Toni Anderson
My Office
When we moved to Canada from Scotland fifteen years ago, my office was literally a corner cupboard that I could close the doors on. It meant I could hide the mess and also keep the fingers of small children off my work. Four years ago, we renovated the kitchen and, as my office is off the kitchen, we decided to do that room too and install some custom book shelves.
Due to issues with my joints (and basically sitting too long), I found a really fabulous Herman Miller ergonomic chair, set up a centralized mouse, and a treadmill desk. Although I still need to remember to move, I am a lot less stiff than I used to be.
I drink gallons of tea from my favorite mug!
When I’m writing or editing, I spend a lot of time walking on the treadmill—probably ten thousand steps right there. The invention of wireless headphones has probably saved me a trip to the ER.
My faithful hound, Holly, doesn’t hang out with me as much as she used to. We replaced the carpet with laminate and she’d rather relax behind me on an old couch.
Because I live in Manitoba, Canada, we have extremes of temperature and my office gets super cold in winter and hot in winter. I’m a big believer in layers! I wonder if the Canadian winter is why I named my main series Cold Justice? Probably!
The only other place I occasionally write is in bed, especially if I’m looking for peace and quiet. I need alone time to generate story ideas, and to wrangle my characters’ motivations. Ideally, I’d love more space to spread out and create, but I have to make do for now. Maybe we’ll get a beach house one day and feed my Marine Biology essence. That’s my dream scenario!
Originally from a small town in England, Toni studied Marine Biology at University of Liverpool (B.Sc.) and University of St. Andrews (Ph.D.) with the intention she’d never be far from the ocean. Well, that plan backfired and she ended up in the Canadian prairies with her biology professor husband, two kids, a rescue dog, and a laid-back leopard gecko. Toni started writing while pregnant with her first child and never stopped.
Her greatest achievements are mastering the Tokyo subway, climbing Ben Lomond, snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef, and surviving fourteen Winnipeg winters (fingers crossed). She loves to travel for research purposes and was lucky enough to visit the Strategic Information and Operations Center inside FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. in 2016, and she also got to shove another car off the road during pursuit training at the Writer’s Police Academy in Wisconsin. Watch out world!