Ode to my study...

This is the room where I've spent the past eight or nine years. I've written two novels in here and countless short stories. On that computer I've opened emails telling me I've won 1st and 3rd prizes, or been shortlisted, or totally failed and should never darken their doorstep again (Okay, that last one is a lie, but isn't that how rejections sometimes hit you?)

In the window, you can see the outline of a Captain Jack Sparrow wobbly head. In the pen pot I have a purple wand that a late colleague gave to me the day we dressed up for Comic Relief, and an orange feather.

The opened file is the novel I've been working on for MYWYN, the 80,000 words in 80 days challenge.

Most of this is going to be packed away in boxes, including my absolutely wonderful desk...

This perfect room - this sanctuary - is to become a bedroom for a pre-teen boy, who will make it smell and fill it with dirty clothes and muddy shoes and half-eaten snacks. The door will be slammed a lot more than it's used to, and the paintwork will have to contend with a lot more Blu-Tac than it's ever dealt with before. My poor study... I'm not sure it knows what I'm letting it in for!