show is the bit where they show a writer's workspace. Anyway, here's the website: http://thebookshow.skyarts.co.uk/

One of the things I love about The Book Show is that they don't just go in for high-falutin' literary types. Everybody gets a look-in. So far, among the interviewees, I've seen Sue Townsend and a couple of thriller writers, including Robert Harris, and Tracey Chevalier who I met at last year's Brisbane Writers Festival (yeah, I know, that definitely counts as name dropping!) and Marian Keyes.

Marian Keyes by the way gave a really impassioned defense of women's fiction. As she said, why do people feel they can make value judgments based on what women read? And what's really sad, she said were the 'collaborators'. Women who accept these value judgments at face value as if things that women like are automatically considered beneath serious consideration.

But that's a rant for another time! I haven't read MK but after seeing her interviewed, I'm interested! She definitely is one smart cookie.

What I want to talk about today is the regular segment about writers' workspaces which I find absolutely fascinating.

We've had a couple of very elegant garrets high in the top of terrace houses. Fay Weldon's fascinated me - it's a very workaday office with steel shelving and a plywood desk at the university where she teaches. The one yesterday was a military historian called Richard Beevor who writes in a restored barn in the Cotswolds with views over the fields.

The one that really filled me envy - perhaps because like me she writes romantic fiction although in a very different style - was Jilly Cooper's workspace. It was a converted 14th-century dovecote again in the Cotswolds. By the way, clearly when you've made it in Britain as a writer, you HAVE to move to the Cotswolds, snort!

This beautiful space in a stone building with views out across classic English rolling hills made my mouth water. Bookshelves everywhere. And cats. Jilly says she loves having the cats around when she's writing - as she put it you spend so much time on your own when you're a writer, it's nice to have something alive in the vicinity. But something alive that lets you keep working!

Anyway, I took some photos of my current workspace only to discover that the new computer objected to linking with the camera. Sigh. As a result, I was stuck going through my old files.

These photos are slightly out of date - I've got another corkboard now in front of the desk, for example. And the garden, bless its cotton socks, is considerably more overgrown than it is in the picture.

But you get the idea - books, mess, postcards, computer, desk (which I love - my father rescued it from a Telstra disposal sale and did it up for me when I was in uni. I still can't believe they threw out solid walnut in favor of chipboard back in the late 70s!). View of my garden outside.

So what's your workspace like? If it's like Jilly Cooper's, by the way, I may never speak to you again, snork! Do you have a favorite room in your house? Let's talk about our habitat! And by the way, only the rooster gets to boast of his bad habitats! Groan!

Fabulous Five!

By Anna Campbell

After many years of writing from the corner of my Sydney bedroom, with a gorgeous view of the back of the next-door block of flats, it's been wonderful settling into my current office. A whole room! Whoopee! Big storage cupboards! Yeehaw! Filing cabinets, thanks to a thoughtful present from my brother for my birthday! Yippeeeee! Not to mention, two desks, a big bookcase and a view. I'm as happy as that infamous pig in mud!

In celebration of my beloved new environment, I thought I'd pick five things that accompany me every day as I work, and share them with you. Little things but with a big impact for me - they never fail to make me smile.

Firstly, I have my Newfoundland puffin which my good friend and fellow travel nut Lindsay gave me after she did an amazing trip to Alaska and Canada. I've only ever seen puffins once, when I did a wildlife tour from the Isle of Mull in Scotland. They're amazing birds, full of vivid personality. It was a magical day visiting the Treshnish Isles and seeing them nesting and squabbling over each other and setting up for the breeding season. And my toy puffin is graced with a Beatles badge which my critique partner's daughter gave me. Somehow Puffin and Badge belong together (and I've always been a Beatles fan so that brings some lovely associations too).

Then there's a fairly new addition to my menagerie. A lucky bamboo plant, a gift from our own Bandita Buddy Amy Andrews. So far, it's still thriving in spite of my usual toxic touch with green things inside. Long may he reign and spread his good fortune!

I have a couple of cat figurines that I've collected. I love the wonderful, elegant lines of our feline friends. Two in particular are favorites (I count these as one choice - so sue me!). The upright one is a copy of an Ancient Egyptian cat from the Metropolitan Museum in New York. He always reminds me how magical I found that city during that first visit - in spite of the fact that I was as sick as a dog (not a cat!) and jetlagged beyond reason. The curled up cat is carved from Welsh slate and comes from a gift shop in Cheddar Gorge in Somerset where I set Untouched. He's so smooth and cool and he sits perfectly in the palm of my hand. And he's so realistic, you can almost hear him purr.

Next on this tour of my favorite things is a gorgeous card that Amanda, one of my oldest friends, gave me to inspire me. She's not a romance reader but she's obviously gathered that sometimes the Frog Prince is the base fairytale for my stories and the heroes need to go through a major character arc to transform into the princes that they really are. The bug-eyed frog always gives me such a giggle! And with that tongue hanging out, you know he's more than ready to fall in love with the wonderful heroine I'm going to give him!

The last of my fabulous five is a little souvenir I've had since 1986 and he's gone everywhere with me. Jonathan, a friend of mine when I lived in London, gave it to me after he went to the Domesday Book Exhibition in Winchester. This cute little guy's name is Rufus and he's the poor monk who did all the writing for the Domesday Book. For those who don't know, the Domesday Book was basically a catalogue of everything William the Conqueror owned in his new kingdom. After his hard day's writing, Rufus used to down a horn of good French wine and drop off to sleep. Know just how he feels (although my wine is generally a local product!).

So do you have anything that shares your days with you and makes you smile? Is it the object itself or the associations it brings to mind? I don't think it's accidental that most of my objects are presents from people I care about or souvenirs of places I love. Come on! Let us into your working world! Spill the beans!

And don't miss the contest fellow Bandita Christine Wells and I are currently running. Just tell us which historical romance heroine you would be and you're in the running for some great prizes including a signed hardcover copy of Untouched and an ARC of Christine's next release, The Dangerous Duke, a signed copy of Scandal's Daughter, a beautiful diary and a stack of signed coverflats. Just visit the contest page of my website for details! Good luck!