My Space

This is my desk. There are many like it, but this one is mine. It has witnessed great and bloody wars as well as the most gentle of touches. It has seen the rise and fall of entire civilizations and wept at the passing of a God. It is at this very desk that I formed the idea for my first book and received my first rejection, but it was also here that I received my first contract. We’ve been through a lot together.

I’d never really noticed before, but as I studied the picture, I realized I have an interesting mix of organization and utter chaos going on in my work area. I guess it only makes sense as that pretty much sums up what my life seems to be these days.

You may notice I have three screens in the picture. The center one is my primary computer and the one I do the bulk of my writing on. The laptop to the right, is my work computer. So, it is where I do all of my engineering work and keep track of all of the ongoing projects for the day job. The laptop on the left is a computer I set up to allow me remote access to the control systems and databases of my leading clients all over the country. If it weren’t for this little baby, I’d have to travel ten times more than I already do.

Behind each of the laptops are book cases where I store reference books organized by relevance and frequency of use from left to right. And yes, the placement of these books often changes from project to project. I have several actual book cases (all but one full to overflowing of course) placed along the walls of my living room. This is where I keep the books I read for pleasure and the remainder of my reference material.

The cubby holes above the screens are stuffed with notes, marked up copies of MSs, pictures and various other scraps of paper I couldn’t bear to part with, but didn’t garner enough significance to be granted a home in the filing cabinet to my right. I go through them about once a quarter and either chuck what turns out to be utterly useless or file the things that I still find interesting at the time.

Other than that, I’m sure it is much the same as any other desk you might run across, but I’m comfortable here and being comfortable helps keep those creative juices flowing.