Creative Space - Kirstyn McDermott

[martinlivings]

Creative Space
Kirstyn McDermott

Here's my writing space ... one half of the spare bedroom. It's a tiny room, which is the reason you can really only see my desk in the photo; there simply wasn't anymore space to step back and get a larger view, unless I started knocking down walls. Hmmm. Actually, I like the small space and the fact the room is also quite dim doesn't bother me, as I usually write at night. What you can't see is a bed on the opposite wall, which comes in handy when I'm up really late with the writing, and next to that a bookshelf filled to overflowing.

The black lump on the filing cabinet is an old Royal typewriter rescued from an op shop back in Newcastle where I grew up. About fifteen years later and it's still waiting for refurbishment. (Sorry, typewriter.) Sitting on the desk - apart from my very old, very dear writing-only laptop - are some bits and pieces that I've managed to accumulate: a black Bastet statue, a small pewter Pegasus, a cute little redback spider on a rock, a chunk of obsidian, a plastic Alien action figure, a plush meercat toy, a really crappy old crow/raven/pigeon bird-thing (really crappy), and a few more. All special to me, for various reasons. There are also a couple of favourite Gary Larson cartoons (the one about primitive man seeing a bird, wishing he could fly, finding out he can't, then building a bow and arrow and killing the bird; and the one about nervous little dogs preparing for their day with coffee; both strike a cord with me.)

Oh, and the things hanging from the filing cabinet are two very dead, very flat ferrets. The sort that would have been made into fancy clothing accessories back before we all got so enlightened. They still have their back feet and tails attached and beady little fakes eyes have been stitched into their furry little heads. I rescued them from eBay years ago and they've been hanging on that cabinet ever since. Don't ask me why. Really, don't.

Kirstyn McDermott

Kirstyn McDermott was born on Halloween, an auspicious date which perhaps accounts for her lifelong attraction to all things dark, mysterious and bumpy-in-the-night-ish. She has been published in various magazines and anthologies, including Shadowed Realms, Redsine, Southern Blood and Island. Her short fiction has been nominated for two Ditmar Awards, and has received an Aurealis Award Honourable Mention and three Honourable Mentions in Datlow & Windling's Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror. Kirstyn lives in Melbourne, and is a member of the SuperNOVA writers group. When not discovering new and ever more pressing ways in which to procrastinate, she is currently working on a novel-length manuscript.