Creative Space - Lee and Lyn Battersby

Creative Space
Lee and Lyn Battersby

It's probably inaccurate to call what you see merely 'our writing space'. If you look behind you, you'll find Lyn's easel, her sewing table, walls full of kid art, our craft storage racks, our business correspondence files, the shredder, the laminator.... it's a multi-purpose space that takes up most of the front third of the house. The bookcase to the left of the picture delineates the work area from a bookcase-encircled section we call our reading room, which contains a couch and shelf space for more awards and trinkets. The whole house is this bright, filled with colour, art, mementoes and memorabilia, reflecting both the ambience of our family life and the journey we've taken to be the people we are: our pasts are tumultuous, to say the least, and so we surround ourselves with signposts to happiness.

Overall, not much 'pure' writing gets done at these desks- Lyn will write wherever the mood takes her, as long as the space is clean and feels uncluttered. She's just as happy to take the laptop into the bedroom and spread out across the bed, where she can look out the window at our private garden and feel at her most comfortable; and I write where the will takes me; in notebooks, on scraps of paper, on trains and dinner tables.... I'm a pen and paper guy, more often than not, and often only come to the computer to input and print. But the idea of an office space is important to us both. It's a concrete area set aside for the pursuit of an important ideal, and when the blinds are open, and the light is streaming in, and we can see across the road to the public park with its profusion of grass trees and massive gums, it's a happy and relaxed place to create, which is good for our souls.

Lee and Lyn Battersby

Lee Battersby is the Aurealis, Ditmar, Australian Shadows and Writers of the Future winning author of over 50 stories, including appearances in Australia, the United States and Europe in magazines and anthologies such as Tales of The Unanticipated, Znak Sagite, All-Star Zeppelin Adventure Stories, Short Trips: Destination Prague and Daikaiju III: Giant Monsters vs The World. Many of his best stories have been collected in “Through Soft Air” (Prime Books, 2006). A tutor at the internationally regarded Clarion South workshops in 2007, he lives in Perth, Western Australia, with his wife, writer Lyn Battersby, 5 children, and an increasing number of bizarre objets d’art.

Lyn Battersby’s first publishing credit came in 2001 when her story “Divinities” was published in Antipodean SF (under the name Triffitt). “Learned Instincts” soon followed in ASIM 7, with “Cracking Up” not long after in Antipodean SF. Her real breakout came in 2005 when her story “The Memory of Breathing” appeared in ASIM 17. The story received multiple award nominations, including The Aurealis, and won a Tin Duck at Swancon 2006. The film rights were sold earlier this year and the feature-length script is currently under construction. Not content to sit back and enjoy her small success, she has since published “The Hanging Tree” (the first to appear with her new married name) in Borderlands 6 and “Edges” in Shadowed Realms 9. Most recently, she has appeared in Daikaiju!: Revenge of the Giant Monster Tales.

http://www.battersby.com.au