REBECCA ROSENBLUM

The desk was my friend Melinda's until she got pregnant and needed the space for a crib (she didn't stop writing, just bought a smaller desk). The silver lamp belonged to my friend Penny until her cat took a violent disliking to it. The orange vase was my mother's until she took a disliking to it. Taped to the wall is the poem, "The Flying Woman" by Leon Rooke that he emailed me, and a bird painted on a leaf that my my brother sent me from India. The Talouse-Lautrec barroom mirror, I got for 50 cents at a church rummage sale when I was in grade school. Depending in what you believe, my workspace is filled with either good energy or nicer things than I would've bought for myself. Either way, I like it.

Rebecca Rosenblum for DESK SPACE

DESK SPACE Who?

Rebecca Rosenblum Rebecca Rosenblum--short story writer, author of *Once*, poor chess player, reasonably good driver.

DS When did you start writing, publish your first book (or when are you publishing your next)?

RR My first book comes out in two days, or is sort of already out, I guess, in select stores and in my living room. The first thing I ever published was the introduction to the "Clubs and Organizations" section of my grade 11 yearbook. It was a meditation on how weird homonyms are, how a club can be both a convivial gathering of like-minded people, and something you can hit someone with.

DS Where do you write (at your desk/outside/in bed)?

RR At my desk, mainly. Sometimes in coffee shops, libraries, or restaurants. In a pinch, at someone else's desk.

DS Why do you work where you do?

RR I'm not terribly fussed about where I work as long it has a chair and a stable flat surface for my laptop/notebook. I *hate* sitting on with my computer in my lap, despite the name. It hurts my neck, plus I'm such a fidget that the lap-resting seems like a really good way to wreck the most expensive thing I own. But even when I write longhand in a notebook, I like tables.

DS What are you working on now?

RR It looks to me like a collection of linked short stories. At least, I have written several short stories which do link. It may be too early to tell for sure, but in any event,I like it.