I was honored last month to be featured inWriters’ Forum magazine’s “Where I Write” feature.
Originally, my husband created my dream writing space at home. He built glass-door bookcases and wainscoted the walls and lugged in a comfy green couch to set alongside my desk. But then we had triplet sons, and that space was given over to babies and copious baby gear. I never got it back—and that’s okay. Leaving the house flips my switch to Work Mode. With my “mobile office tour” of San Diego’s amazing places, I’m always eager to get to work. San Diego is my new dream writing space.
I like to post photos of me in my mobile office on my social media. Last week I was at San Diego Bay enjoying a necessary summer breeze next to the Maritime Museum.
For the “Where I Write” feature, we focused on my writing and editing visits to the San Diego Public Library’s public reading room, which is a gorgeous space. It’s indoors, yet the dramatic raised ceiling and walls of windows overlooking San Diego Bay and the historic Coronado Bridge make me feel like I can breathe deeply. That feeling of expansiveness is important to me when choosing writing spaces. I have no set writing space. For years, I wrote my books and edited other author’s manuscripts on my laptop at the local pool and park. I would stand and stretch my arms, walk around, even pull out a mat for a stretching session. But during the initial phase of the pandemic, the pool and parks were closed, so I rediscovered the open spaces of San Diego. Now my default writing spaces are the lake and fields by my home, but at least two days each week I pick a beautiful San Diego location like Balboa Park, or the beach at the famous Hotel Del Coronado, or that stunning SDPL writing room. I choose my locations sometimes by mood, but usually with some thematic link to what I’m writing or editing that day.
As I said in the Writers’ Forum article, “Just give me a travel mug of hot cocoa, a beautiful space, and an engrossing project to write or edit and I’m happy.” Word.
