Welcome to another installment of TNBBC's Where Writers Write!
Where Writers Write is a weekly series that will feature a different author every Wednesday as they showcase their writing spaces using short form essay, photos, and/or video. As a lover of books and all of the hard work that goes into creating them, I thought it would be fun to see where some of TNBBC's favorite authors roll up their sleeves and make the magic happen.
Frank Coles is a word
pimp and media pro (hehe, his words, not mine!) with nearly 20 years experience working across TV, radio,
news media, marketing, branding, publishing and the internet. He's a trad and
indie pubbed author and has his own National Geographic and YouTube web
channels. Frank has lived and worked all over the Middle East, SE Asia,
Europe, and as far north as the pole.
He's the author of Dark Market, Secret Skin, and How to Drive a Tank...and Other Everyday Tips for the Modern
Gentleman.
Frank is a TNBBC newbie, and he's breaking himself in here by showing off his writing space(s):
Where Frank Coles Writes
I've been lucky, for years I worked as a travel journalist and
copywriter while learning how to write books. My offices have been wonderfully
exotic and occasionally, well, shoddy
crap holes in the arse end of nowhere. Here's the opposite of that. My
favourite writing place has to be this jungle house called Leela on the island
of Koh Phangan in Thailand.
Note the papasan (bowl) chair for reading drafts in, the bed,
and the plastic side-wall that rolls up when the storms disappear. And, oh what
storms! Sideways rain and forked freakery. Inspiring? You bet, like an electric
shock to the nether regions.
My desk was the
kitchen table behind the curtain.
I had three lovely months there with massage, sea and healthy
food on tap. A tom cat did find its way in one night and sprayed my face while
I slept, but hey, beats the hell out of the other more poisonous things that
creep out of the jungle.
On the road your desk is nearly always temporary, and, because
of that, often clean and devoid of the usual carnage that makes up my current
more permanent desk. Here's another Thai desk. Note the lack of detritus. Cool,
huh?
After a few years in the Middle East I headed back towards my UK
homeland and the desks definitely got bigger. Here's one in a 17th Century
French farmhouse I looked after for eight months. Low overheads, great food, a
ten person dining table to lay out manuscripts on, happy days!
So what do I write on now? Here's my two-screen beast with its
daily pile of to-dos cluttering up the surface as well as all the caffeine,
water, spent .45 cartridges and business cards that need throwing out the window.
Ah sorry, I mean filing of course.
But my favourite place to write still has to be at my tiny
little 10 inch laptop (see the clean Thai pic) or a notepad - a real pen and
ink one. You can write with those babies anywhere. Well, almost anywhere. Here
are my feet on assignment at the North Pole. Sadly it's only pencil and paper
up there. Electronic devices just give up and hibernate, even ink has its
troubles.
But
these days, with a young family and a need to stay closer to home, the most
exotic place I get to do my writing work is breakfast and a proofread at my
local pub. Do the exploring thing while you're young. Definitely. And when the
young are a little bit older, do it all again!
Happy writing, wherever you are.
Check back with us next week to see where Christopher Moraff writes.
Wow. What a gorgeous writing space! Beats being holed up at a desk in the corner of an office!
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