Garry Rodgers, a retired homicide detective and coroner who now writes mysteries, recently posted a picture of some of the inspirational mementos, or tchotchkes, he keeps in his writing studio. Rodgers borrowed tchotchke from the Slavic word for trinket. Among the objects in his office are a rotary phone, an Underwood No. 5 typewriter, and “a framed photo of some floozie who’s my idea of the perfect femme fatale,” which he says help fire his imagination when he’s stuck in a story.
That got me to thinking about the weird stuff I keep in my writing loft. The falcon above isn’t Maltese, but he’s regal and mysterious, just the attitude I need to spark new ideas.
Here are some of the Native American artifacts from my collection, which includes a sandstone tobacco pipe in the shape of a frog, an ax, a (reconstructed) sling, and an arrow. The fossils add just the right amount of primeval ambience.
And here’s the shelf above my laptop. It’s easy to imagine various expressions in the contorted driftwood bookend. Depending on the slant of light, you can discover all sorts of shapes shifting around on the patina of the battered candlestick. On that candlestick is the key to an old German pie safe my wife bought. A few months ago, gazing at that key sparked the idea that it opened the door to a haunted house. Who would want that key? That little germ of an idea blossomed into my latest sale, which I expect to be published this summer.
What other story ideas lurk in these strange objects?
M.C. Tuggle, Writer 
Nice that you referenced Garry 🙂
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I had to — he gave me the idea. I read the kill zone blog every day.
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He’s a pretty great guy 🙂
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It has the feel of your own private museum. It does add a nice to your space. Well done, Mike.
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Thanks. I need a certain vibe to think in.
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You sure do have it.
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Very cool stuff! Love all of it, especially the Native American items. I’m afraid my office is pretty boring by comparison. You’ve inspired me to work on jazzing it up.
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Jim, I think of my knick-knacks as fellow travelers. They keep me company in my little writing loft. They represent a lot of travels and the people I’ve met along the way.
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We acquired so many tchotchkes in our travels, we had to switch to Christmas ornaments which take up less space and aren’t out to be dusted all twelve months of the year. I never considered it as a Slavic word, and only because you like words, I put it into Google and came up with this: “tchotchke comes from the Yiddish tshatshke of the same meaning, and ultimately from a now-obsolete Polish word, czaczko.”
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Alie,
I think the etymology of words is fascinating. Yiddish is so rich and inventive.
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