Please welcome this guest post by D. Savannah George about her personal writing space here on No Wasted Ink.

Steven Taylor Goldsberry gives the following excellent advice in The Writer’s Book of Wisdom: “Work in an Inspiring Environment. Whatever you need to set the mood for serious creativity, go ahead and spoil yourself.”

So what inspires me? Practically everything. I love color, flowers, antiques, turtles, history, feathers, whimsy, pens in every shade and hue… the list goes on and on.

In my basement studio in my house on top of a mountain in northern Arkansas, I’ve created a haven. I’m surrounded by books, art supplies, and art, and outside the glass doors is full-on nature: bunnies, birds, butterflies, hummingbirds, the occasional deer. I can’t see my closest neighbor because of the trees.

Inside, I’ve pinned a little bit of everything I love to the bulletin board above my desk. The chair I sit on is actual wood, and probably over 100 years old. To the right of my desk sits an antique farm table, on top of which is a 50s-era Royal typewriter. (Every writer needs one! If nothing else, to remind us of how easy we have it now.) Next to that is the aquarium where my pet turtle lives. The sound of her filter – running water – reminds me of the ocean, which is my heart home. I often work with the dog under my feet and one of the two cats curled up on my lap or on my notes.

I do my writing on a brand-new MacBook Pro (my iBook began acting slap worn out after 7.5 years of heavy use, so I got my new toy tool). And of course, I often use the Internet for research.

But nothing can replace actual paper. I wrote my first “books” on brown paper, tied with red yarn. I often refer to an 1888 edition of The Pocket Gem Pronouncing Dictionary and the 10-volume Collier’s New Encyclopedia from 1921 – if not for ideas, then for a chuckle. And I scribble down ideas in my notebook, a catch-all for everything creative – poems in progress, notes on the chapters for the book I recently turned into my publisher, sketches for commissioned art…

At every turn, I see something amazing and inspiring and joyful – a photo of my grandmother, who turns 94 in September; a card from a dear friend that tells me unequivocally that she believes in me; a Classic Peanuts cartoon that shows Snoopy typing “Dumb” on his old typewriter, Lucy telling him “This is the title of your new novel? I think you can do better than that”, then his revised title: “Beyond Dumb”.

So, that’s my writing space. When I can’t be here, I’ll write anywhere: in the car, in a hotel room, on a plane. And so can you. Just spoil yourself. And write.

D. Savannah George has a tendency to be verbose, so writing short blog posts is good exercise for her brain. She is a multi-disciplinary artist – she writes, paints, crochets, takes photographs, and makes beaded jewelry, bookmarks, and notecards. She has published several short stories and a number of poems, as well as numerous articles in various newspapers and magazines, and has won several awards for her writing. Her first book, A Spicy Secret, #22 in the Annie’s Attic Mystery Series, will be released in January 2013. She also serves as a book editor for authors and several small publishers.