My Mid-Winter / MidSummer Writing Space: I was asked recently how my writing room / office is set up and my reply was that I don’t have a dedicated office. I have two spaces in my tiny rental house that I use. As I thought about it, I realized, I change where I write based on the seasons.

My house has a basement entry (so the main floor is actually the above ground “basement”, that houses the laundry room, powder room and the rest of the space in what my generation called the rec room or rumpus room. I, however, no longer rumpus and prefer to sit and read or watch old movies. So along with writing in this space, it is also my library, my tv room and because it has a very old broken-in sofa, it is my nap room. 

I love my house but it gets very cold and draughty in the winter and sweltering in the summer heat and this basement room stays relatively cool in the summer and warmish in the winter. I can also turn on the fireplace channel and my battery operated candles and create a cozy ambience in the winter. Mid-summer, I can fling open the curtains on the patio doors and gaze out into the lush green and vibrant colours of the flowers in my back garden.

The large floral painting I’ve posted on Instagram. It was destined for the garbage heap at the local thrift store and had been left out in the rain. Both the painting and frame are heavily damaged but it needed to come home with me. The oil painting to the right, I purchased at a garage sale a few years back and I happened to have a frame picked up from yet another garage sale that fit it perfectly.

I use the console table behind the sofa to set up my laptop and the bowl full of rocks also hold Steve the Dragon Cat’s sparkle balls. Because every writing room needs a bowl of rocks and sparkle balls.

My Spring / Fall Writing Space: Which is at my dining room table. But really, my 1970s rental was renovated into an open plan, so the kitchen, dining room and living room are all one space. And you may have spotted my assistant, who spends his time making sure I’m writing and not just scrolling on social media. Oh and of course, he demands payment in snacks. Everything in the space, with the exception of my laptop (although it is 15 yrs old) and Steve is thrifted.