PLACES WHERE I WRITE

"Give me, kind Heaven, a private station,
A mind serene for contemplation!..."
GAY "Fables" pt II

I like to have a serene work place. It can be in various places so long as there is harmony and a peaceful atmosphere. I've written in coffee shops and jotted notes down while the music played at the Latin Quarter Bistro. I've walked the sea-wall in Stanley Park and sat on a bench over looking the Bay to write. I've even dashed out a few lines while riding home on the bus. But my favorite (and most productive) work places are usually in a special, quiet place with beautiful surroundings and no interferences so I can hear the Muse speak.

When I am in Athens, this is often where I write: In Christina's courtyard. I've planned scenes and plotted stories here in this lovely courtyard. Usually I go out there first thing in the morning with my breakfast: some little toasts, yoghurt and fruit, my journal, my notebook, sometimes the morning paper. I love this courtyard and have many happy memories of sitting here with friends. When Roberto was alive we often sat here together, me writing notes, he reading. Or we'd just talk and discuss my novel's progress, or make plans for the day or reminisce about our past adventures. That last times I saw Roberto it was in this courtyard. So whenever I'm there, sitting alone contemplating, I can feel his spirit near.

I'm often a solo traveller. So when I go out for my evening I choose a particularly appealing place -- usually a taverna by the sea. I take my journal and sometimes my notebook, order my dinner and a carafe of red wine and enjoy the solitude and serenity of the scenery.
This is one of the places where I ate dinner and wrote journal notes last summer in Naxos at Plaka Beach. You never feel entirely 'alone' if you have your journal with you!

It's important, when I'm seriously into my work on the novel (or any other writing project) to have a work space that is reasonably uncluttered with few distractions. In my bedroom, where I work at home, I have many pictures and objects around that remind me of Greece and, in particular, of Alexander's world. I even made this screen saver with his pictures. My bookshelf is nearby, and I also have another wall with a poster-board on which I have written the current events of whichever part of the novel I'm working on. As I finish writing those scenes, I scrub them off the board. That way I can clearly see my progress.

Usually, when I'm in a writing frenzy, it doesn't take long before my work spaces is full of junk, papers, tissues, pens and other paraphanalia. But once I come to the end of the piece I'm working on, before starting anew, I clean everything up so I'm not distracted by the mess. Behind the stand with my current notes is a little reminder to myself with a picture of Alexander. It says:
ALEXANDER IS THE BEACON, THE LIGHT THROUGH WHICH I SHALL ACHIEVE SUCCESS. On the cork board are various notes to myself about the novel: correct spelling of names, bits of research information, words of wisdom, and a postcard from Lesbos of the statue of Sappho. She's one of my Muses. The photo above is one of Georges Meis's lovely photographs of an old Greek house. And the calandar is made by my friend Patrick of photos he took on our visit to Chile.

On the wall behind I have a cast of Alexander's face and above it a wreath. Beside it is the painting of Achilles' triumph at Troy, a plaque of Kallisto playing a pan pipe, a picture of the Muses, and a beautiful icon of Gabrielle the Archangel as well as a couple of watercolors of my village, Lala, a painting by my daughter of a Greek door and a photo of me sitting on the mountainside at the village (Lala Evvia).

"The love of learning, the sequestred nooks,
And all the sweet serenty of books."
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807-1887 "Morturi Salutarnus" (1875) st9