This week adds a guest journal from author Lisa Lickel on the joys of her home writing workshop.Enjoy this fun peak into this gifted writer’s private life.
Lisa: I’ve been sick this past week…I would use it as an excuse to say “Don’t Look at My Dust!” but that wouldn’t really be fair to the dust. This is part of my Wisconsin winter writing nest. If you pan right, you’ll move along our sofa where I often cuddle and watch the birdfeeder out of the window. Right after Christmas, while my grown-up and expectant kids were visiting, I got a call from a newspaper reporter dying for a spot in his Saturday column on old houses in the county. Did I say this was Friday as we were sitting down to lunch? Could he come over? Soon? Like I’m going to say no. My sons looked at their wives. “You’d be having hysterics if someone did that to you,” one of the boys said. I shrugged. I have lots of other rooms to throw stuff in and close the door. The lunch dishes complained not when I tossed them in the laundry room. I also have an obligation to history…to my historic home which feeds my muse.
What does my workspace say about me? The tissues and Cabela’s blanket – I had a bad cold, and sat in my chair a lot. My laptop computer is open next to my desktop. I don’t like to wait much. I’m an editor, and my tools of the trade, the latest Meriam-Webster’s and Chicago Manual of Style, are close at hand. Part of my dragon collection is on the shelves next to the desk. I’m whimsical. That’s a 6000 piece puzzle of ancient America on my wall. Took me two years. I can be patient and sort out a problem.
On my desk I have a big printer for my work. Lasers are cheaper than ink. It’s about to run out, so my new toner is sitting atop. I’m prepared, this time…I must have learned my lesson. The things you can’t see on my desk are my white board and some paper notes, a picture of my womb-cuddled grandchild arriving this spring. A framed message from a special friend reminding me that God has given me a gift. My calendar with the date of my next book release in big letters. Like I’d forget that. But I might. My best friend called to meet her for lunch that day. I’ll tell her it’s a celebration when I see her. There’s a joke from the Family Circus that has Billy telling Dad, “If you ask me the right questions, I know some good answers.”
Yes, I do write fiction, but I live in the realities of home and family. All of it helps me tell stories, as much as they tell you about me. What does your workspace say about you?
Lisa Lickel is a Wisconsin writer who lives in a hundred and sixty-year-old house built by a Great Lakes ship captain. A muti-published, best-selling and award-winning novelist, she also writes short stories and radio theater, is an avid book reviewer, blogger, a freelance editor, and magazine editor. Visit www.LisaLickel.com.
Lisa Lickel’s latest novel, The Last Detail, released January 8, 2014 from Prism Books.
From the back cover: Hope, love, and loss meld two polar opposite personalities. How long can they keep passion for their ministry and each other after the wedding?
- ISBN: 978-1940099-446
- $3.99 eBook/$14.99 Print
