My guest today is A.D. Starrling, author of the award-winning action thriller series Seventeen. A.D. was born on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean and came to the UK at the age of twenty to AD Starlings Studystudy medicine. In between writing her novels she still practises paediatric medicine and her books seem to come out as fast as the babies she delivers! To find out where she creates her fiction she’s taken us behind the scenes into her writing room in her home in Warwickshire. And what a delightful space it is!

“My main writing space is the third bedroom of my Victorian house. It’s a slightly narrow but long room and is big enough to accommodate two desks, two bookcases, a chaise longue, a treadmill base, and a few boxes.

I painted the walls Farrow & Ball Vert de Terre and bought a lovely chandelier and two gorgeous copper lamps for lighting.

I have a modified treadmill desk which I try and work at for at least 1-2 hours on a writing day. It used to be 3-4 hours but I was told to cut down by my physio. I didn’t want to get another desk (and frankly, the proper treadmill desks are highly unattractive!) so I asked a local carpenter to make two oak stands to put on my existing French desk. I use my Macbook Air with a Phillips TV as an external monitor for the treadmill desk. As you can see from the large bottle of squash and the cup of coffee, I can drink on the treadmill. I can also phone, text, and Skype on it. It’s not as hard as it looks!

I bought a small Ikea desk to replace my French desk as my sit-down writing space and just acquired that gorgeous, ergonomic Humanscale Liberty chair. This desk has my iMac, a file holder with my three novels (I refer to them a lot), and my writing planner/journal. I put post-it notes and a daily list of things-to-do at the bottom of my computer as a visual reminder of the tasks I need to accomplish.

I have a year planner and a corkboard to pin stuff to, as well as miscellaneous framed pictures and a canvas of the dodo on the walls. I also have three large dry wipe boards sitting next to the treadmill and I use these to plot my books at the start of the writing process before adding the information to Scrivener.

My two bookcases hold a variety of books, folders, and filing boxes, as well as pictures and knicknacks. My chaise longue is a great place for reading and having the odd power nap, although it is being populated by Jellycat creatures my friends keep giving me for Christmas. The latest addition is Cyril the Sloth. That’s him by the head of the chaise longue, lording it over the bunnies.

I have the proof copies of all my novels in their own individual picture box on my walls. Two of them are currently holding the medals they won for the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. One of my best friends gave me a framed picture of the Tyne Bridge when I left Newcastle in 2004 and this takes pride of place above my sit-down desk.

I am planning to move this year and would love my next study to have big windows and a view!” Find out more about A.D. on her website. Her latest book, Ashstorm (A Seventeen Series Novel: Book Front Cover of the Novel Ashstorm by AD Starrling4) is scheduled for release June 9th and she will be doing a giveaway for her newsletter subscribers starting June 1st (see her website for more details).

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