At Work

The pulitzer-prize winning author comments on the technology he currently uses.

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Author of The Reckoning, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and sole proprietor

I came late to most of the new technology, and I'm not entirely at ease with it. I'm 60. I've never worked in a real office, so I'm somewhat technophobic. But I've figured out what works for me.

"In the summer we live on Nantucket, about a block and a half from the harbor. The house sits on an acre of land in the center of town and has a beautiful garden. The kitchen is huge, and off it, on the east side of the house, is a wide but not very deep office -- it's maybe 6 feet deep by 12 feet wide. It has two screened windows that open out to greenery.

"In the office there's a long built-in black desk on which I've got my printer and portable computer. And I've got a mess of paper. When I was brand-new in the Washington bureau of the New York Times, I sat next to a wonderful old-timer named C.T. Trussell, who referred to me as a 'one-man slum.'

"Up here, I don't want an answering device on my phone. I don't want a fax machine. If people want to send me a fax, they do so through Orange Street Video.

"I like to get up leisurely, sip coffee, and read the sports page. I start writing by about 9:30 or 10 a.m., and I go for four hours, more or less, without a break. That's a hard, compressed workday.

"I enjoy vacationing most when I can work for three or four hours a day. Before I owned a notebook, when we would go on vacation I would bring along the whole setup: the monitor, the computer, and the keyboard. A carpenter friend on Nantucket made boxes for everything. In addition to all my regular luggage, I was lugging not only the papers for my book but also the three big cases.

"I've had a series of portable computers. I got the first one five or six years ago when I had to cover opening day at Fenway Park. I couldn't find the cursor on it half the time. It was a murderous thing. Now I've gone to a Toshiba Satellite, which is just wonderful. The battery is better on it. The resolution is terrific. It's very fast. It's easy to carry around.

"In the old days I wouldn't take on anything else while I was doing a book. But suddenly I was able to work on two things at once. My income is up at least 50%, and it may have even doubled. Plus, if I'm asked to lecture in California, I don't lose any time. I can work on the plane. So, if anything, the computer has made me more focused, too.'