Where Deb Writes

After writing my first three novels at our kitchen table and the next few books from a corner of the living room in the small duplex where we raised our four children, I was thrilled to get my first dedicated office when our kids started leaving for college. I’ve now had three delightful office spaces in which to write. My current space in our Missouri home feels like a treehouse with its arched window overlooking the wooded side yard where I see deer almost daily. If the weather allows (and thankfully, it often does) I love writing on the screened porch overlooking our backyard woods. A little piece of heaven on earth! And if I’m not there, you’ll probably find me on a road trip with my husband, exploring the backroads of this beautiful country in search of my next story!

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If I’ve learned anything in the almost thirty years since I started writing, it’s the fact that a true writer can write anywhere! I wrote my first three novels at our kitchen table and the next few books were penned from this corner of our living room in the small duplex where we raised our four children.
I was thrilled to get my first dedicated office when our kids started leaving home for college and we bought our first house in the small town of Moundridge, Kansas. One wall of my office had framed photos of all my book covers—twenty-four at that time. (That striped wallpaper made it easy to line them up!)
Ken created a beautiful prairie garden in the fenced backyard at this house and I wrote on the deck whenever the weather allowed (which wasn’t often enough in Kansas).
When we hit the empty nest years and started traveling more, we decided it would make sense to live in a bigger city closer to the airport. We moved to Wichita, Kansas where this light-filled office took up the space intended for a formal dining room. I wrote many books during the eight years we lived in Wichita, including my entire five-book Chicory Inn Novels series.
It was at the Wichita house that I first created a coffee bar in my office. My mug collection grew to fill—and overflow—the antique cubbies.
I loved writing on the “treehouse” deck overlooking our neighborhood park at the Wichita house.
A few years ago, we moved from Kansas to Missouri to be closer to our two daughters and their families. (Our two sons and their families live in Texas.) My first Missouri office had a daybed that belonged to my great-grandmother and featured a quilt my mom made.
Recently, my office switched places with a smaller guest room and we added a new window with a gorgeous “treehouse” view of the woods.
The barrister bookcases belonged to my parents and now hold one copy of each version of each of the books I've published.
The artwork in this gallery wall in my office has been collected over the years and includes places and ideas that are meaningful to me.
I use my office all winter long, but every other season you’ll find me out on our screened porch curled up in one of these cozy chairs with my laptop. I love our wooded backyard, the birds and squirrels that keep me entertained, and especially the dozen or so deer that traipse through along the creek several times a day. I think this is my favorite “office" of all!
Most writing days start out at the coffee bar that houses some of my collection of more than one hundred mugs.

 

 

Deborah Raney