We’ve never had a tv in the living room before. Back when we lived in SE Portland, we kept our tv in the basement, where it was dark and cold and creepy and perfect for playing Resident Evil. When we moved to our new house, we couldn’t figure out where to put the tv–the fireplace in the living room blocked the most reasonable wall to put the darn thing, and the big front window cast a glare that made it hard to even see zombies on the screen, let alone be frightened of them. So we put the tv in the spare bedroom/office and suffered being cramped inside the tiny space.
Well, no longer. My genius husband reorganized the living room and helped me transform the spare bedroom into a more user-friendly office. In part, we were inspired by Guillermo del Toro’s Bleak House, which uses red walls to help showcase his vast collection of horror and SF art. Okay, when I say “in part,” I actually mean I said “LET’S REDO OUR WHOLE HOUSE LIKE BLEAK HOUSE!” and my husband convinced me that was maybe a little too much red. So now I have a wonderful red office to host my slowly growing horror and SF art collection, and I couldn’t be happier!
Here are some highlights:
Someday, this wall will be almost entirely covered in art, but this is a good start. I think The Crow Witch (by the wonderful Galen Dara, as is the cute zombie valentine guy), needs to be a little closer to the monitor, but I was just recycling a pre-existing nail hole. The inspirational puppy was accidentally printed twice when I sent him along to an awesome friend, and I kept him because who doesn’t need a reminder they have the power to be awesome?
You’ll also note some sundry fun stuff, like some Word Horde stickers spiffing up my printer, and a mailing label that dubs my house “Lightspeed Pacific Northwest HQ.” My own novel is on my desk because I’ve been working on the sequel and I can’t remember how to spell anyone’s name.
Behind me is a futon (perfect for guests!) and a bookshelf with this paper mache octopus I made for Halloween. (At Halloween, I put orange LED candles in his eye sockets, giving him a baleful glare.) You can see a John Kovalic Cthulhu behind him, happily nibbling on people as he tries to choose which Stephen King novel to read next. Because of course the top shelf of my office bookshelf is devoted to Stephen King!
What you can’t see is the window off to my left, which has a big rhododendron growing in front of it. This lets in a mysterious green light that makes the space feel like writing from inside a magical jungle or perhaps another dimension.
It’s nice to be surrounded by so much inspiration. I’ve been getting a lot done over the past few months: I’ve almost finished polishing the sequel to Skinwalkers; I’ve written a couple of short stories; I’ve edited a ton of essays for Queers Destroy Science Fiction. I’m also really excited about some recent successes. Right now the Kickstarter is up for Genius Loci, which will feature my magical Eastern Washington story, “Scab Land.” The book design looks beautiful, so make sure you get a copy of that book.
The folks over at Innsmouth Free Press also just announced the table of contents for their upcoming Lovecraftian anthology She Walks in Shadows, which has a super awesome cover. My story “Queen of a New America” will appear in that one, and I really enjoyed writing it.
It’s all keeping me really busy, but I’m still managing to get in plenty of horror reading and gameplay. In fact, tomorrow we get to start playing a new Call of Cthulhu campaign–it’ll be my daughter’s first experience as GM, and she promises it’ll be fun!