Author Paul Durham has a short commute. His writing studio is in the backyard of his home in Exeter. “I call it an abandoned chicken coop,” Durham says, “because chickens used to live here. It's really an eight by twelve-foot shed with barn-style doors on the front. I have it decorated with a Christmas wreath. There’s my doorknocker and the coop sign. And then—go ahead and step in if you want." Click here to find a list of Paul Durham's top five reading recommendations. Inside there's white pine walls. The desk is a solid slab of salvaged barn wood stretching from wall to wall. And propping up his computer monitor is a wooden cigar box, which would explain the faint smell of cigar smoke in the air. And on the shelf, beside copies of the books in his Luck Uglies series, is a little stone gargoyle. "I found him at a little curiosity shop up north here in New Hampshire,” Durham says. “He's actually the visual inspiration for Penhallow." Durham's newest novel for young people, The Last