I often get asked about where I write from and what my office looks like so I thought I'd show you.
I don't have an office but I do have a corner in my bedroom that serves this purpose. As you can see from the photo it's pretty tidy and organised. There's a good reason for that. I hardly ever use it. With two young kids to look after I find it more practical to use my laptop.
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| Me at my desk |
So now I've shown you what my desk area looks like, let me show you where most of the work actually gets done. My kitchen table....
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| Where the action takes place |
When not being used as a kitchen table it doubles up as my work station. I can easily keep an eye on the kids playing from there meaning I get to grab more time to get little jobs done. It also gives me more space to lay my work out. When I'm working on illustrating a children's picture book for example it can be useful to have the sketches in front of me as I do the digital drafts. Also handy when working on big projects like organising Promo Day as I have more room for the folders and planners.
Sometimes I take my laptop out on my balcony to work in the sunshine and occasionally I'll take my tablet out and about and work from a coffee shop or park.
What's your work area like? Do you have an office (or corner) or do you prefer to be more mobile?
Today I'm taking part in a blog hop. The theme for posts is "Life as a Writer".
My life as writer started when I was little. I was always making up stories and absolutely loved all the creative subjects at school. I remember when I was about 8 or 9 years old being given homework to make a book about an endangered animal. Mine was a non-fiction about panda's (one of my favourite animals). The whole book was in the shape of a panda head and the cover art was his face.
I also remember another similar project where we had to write a picture story book. Mine was about my pet rabbit "Bumper". In the story she ended up having an adventure in the washing machine.
I enjoyed these projects so much I started doing my own just for fun. My very first picture story books and the start of a life long love affair...
Having been told when I was younger that I'd "never make a living doing that kind of stuff" I had various different jobs over the years including a bit of everything from working in clothes shops and restaurants to credit control. I was even a tour guide for the Colosseum at one point.
In 2006 my life changed. I sent off my first article to a newspaper and got accepted. They printed it in the very next issue. This was when I realised I COULD do this job. It was also when I realised I had been doing it for a while anyway... you see I had already worked for a company that published books for the dental industry and gained hands on experience about formatting, proofs and the general publishing process. At the time I was working for the Department of Neurology at the main hospital here in Rome and a large part of my job was to help write research articles. I already had quite a bit of experience.
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| Rocking the #1 spot on the best sellers list |
Having tried various genres over the years and published a couple of non-fiction books I moved my focus to children's picture books after my second son was born in 2011. It seemed so natural. I was always making up stories for my kids anyway and we often had drawing sessions together. The final nudge was when my eldest son (at the time 4 years old) as me why I hadn't written a book for him yet. I figured he had a good point and so created Out and About at the Zoo. The book proved to be a huge success and made it onto several best seller lists and received some fantastic reviews. This has motivated me to continue in this market and my new rhyming children's picture story book Fairy May will be officially released on 1st February 2013.
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| Fairy May will be officially released on 1st Feb 2013 |
I can now confidently say I'm a writer and I love my work. Whether I'm writing freelance articles for clients, blogging or working on a non-fiction or children's picture book I'm happy. Not everyone can say they love their job as much as I can and for that I feel truly blessed.
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