February 13, 2016

So, this is my new writing space. I am so excited. I found this desk at an antique shop. It was love at first sight – a mahogany 19th century Chippendale with ball and claw feet, carved cabriole legs, and its original mahogany ink stand. The previous owner attached a brief letter about its history. He purchased it from an antique dealer in Maryland several months after I was born (not that he knew that, he just listed the date), but to me it felt like he had been holding it for me till I grew up. He is a florist, by trade, though he is retired now. He used the desk for writing letters or sending Christmas cards and said he had cleaned out many such letters and cards, both written and received, from the drawer before hesitantly bringing it to be sold.

I started my first short story by penning, or penciling rather, the first draft by hand – one hundred words at a time. Now, I will continue to do much of my creative writing work by hand in this precious space.

It was love at first sight – old world elegance – each foot well grounded on a world that if released from the hold of her claws. . . would roll away without meaning, legs shaped around a single axis but curved to be both convex and concave in all the right places, abutting a body that lifts a single nibbed finger to the lip of the ink well. She stands confident against subtle monochromatic stripes balanced by blue bursts of hydrangeas blooming from a tree that, although unseen, continues to grow.