Writers Reading - K.A. Laity

Kate Laity is an awesome chick. She has put her professional info at the bottom of the post so I shalln't repeat it except to say that I had no idea that I was talking to the same person under two names for a while until she told me. Her alter ego has been a guest on Un:Bound's Ravenous Wednesday but this is all about Kate. So without further messing about....

"When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes." -- Desiderius Erasmus

I must admit that I am reluctant to show you just how bad it is. I include a few pictures, but I should explain but not actually SHOW you that in addition to the couple thousand books in my flat, there are a couple thousand more in my office on campus (including the closets) and at least that many (okay, more) in a storage space that I dream of simply abandoning. How did things get to this level? Mostly a lot of moving -- although the influence of a real job cannot be overlooked ("I can pay movers!").






I have too many days filled with daydreams of walking out the door and getting in my car with my cat and my computer and never living in a fixed place ever again. I go through periods where I try to "simplify, simplify" as Thoreau exhorted, but I have to acknowledge that I have been a bibliophile since childhood and it's a difficult habit to end. But after the last couple of cross-continental moves (and as I contemplate moving across an ocean), I know I need to divest myself of a lot. I have begun to try. But as you can see in the above picture, bookshelves seem to be magnets for other things like Hello Kitty playing a guitar, Durga lunchboxes, neat cards my friends send me, Lament Configurations. Each shelf has an insidious whisper, "Put things here!"


There are discreet collections within the larger madness: for example, here are the books that fueled my writing of Unikirja, my collection of stories and a play inspired by Finnish myth and legend. This is the primary source of most of my books: topics on which I write. So there's the Finnish bookcase, there's the myth case, esoterica, two for witchcraft, films/drama/ritual & drama theory, pulps, two for horror, two for fantasy, music, erotic and romance, and of course, the Liverpudlians.







What can I say? Obsessed much? On campus there are the subjects I teach, so two big bookcases that have Old and Middle English, Old Norse & Icelandic, medieval drama, then there are the closets that have the remainder: medieval history, drama, film, horror – oh, and my collection of vinyl LPs which was culled before the latest move, but not enough. I'm working on the divesting: here's the horror PB bookcase post culling:





You'll note the books are stacked two deep. Those are pieces of my Halloween costumes (yes, I always need more than one) left atop the shelves because I have no Jeeves to look out for me. I've got a plan where I put things on my blog to give away for the price of shipping. If I can give things to people who will enjoy them, I can give them away. I've been doing it a little -- need to do it a LOT. I keep reminding myself how once my belongings all fit in my car.


But then I have so many cool books! How am I going to get rid of these?


One shelf I won't be getting rid of, something every writer probably has, is the brag shelf to show off all your publications. Okay, in my usual excessive manner, I have two. The brag shelf in my office has more of the gigantic tomes, mostly encyclopedias in which I have entries. It's the one shelf I want to grow.





I have a pile of books on each of my desks, part of whatever I'm working on at a given moment. I also have folders for each project (hey, parts of my life are organised!) and my bulletin board of things that I need have visually accessible. This is the home one. There's the Vonnegut picture that inspired the novel I'm finally getting ready to send out; my press pass for New World Finn; pictures from my childhood that my folks sent; Peter Cook as Drimble Wedge badge; Lost Souls badge (Clive Barker fan club); various notes for future projects or things to remember. Unlike the more polite "Just say 'no'!" sign on my office bulletin board, cautioning me against taking on projects, you'll note this one has much more peremptory language ("Do not fucking say 'yes'!"). When I was working my way out exile in Texas, I took on anything that would bolster my CV. It's been a hard habit to break.


Of course the one place that maintains a Spartan simplicity is my fridge. Erasmus was on to something, eh? You see, I need a Jeeves to look after me. Jeeves would weed out the unnecessary. He could get my life back in order, effortlessly remove the extraneous -- and make sure I ate better. He'd probably make me dress better, too. Maybe I should add a Paypal link to my website, "Help me hire a Jeeves!" I need to get rid of a lot of these books (and tchotchkes and bits of paper and whatnot).



-- and let's not even commence talking about the extensive CD and DVD collections…



*Apologies for the crap phone pix; I fell and broke the view screen of my camera in London last summer. I am pleased to say I did NOT drop my Magnum, however. Ice cream is important. The man who helped me up could not hide his admiration.

K. A. Laity (www.kalaity.com) is the author of Unikirja (Aino Press 2009) and the forthcoming Pelzmantel: A Medieval Tale (Immanion Press 2010), as well as numerous short stories, academic essays, plays and more. She's a tenured professor of English and a columnist for BitchBuzz.com, the global women's lifestyle network. Visit her blog, Wombat's World http://katewombat.blogspot.com or read her ongoing comic Gothic serial, The Mangrove Legacy http://kalaity.blogspot.com, or her comic web jam with Elena Steier, Jane Quiet http://janequiet.com. It's been said that she bears a striking resemblance to erotic romance author, C. Margery Kempe http://www.cmkempe.com, but it may just be the hats.