posted on March 13, 2017 by Carolyne Aarsen

And it all started with a writer…

flat lay image of workplace

by Carolyne Aarsen

Many years ago, when I first started writing full-time my husband came into my office, sat in his designated chair and gave me a most curious look. I asked him what was the matter. I was hoping he would say something mushy like, I just enjoy watching you work. Or I just like looking at your beautiful face.

Nope. None of that stuff.

I should know by now. My husband is a great husband and good father and loving son, brother and grandfather. But sentimental? Not so much.

Instead he asked me, “How can you sit there all day in front of that computer?”

Sitting all day to him is inconceivable. As a man of action has to be doing things, moving around, keeping busy. I understand how it can look from the outside looking in, me parked at the computer while he goes out and fixes saddles, shoes horses, builds a shed, feeds cows, goes for coffee, makes hay etc. only to come back and see me in the same place with the same look on my face, hands on the same keyboard.

I told him then as I’ve told other people since, who don’t understand this life, that while it may look like I’m parked in the same spot staring at the same old thing, I’m actually in a whole different world.

My computer is a window into a place where Cord and Ella struggle with careers and kids and choices as they live in the Porcupine Hills of Southern Alberta. When I’m writing I’m helping Dean fix a house for Erin, situated in one corner of a ranch that looks out over the Little Belt Mountains in Montana. I’ve been in Williams Lake and Vancouver. Cypress Hills and Toronto. Edmonton, Calgary, Southern British Columbia and Seattle.

I tell him it’s like reading a book. You may look like you’re sitting in one place doing nothing when, in your mind, you’re following the adventures of your characters as they solve crime, deal with loss, travel through places you’ve never been and sip coffee in cafes you might never visit? But you feel like you’ve been there.

And it all started with a writer, putting pen to paper, words to a screen creating and spending time in that world. Just like I do.

I hope you have a chance to visit some of the worlds and communities I’ve created. Visit my webpage at www.carolyneaarsen.com to find out more about my people and my places that I spend time from the comfort of my computer chair.

 

Carolyne Aarsen

Carolyne Aarsen

Living a life of the writer at the intersection of No and where. Spending my days in front of a computer immersed in other worlds with people so real to me I feel that some day I will meet them. Keeping up with the Jones isn't an option. In our Dutch community there are precious few Jones so that makes life easier. I grew up in the city and now live in the country. It's a good life. Other than the swish of the dishwasher (a heavenly sound) and the occasional hum of the refrigerator, the click of my keyboard keys and the sound of my head banging against the desk when words won't obey, life here is pretty quiet. Just the way I like it.

http://www.carolyneaarsen.com

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