I’ve always told people that I could write anywhere. And, because a lot of writing takes place behind closed eyes, or while daydreaming, anywhere means everywhere. But when I needed to put words in print, I wrote at the kitchen table, or at a desk in the corner of the living room. Sometimes—like today, as I start my book tour for SHADOWHEART—I wrote at airports. I once wrote the synopsis for a novel on my phone while standing in line for a concert outside a Texas roadhouse.
But when my husband and I moved to Austin, I had a chance to turn an extra bedroom into a real, authentic writer’s space.
I wanted built-in bookshelves. I wanted to surround myself with words and wisdom and stories. I wanted a wall of beautiful book covers to inspire and comfort me. I got the shelves built, and I loved the room.
Then our house burned down. Writing space? See the photo of the wreckage? My lovingly built office is there among the cinders.
That was when I really, truly learned to write anywhere. I wrote in coffeeshops. I wrote in hotel lobbies—which at least provided story material. One morning as I was typing at a Residence Inn, a young cop walked briskly through the door and announced, “I’m here about the snake.” I pulled my feet up off the floor and typed faster. The officer apprehended said snake, and the desk clerk climbed down off the ceiling.
I revised and edited HEAT 2 and SHADOWHEART in a rental home that served as a lifeboat while our house was rebuilt. If took a year. And when we went home to our restored house, I found, to my joy, that my bookshelves had been built anew, and that some of my precious things had survived the fire—my dad’s book on The Canterbury Tales, my Pulp Fiction action figures, my 1935 Corona typewriter, and my Edgar. Mr. Poe now perches over my shoulder, breathing down my neck as I write.
I love this place.
Meg Gardiner is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of seventeen thrillers. Her latest is Shadowheart, featuring FBI profiler Caitlin Hendrix. The Real Book Spy calls it “A mind-trip of a story.” Booklist says, “As always, the writing is exquisite and the story is perfectly crafted.” UNSUB, the first novel in the series, won the 2018 Barry Award for Best Thriller. The Dark Corners of the Night was bought by Amazon Studios for development as an hour-long television drama.
