Where Writers Write: Eric Hudspeth

Welcome to another installment of TNBBC's Where Writers Write!

Where Writers Write is a weekly series that will feature a different author every Wednesday as they showcase their writing spaces using short form essay, photos, and/or video. As a lover of books and all of the hard work that goes into creating them, I thought it would be fun to see where the authors roll up their sleeves and make the magic happen. 

This particular Where Writers Write is part of the Quirk Books blog tour to celebrate Eric's new novel/art book The Resurrectionist! Check it out:

This is Eric Hudspeth. 

Eric was raised in Colorado but lived in several states throughout the U.S. while growing up. He worked as a snow and ice sculptor for nearly ten years, always writing and painting. His love for the arts led him all over the country and eventually to Pietrasanta, Italy where he worked as a marble sculptor. While in Italy, working on anatomy designs of impossible beings, he created the beginnings of what has become The Resurrectionist. Now living in New Jersey with his wife and two children, Eric continues to work as a professional artist.

Where Eric Hudspeth Writes

Where I write has usually been in a single location. I have not been able to do much on the go. I can take notes or jot down ideas but I need to be in the same place for a while before I can write. It can be a hotel or something, I don’t have to be home to write. I used to do everything with a pen and paper but I eventually got used to writing on the computer. The Resurrectionist was largely an art project so I did the drawings on the same desk that I write on. My desk has become crowded these days, which I tend to like it like that way.

When I write I put my feet up and work with the keyboard on my lap. It’s terrible for my neck, but I haven’t broken the bad posture habit yet. It started when I was In italy, I shared a small basement studio with a friend— my side of the room was the kitchen. I didn’t want to sleep on a kitchen floor so I made a narrow bed out of some wood planking I found (at that time I was sleeping on the floor without

 a mattress anyway, so I was used to it). There was absolutely no extra room, the small refrigerator door opened halfway before hitting my bed. Because of the lack of space, I wrote with the laptop on a piece of scrap wood on my lap— and so a terrible habit was born.

I have two children, a toddler and a baby. Over the last few years I’ve been doing a renovation on the entire upstairs of our home so we all packed in downstairs and made a nest of what space remained. The result was cozy but crowded. My son slept three feet from my desk, so not only did I need to be quiet, but I had to work late at night. I dream of someday keeping regular hours. The upstairs renovation is complete and the children sleep there, although I still need to work after bedtime hours.

It’s always a challenge balancing my energy levels. I have always battled insomnia so I try to make it work for me these days. Unfortunately, when I am on a roll and want nothing more than to keep working, I have to pull the plug at some point in order to get a few hours sleep before work the next day. It’s tricky, there are only so many hours in a day.

I can edit or just read while comforting the little ones but usually I just fall asleep too.

You can check out the book trailer for The Resurrectionist here!