The Book Post

I've Shown You Mine, Now Show Me Yours, Part VII.

The invitation to Show Me Your Writing Desk has given us a fascinating look at the real writing rooms of working authors. The Sydney Writers' Festival, and Paper Castle Press have been enjoying the series, The Cricket Wife loves Maggie Alderson's 'mood board', and Girl With A Satchel calls The Book Post desk series 'pervy' in her pop culture picks this week. Let the voyeurism continue, I say. Temporary spaces, eye strain and our home planet feature today, as we look at the writing desks of Dominic Knight, Joshua Cilento and James Bradley:

Left: The temporary writing space of Dominic Knight, novelist, 'misanthrope' and one of the founding members of The Chaser. His antique desk currently lives amongst his storage in a large warehouse space shared with artists. The space features blank DVD discs, a yellow candle, flouro pink basketball hoop and golf clubs, forever tempting distraction. He also spends time writing in the less distracting surrounds of his local cafe, which I'd say is probably wise. Dominic's debut novel is Disco Boy, and his second novel is due out soon. (I covered the launch of Disco Boy on my ABC blog last year.)

Middle: The writing desk of James Bradley, author of Wrack, The Deep Field and The Resurrectionist lives in a temporary nook, after a recent move and the birth of a second child. Squeezed under the window in a bedroom, it looks over an old railway building and trees. He says his current set up - seen here with moving boxes and ever growing piles of books - is hard to keep organized. 'I'm a teensy bit of a neat freak when it comes to my desk and study, too much inner disorder to cope easily with external disorder, I suppose.' But despite an eight week old baby, a 'feral' three year old and this cramped space, he has managed to write' half a novel and a pile of book reviews in the last couple of months, so something's clearly working.' Also shown is a can is Diet Coke, which James admits is something he drinks too much of, 'along with the four double espressos a day. No wonder I can never sleep.'

Right: The desk of writer, producer and musician Joshua Cilento features three computer screens (our highest number of simultaneously operating computer screens in this series so far), a journal, CD cases sitting on a neatly folded copy of the Sydney Morning Herald and its crossword, partially completed. It also features numerous images of his home planet, Earth. He calls this desk area 'JC's Hall of Eye Strain' and we can see why.

Quid pro quo. We've shown you ours, now show us yours, and I'll continue to post the best on The Book Post....

Happy reading,