Welcome Wednesdays – Location, Location, Location

Welcome Wednesdays – Location, Location, Location

Everyone’s heard the saying about the three most important things in real estate: location, location and location.  It’s kind of true for books, too, isn’t it?  A good setting for a book can draw us in and make us feel like we’re living in the same world the characters are.

So this week’s topic is all about where your book is set, and why that’s important to your story.  In the comments, tell us a little about one of your books or series, and tell us about where it’s set (or about one particular location that’s especially notable, if your story takes us to a lot of different places), and how you ended up there.  And don’t forget a link or two so everyone else can find yourbook!

I’ll get things started.  All of the Dream Series books draw their locations from places I’ve lived or visited.  Write what you know, right?  The first book, DREAM STUDENT, takes place while Sara, our heroine, is in college and she’s just discovering her ability to visit other people’s dreams.  From the very first draft of the story, her college was always directly based on the actual school I went to.  The book’s fictional Crewe University is my alma mater, Case Western Reserve University, with the names changed.  I think doing that helped a lot in making Sara’s world more believable and relatable, because it is real.  I have to admit, it was also a lot of fun revisiting that time of my life, and I hope that comes through in the book, too.

So now it’s your turn…the comments are open!

Oh, and once you’re done here, why not visit Exquisite Quills, where there’s a meme like this one every weekday…

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10 Replies to “Welcome Wednesdays – Location, Location, Location”

  1. Bella’s Betrothal my Scottish regency-style romance is set in Edinburgh 1826. Specifically, the book is placed in a house, still standing, in George Square. I attended Edinburgh University Arts Faculty in the 1970s and spent huge amounts of time in the Library and lecture theatres in and around George square. I chose to make the hero an architect because so much of Edinburgh’s great central building was going on at that time. The heroine is an English aristocrat with Scottish grandparents. It’s a huge privilege to be able to walk up and look at the house, walk around the surrounding streets and breathe the air.
    Bella’s Betrothal currently $1.56/99p on your amazon. Here’s: UK http://goo.gl/5RBzIm US http://goo.gl/PKptQg
    Anne Stenhouse

  2. My first book “Hollow” is located in the Northern California country where I grew up. Local readers were thrilled to see actual locations and versions of familiar names. That created a local buzz which landed my series in the local public library.

    All of my books since then (the Bunny Elder and First Ladies Club series) have been set in locations where I have lived. I think it gives the stories authenticity. The one deviation from that rule is “Vain Pursuits” which took my characters to northern Italy. While I’ve never lived there, I have family in the Veneto region and visit as often as possible. Familiarity with the locations makes it so much easier to bring the area to life for the readers.

    Visit my author page by following this universal link Author.to/JBHawker

  3. Thanks for asking us to share in this! I like the sound of your Dream Series. The subject of location couldn’t be more appropriate a subject for me just now as my new novel, The Highland Lass, is the book of my heart partly because it’s set around my own beautiful area of Scotland in the present and past. Although mainly contemporary about family secrets, the alternate short historical chapters are from 1785-6 and trace the story of Robert Burns and Highland Mary. It’s proving hugely popular with readers here as they can identify many of the locations and overseas readers are enjoying the Scottish setting. It’s taught me a valuable lesson about the importance of setting which I’ll keep in mind from now on.

    http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TOTER6Q
    Website: http://www.rosemarygemmell.com

  4. My Time Travel Series is mostly based upon History in the 19th century. I love the Victorian Era of London and France. Although i did add in Medievel Romania because I found it intriguing. I have always loved history. Going back in time is a fantasy of mine. A time where beauty was an extravagance and the wealthy used their success as a tool to gain access to anything their hearts desired. My Time Travel Series will take you back to fantastical adventure not only historically but with a patanirmal adventure.

  5. My Time Travel Society Series is mostly based upon History in the 19th century. I love the Victorian Era of London and France. Although i did add in Medievel Romania because I found it intriguing. I have always loved history. Going back in time is a fantasy of mine. A time where beauty was an extravagance and the wealthy used their success as a tool to gain access to anything their hearts desired. My Time Travel Series will take you back to fantastical adventure not only historically but with a Paranormal adventure.
    http://www.amazon.com/Crystal-Miles-Gauthier/e/B00MEFQN6Y/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1425413180&sr=1-2-ent

  6. What a fun question. I write science fiction romance with adventure and intrigue, and one of the perquisites and challenges is that I get to make up my locations. The first book of the series starts the main characters off in a city, then in a space ship, and finally crash-landing on an unexplored planet, all to figure out who’s stealing the vaccine for a galaxy-wide pandemic. The second book is set in the gleaming capitol city of the galactic civilization, a kind of metaphor for a certain government organization that has a good reputation but isn’t as pretty behind the façade. I enjoy inventing the future, and showing how, despite a millennium of advances, some things never change, such as politics, crime, and traffic.
    http://www.amazon.com/Carol-Van-Natta/e/B002F4UN24/

  7. My romantic mystery, Death of an Island Tart, is set on an unnamed Caribbean island that proves to be as much if not more of a protagonist than its human counterpart. With each new writing project, I challenge myself to work on a different area of craft. In this book, I wanted the setting to become its own character, so I used its uniqueness to help me throw rocks at my character. Networks of underground caves, riots closing the airport effectively cutting them off from the rest of the civilized world and the legacy of slavery all drive the plot by complicating my hero and heroine’s quest to find the real killer and repair their broken relationship.

    Thanks so much for the opportunity to share.

    http://amzn.to/1GAA5k5

  8. Part of my current WIP, romantic suspense, takes place in Mallorca. I chose the locale because of it’s lyrical name. Of course, it’s a beautiful island. But the name fit in so well with my writing style, I just had to use it. The three locations in the book are a fictional town, a rundown estate where horses are specifically trained for show and an opulent seaside villa overlooking a bay. The villain invades and holds hostage the owners of the villa. In addition to the villain, the hero must place his trust in a police chief patterned after Captain Louis Renault of Casablanca. It’s all been great fun to write.

    1. I’ve been to Mallorca three times, on an Earthwatch trip. It’s the most beautiful place I’ve ever been.

  9. James, I love this link. It’s a fun way to share our books.

    I write paranormal romance and invented a whole world of paranormal creatures. And all of my heroes are so hot they’d make your panties melt.
    Mostly I concentrate on Lykae in my Scattered Siblings series but the “Otherworld” connects with the real world. My love of Yorkshire – my home county comes through. Whitby – the place where Bram Stoker penned Dracula pops up a lot. It’s a beautiful coastal town that revels in its gothic past.
    Putting my characters in real places helps me see their human side. Two of my heroines – Meena in Curse of the Fae King, and Ellie in To Wed a Werewolf grew up there.
    http://www.loose-id.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=kryssie+fortune

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