Creative Space - Robert Hood

[martinlivings]

Creative Space
Robert Hood

My "creative space" is smallish -- what you see here is pretty much what you get. As I have a daytime job, I only spend time in it a few hours in the morning and (sometimes) at night, and at weekends and on holidays. Basically it serves two functions: drop-in, sit-down and write, and keep track of the business side (which I'm much worse at than I am at the writing bit). Hence the cupboards and filing cabinets. Creative meditation takes place elsewhere in the house. The fourth wall behind the POV is a wall-to-ceiling inbuilt cupboard, with mirrors as doors. As I'd rather look at monsters than myself, these doors are covered in movie posters -- "Godzilla", "Them" and "Tarantula!" at the moment. In the inbuilt is... more stuff, mostly books. Off-screen on the right is a large sliding-door and window, but I rarely pull back the blinds as all it looks out upon is a fence and the side wall of the neighbour's house.

The visible shelving (in front and above the desk) is mainly a repository for reference books, but there's also piles of unsorted papers, graphic novels, notes, CDs and DVDs and books for review or other purposes (I recently organised the film festival stream of Conflux 4, so the residue of that is still in evidence). I only use a laptop in this room as all I do is write on it. Graphic work takes place in my uni office or in Cat's room (where there is a big desktop Mac). The statue of the skeletal warrior came from a bookshop in Leura. It and the gargoyle serve as silent sounding boards for ideas. The painting on the left is a Shaun Tan original of a cover for one of my children's books.

Also of note is the iPod, which has become a constant companion and is full of music that Cat hates (Hawkwind, Jethro Tull, etc.); but I tend to only listen to it when I'm doing business as I'm finding music too distracting to listen to while writing these days. The pile of crap on the right of the table top are notes on stories, print-outs of research material, manuscripts that need reading, issues of "Fortean Times" and unpaid bills. If the picture was higher resolution, you'd no doubt be able to see all the cat hair that gets left behind by visitors...

Robert Hood

Though best known for his horror stories, Robert Hood also writes fantasy, SF, crime and various other mutated forms. His books include Immaterial: Ghost Stories, Backstreets and the Shades series of supernatural thrillers. He writes film commentary and occasionally edits anthologies -- such as the award- winning Daikaiju! Giant Monster Tales, which he co-edited with Robin Pen, and its two follow-up volumes.

Corralling giant monsters, zombies, ghosts and madmen: that's why his room is such as mess!

http://www.roberthood.net

Comments

[angriest.livejournal.com]

Looks like some Lone Wolf & Cub on the shelf above the computer, in a display of impeccable taste.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, indeed. Well picked, angriest guy. It is indeed a run of Lone Wolf and Cub manga. Brilliant stuff. And next to that, volumes of Naoki Urasawa's Monster. Also brilliant.