Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Workspace Wednesday - Lynn Townsend

Well I have to admit I'm really excited to have Lynn over talking about her workspace for one she can talk (and does a lot!) which I love when organising things like this, and another she writes the most amazing steampunk erotica, and I have to admit I love anything to do with steampunk. Plus! She's a gamer so that's got to be a good thing AND she likes Cthulhu...enough said really

Anyway without further ado let me introduce Lynn and her workspace!


You have been warned! I'm known for writing my friends, neighbors (oh! the neighbors!), and family (yeah, them too... sorry Uncle. Okay, I'm not, really!) into my stories. 

I've had this desk for nine years. I know this because I had to buy it just after we moved into our apartment, back in February 2004, because my old desk got smashed in the move. On the plus side, the Office Max had exactly the same model in stock, so I just got a duplicate of my old desk. 


I should give out a prize for someone who can tell me how many octopuses are on or around my desk... (I'm kidding. There are 8 that you can see, and 2 stickers on my laptop that you can't currently see because my laptop is closed.) Yes, that's a Jane Austen action figure there to the left... Also, yes, that's Kili and Thorin Oakenshield in a 'shipping picture as my desktop wallpaper. Isn't it adorable? (Yes, I know they're related. Shut up.) The poster over my desk says Madness - Madness does not always howl. Sometimes, it is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "Hey, is there room in your head for one more?" 

The flat surfaces of my desk is a paean to much of the geekery that I adore: I have, running left to right: bantha, 2 slave 1s, rhinosaurus, three octopuses, a glass bird that belonged to my grandmother, the Fantasia Dancing Mushrooms, an imperial shuttle (yeah, I like the Empire... what's it to you, Rebel Scum?) some pirate ships, a Totoro, a griffin, a penguin, and Chococat. Underneath, a gargoyle, a female Jedi (because well, Jedi girls kick ass!) a couple of polaroids, a 9-inch plushie Dick (from Looking for Group) my Serenity RPG book, my squishable.com octopus (her name is Veruca...) and that tiny blue thing over on the right is a ninja hippo. (Don't ask, seriously, that is a long story...) [There was a close up of these including the RPG book but the image won't load at the moment - when I can get it to work this post will be updated with the image! - Nicole]

I also have a ton of random office supplies; turning me loose in an office supply store is a bad idea. I'm particularly addicted to tape flags, highlighters, and sharpies.I have several notebooks on the top of my desk; one is my calendar where I keep track of everything I need to be doing... the small notebook is for jotting ideas. Right now it says "Eppie Dunbar, Turner Gillespie, Ellis Rugar Ballard, Washington Co. Railroad." I was jotting names for a story idea, which I ended up finishing and submitting last week. Cross your fingers for me. Turns out that Ellis Rugar is a Star Wars: The Old Republic character. Took me three days of writing to figure out why the name sounded so familiar. So, I had to change that... 

The notebook to the side of my calendar is for more long-range projects and notes; right now it's got my daughter's scratch math on it, since she's been taking SOL practice tests at my computer. 

To the very far right, you can see into my husband's computer spare parts closet. Yes. You can see three. separate. non-functioning. computers. There's also 2 monitors and three or four boxes worth of parts that you can't see.



My brag shelf; theses are the books that I've had stories published in that I've gotten hard copies of. I'm still waiting for a few of them, but there's Ladies of Steampunk magazine, Fairy Tale Lust (ok, I don't have a story in that, but Kristina Wright endorsed it for me, and meeting her has been very influential in my career...), Lustfully Ever After, Steamlust, Shifting Steam, Coming Together: Hungry for Love, Duty and Desire, Return of the Kings, and He Loves me For My Brains. If you're interested in these, or any other stories I've had published, you can find my entire catalog here, along with links for the medium of your choice 


And on this side is my recycled coat. That bear there, Lady Abagail C. Bearsdale, used to be a mink coat that belonged to my great aunt Kit. The bear was fashioned by Gae Sharp < http://www.gaesharp.com/home.htm > and I've had this bear since I was ten, which means the bear is over thirty years old, and the coat was probably at least thirty years old by the time it was used to make a bear. I'm quite fond of her. My mom had a whole batch of these bears made up for my grandmother, my cousins, and my aunts. (the bear on the other side, who's black, is Simon Bearkly, and he is also a Gae Sharp bear... )


************


Last year, I was approached by a friend's wife who wanted to do something special for her husband's birthday. She talked to a bunch of his friends who were writers and pitched the idea of a round-robin novel, covering many of his specific likes. We came up with Return of the Kings. Squids, mechanical dragons, rock stars, Cthulu, rubber ducks... unfortunately along the way, we lost one of our authors to illness. The proceeds from this book are going to Clarion Writer's Workshop in Leonard's name.


Working on this project was a lot of fun... the book is ridiculously over the top and erratically brilliant.

I was inspired by a couple of songs, when it came to my turn to write a chapter; Return of the King, Uh-Huh, by Tom Smith, and #9 Dream by John Lennon. (You'll understand when you read the book...)

"ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn böwakawa poussé, poussé"

Lynn Townsend

Lynn Townsend is a geek, a dreamer and an inveterate punster. When not reading, writing, or editing, she can usually be found drinking coffee or killing video game villains. Lynn's interests include filk music, romance novels, and movies with more FX than plot. She has over a dozen published works on topics ranging from the mundane to the truly bizarre. Keep up with her on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/LynnTownsendwriter or at her blog, Paid by the Weird  < http://paidbytheweird.blogspot.com/ >
 
Thank you so much Lynn for coming over and showing us your workspace! It's great to see someone else who works surrounded in various RPG's and other 'geek' like items!

No comments: