The importance and influence of setting

Blue Ridge

I’ve been thinking about setting because I’m working on two stories in quite different environments. One is in Mexico and the other the Blue Ridge Mountains. The mountain setting is near me and I can easily go there. Mexico, especially the jungle in Chiapas, is much more difficult. I spent some time in Toluca and loved it, but I never got to Chiapas. It’s requiring a lot of research.

Setting, or place, has several functions in a story. The simplest is that it provides background for your characters if you use something well known or that has a character of its own. “He’s from the Bronx.” “She’s from Savannah.” These statements give an initial impression of the character based on our ideas of these places. You may go on to add detail or provide more specific information, but the reader still has certain expectations. We don’t expect the character from the Bronx to be slow-talking and laid back, and we’d be surprised to find the Savannah character edgy and in-your-face; if this were the case, you’d have to explain why.

On the road to Tenango

Setting also provides a backdrop and color for your story. Streets, buildings, restaurants, or some wild, rugged terrain—it all depends on your story and what you want to happen. Most people write what they know or have a good chance of finding out. I wouldn’t set a book in Alaska because I doubt if I could get enough of a feeling for it from books and movies or the Internet, but I could set one in Atlanta or most towns in the South. Even Texas, in the last few years, has taken on a more “cowboy” character and would be harder to write about in depth.

These days, if you chose a place you’re not familiar with, you can easily find pictures and information about restaurants, streets, businesses, and places of interest on the Internet. But be sure you’re correct. If you can find someone who’s spent time there, try to interview them or have them review your story for accuracy. They may be able to add some details you wouldn’t otherwise find, such as smells, sounds, whether it’s windy or the air is visibly polluted.

Threatening storm over TeoTenango

Setting also affects the characters’ attitudes and expectations. If they live in a small town with a strong religious community, it might influence their actions in certain situations, or it could provide part of the conflict. Think what kind of setting would add to your story. What could enrich it?

I have my work cut out for me, but I love both places, so it's fun.

How Samantha Found her Settings

Amazon Kindle

This week my guest is Peggy Edelheit, author of the Samantha Jamison mysteries.

I’d say there’s a lot of Samantha in me, and visa versa. We seek advice, give others credit more so than ourselves, and are reluctant to take center stage. Although we get carried away on occasion, we have a great sense of humor. Just looking at the quirky characters we both have to deal with proves we’re unpredictable, too.

Samantha made her debut as my protagonist in The Puzzle in Highlands, North Carolina. I owned a log home there at one time; hence it was a picture-perfect location to write a mystery with the mountains as a backdrop. I would often sit in that house daydreaming what a great isolated place for a writer to get caught up in her own mystery. Many incidents in the book did happen, including the ice storm.

Being familiar with Ocean City, NJ, it was perfect for Without Any Warning, Volume 2. The boardwalk and beach were an ideal setting for my characters to barge in on Sam to continue the series. A reader who read that mystery wrote me, saying she appreciated that I had my facts straight, even down to the best pizza place to eat. Readers are always looking for authenticity and this proved it. You have to be as accurate as possible or they will let you know when you’re not.

Amazon Kindle

 In 86 Avenue du Goulet, Volume 3, the French Riviera mystery, our neighbors really were Martine, Jean, and their dog Sonia, just as in the book. Jean passed away, and so I dedicated that book in his memory, with a special thanks to Martine. I did spend time working in the gardens with our French gardener, and the location of the other properties surrounding us and their exact locations played right into the mystery, including the house with the red light across the way. The mysterious cat lady who came and went at dusk, slipping cat food under our garden gate really did exist.

A Lethal Time, Volume 4 takes place in New Hampshire, a setting that was similar to ours where we once had a vacation home. Our horses were Amanda, Luke, Blaze, and yes, even Boss, that unruly wild horse in the book. We used to go to the motorcycle rallies each summer on my husband’s Harley. Both research and living there helped give a more familiar feel to the mystery.

Amazon Kindle

Mouth Of The Rat, Volume 5, takes place in south Florida. Being a resident of Florida, I knew just how to play it right down to the tongue-and-cheek attitude of the players. Florida has a rich mix of cultures and backgrounds. I had a lot of fun with that one. My husband could hear me chuckling as I typed. And no, I don’t dine at 4:30pm.

The disadvantage is the reader only sees my mysteries from Sam’s point of view. So I try to keep them in the loop right up until the very last page with its surprise ending.

Thank you, Ellis for having me as a guest on your blog. I enjoyed it immensely. 

Peggy.

Find more about Peggy's books at Amazon.

