Where NOT to write

Originally posted on the Promiscuous Diva

Readers ask me quite frequently where I do my writing. At a desk? On the couch? On the floor? Where? Well, because of my somewhat unique circumstances, this is quite a complicated question!

 

 (My office on Waikiki Beach, Hawaii)

You see, while I feed my fledgling full time writing career snack crackers and corn chips, I’m in the midst of a two-year trip around the world with my beautiful and supportive wife, Adele. So on any given day, I’m usually writing in a completely different place. But before I get into MY ALL TIME FAVORITEST PLACE TO WRITE, I want to tell you about some of the many places I’ve written my books, as well as tell you about a place I probably should NOT have been writing.

OK, here goes! Well, my burgeoning career started none other than on the Manly Ferry in Sydney, Australia. Yep, Aussies, that’s right! My wife is Australian, though I am not, and we were living in Australia, working glorious 9-5 jobs in the city, while living at Manly Beach. Every day we rode the Manly Ferry to the city, and that’s where I would write. Half an hour there, half an hour back, rolling on the waves, catching an occasional glimpse of a dolphin or two out the window. All in all, not too bad, eh? Squeeze in an hour at a café at lunch in the city, and I was churning out about two hours a day, perhaps 2,500 words. That’s how it all started. That was definitely fun, but in the scheme of things, neither the ferry nor the cafes were my favorite places to write.

Fast forward a year and a half. Four books published and it’s time to quit our jobs and do this full time, yeah! We decided that if I was going to write fulltime, we might as well make an experience out of it, travel the world for two years, meet people, live life to the fullest. So we took the show on the road, quitting our jobs, selling, giving away, or storing almost all of our belongings, getting plugged with more vaccinations than I knew existed. First stop: Hawaii!

Hmm, who wants to stay cooped up writing all day when you’re in sunny Waikiki, or on the North Shore of Oahu? Not me! Well, I thought, I’ve got a tiny laptop that can easily fit in the beach bag with everything else, so I might as well take advantage. That’s when I started writing on the beach. We bought a couple of cheap beach chairs and I would write while Adele would read and take photos. If I got hot, I took a dip. I was churning out LOTS of words now, somewhere in the 4-5 thousand mark per day, writing full time, publishing a new book every 2-3 months. Living the dream! Only…laptops aren’t really meant to be in the sun. Duh! We were on the beach and I’d just finished the sequel to The Moon Dwellers, and ZAP! FRY! BZZ! (Yeah, the above pictures are EXACTLY where it happened.) My laptop goes black. Like blank-screen black. Like pressing-all-the-buttons-won’t-get-it-to-do-anything black. NOOOOO!!! Yeah, I freaked. Not my best day. I’d saved a zillion times, of course, and even backed up parts on an external hard drive, but there was LOTS that was ONLY on the laptop’s hard drive, and if it was fried I was completely ready to shamelessly break down in tears in a public place. Enter my hero: Adele! She made some calls to a friend, who called a friend. A computer whiz friend. So I trustingly handed over my computer, and two days later, voila! Dead computer with SAVED hard drive. Woot woot! Lesson learned, right? Well, sort of. I continued writing on the beach, but first we bought a nice beach umbrella. Ahhh shade! How obvious was that? Apparently not obvious enough for my pint-sized brain. In any case, I borrowed Adele’s computer to write the rest of the time we were in Hawaii, until I had a chance to buy a new one. OK, so was the beach my favorite place to write? Notwithstanding the fried computer incident (which, from this day forward we shall never speak of again), the beach was still NOT my favorite place to write. Too much sand trying to get into the keyboard, concerns about sudden rainstorms, lots of wind, distractions, etc.

Get to the point already! Where do you like to write? The pub? The library? A big, comfy chair somewhere in Morocco? A hammock in Mexico? Nope, nope, nope, and nope. Believe it or not, despite having travelled (so far!) for about a year to four continents, my ALLTIME FAVORITEST PLACE TO WRITE continues to be...drumroll…IN BED! That’s right, for me nothing beats waking up and getting right to it. And Adele is super supportive of this, uh, let’s call it a “creative choice” (because it sounds better than “lazy choice”). She brings me breakfast, coffee, and sometimes even lunch in bed when I’m working on a project. It’s comfortable, warm, and there are generally zero distractions. On a typical day I churn out 4-5 thousand words before lunch. Then Adele and I go out and enjoy the day in whatever city we happen to be in.

All in all, it’s an absolute dream come true, one that NEVER would have come close to coming true without the remarkable and selfless support of the bloggers, fan group members, beta readers, street team members, family, and friends who have supported and helped me along the way. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you thank you thank you, and HAPPY READING!