Location, Location

Where do you set your novels? Do you know the place? Do you research thoroughly, make sure the right traffic stop is at the right street. That there is parking. Or do you go by the seat of your pants and hope for the best?

I have set two novels in Spain and I have never been to Spain but I feel I know Spain. I have read a great deal about the country and its customs. In my novels I have chosen southern Spain – Andalusia – but I never use a “real” place unless my protaganists are visiting Granada. I like the idea of the glorious coast and the backdrop of the mountains. I like the heat and passion of the region. Perhaps if I went I would be disappointed, better stay away.

In one of my novels “Shadows of the Past” I used an Italian island as the setting. I have been to Capri and Elba but the imaginery island of Santa Caterina is perhaps a combination of the two and then again is perhaps neither.

When I am writing I like to imagine places as I would wish them to be. I find this enjoyable and liberating. I don’t want to be bogged down my worring if I have this or that right. I am fearful of disappointing someone who knows the place where my story is set and recognises mistakes I’ve made. No, better to go to the place in my head, rather than the reality.

My latest historical romantic suspense is set in Yorkshire but I have never said where, because I don’t know, it’s a made up place. My story is “made up” so why can’t my place be? Set just after the Battle of Bosworth, when Richard the Third was deafeated, I wanted to promote the idea that the King was a good man and not the villain in Shakespeare. I wanted two very different characters with different objectives, to let people know what he was really like. I enjoyed writing about an area that was all in my mind and where the story could play out against this wild and wonderful landscape. It does my imagination a power of good to do this kind of thing. I feel less restricted. It’s the same with my next historical romantic suspense A Saxon Tapestry, plenty of historical facts but set in a place that lives only in my mind.

It’s fun – and very liberating. Try it – or perhaps you have and do – if so you know exactly what I mean. I just heard that Dangerous Enchantment is in the top ten best sellers at Whiskey Creek Press.