Or her website: www.samanthajamison.com

Pleasures & Pitfalls of Writing ‘Where’ You Know

Amazon, Kindle or print

Author Linda Lovely, who writes the Marley Clark mysteries, is my guest this week.
It’s fun to write a novel that showcases a place you know and love (I suppose it would also be true for a place you love to hate)—a setting you’ve felt as well as seen, a location that sparks passion you can capture on the page.

Yet there are pitfalls in setting a novel in a real locale. How reliable is your memory? Will residents take umbrage if you make mistakes? Will readers draw unintended connections between your fictional cast and real people? Will they forgive literary license if you contradict their memories, their experiences?

I set my new Marley Clark mystery, NO WAKE ZONE, in the Iowa Great Lakes region. Don’t scoff if you haven’t visited. Iowa is not all cornfields. This section, near the Minnesota border, boasts clear blue lakes, towering oaks, trumpeter swans, and the best summer days of my youth.

I can smell, feel and taste the time spent here. My aunt, uncle and cousins lived on Lake Okoboji just outside the town of Spirit Lake. Every summer Mom packed meat loaf sandwiches for our 400-mile car trek to Lake Okoboji. This is where I learned to water ski, where my cousins shamed me into baiting my own hook with a slimy worm, where Bobby Vinton called to the Roof Garden stage to sing with him, where I first tasted saltwater taffy, where I dove off a Camp Foster dock for skin-prickling polar bear swims, where I screamed in terror riding the Arnolds Park roller coaster before begging for another chance to scream again.

As I wrote NO WAKE ZONE, these memories and more surfaced. I felt smooth pebbles massage my toes as Marley, my heroine, waded into Big Spirit Lake. I smelled a breeze heavy with tropical suntan lotion and a hint of diesel from a boat’s four-stroke engine as Marley strolled down her cousin’s dock. I watched ominous thunderclouds mass on the horizon and heard the crackle of lightning as Marley drove past the town’s windmills, arms twirling in fury.

Lake Okoboji, Sunset

Would I have been able to write with equal passion about a location I’d only seen on postcards or visited by video? I think not. These sensory memories made the scenes vivid and real for me. But I did take precautions.

Timelines. I attempted to ensure my 52-year-old heroine never did the impossible. Since she was too young to recall being on stage with Bobby Vinton, I checked with the Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to see what Roof Garden entertainer might have invited her to share the spotlight. Likewise, Templar Park where I worked as a cook was defunct before Marley reached college age. So I created a fictional retreat evocative of several of the area’s grand old resorts.

Linda and Steve, Fishing

Resident Fact Checkers. My late cousin, Steve Kennedy, helped greatly with my initial research, and later his widow, Mary, tirelessly checked landmark references for accuracy. 

Asking Permission. I shared an early version of the manuscript with Historic Arnolds Park to seek permission to use this classic amusement park’s real name as well as the Queen II excursion boat and the Iowa Great Lakes Maritime Museum.

Note to Readers. Finally, I wrote a note to readers detailing elements that were totally my invention and why. For instance, I made no attempt to research the community’s actual law enforcement hierarchy, because I knew how I wanted my investigation to play out.

Kindle or Print

Do you like to read about real locations? Do you expect authors to be faithful to every detail or do you give them leeway for plot requirements? If you’re an author, how do you cover the bases when you set your books in a real place?

______________

About Linda

A journalism major in college, Lovely has made her living as a writer, tackling everything from magazine features and ad copy to speeches and brochures. Her manuscripts have made the finals in 15 contests, including RWA’s prestigious Golden HeartÒ and Daphne du Maurier competitions and mystery contests such as Deadly Ink, Murder in the Grove and Malice Domestic.

For more information about the author and her books, you can visit her website at: www.lindalovely.com

Capturing Atmosphere and Details

Hub Stacey's

Since I'm sitting on the deck looking out at a tidal slew in Florida, the mood and atmosphere are quite different from the one I'm used to. Here things are more relaxed, dress is more casual, and the air holds a hint of saltwater. Even the light is different. This is Central time, so TV programs start earlier; it's light at 6 a.m. and warm enough to have coffee outside then.  Sometimes the Blue Angels fly over.

A great blue heron has a nest next door and flies along the water, sometimes splashing down to fish. Pelicans skim the water, occasionally diving, or they come to rest on the pilings. They gather at the water's edge in small groups.

Pelicans

These things make a difference in a story. Research matters. We went to lunch at Hub Stacy's, a rustic wood structure on the water. Spanish moss, a tree I think is a type of magnolia, and of course the live oaks shelter the deck where we had wonderful Reuben sandwiches. The people who showed up brought their dogs, wore flip flops and shorts, and knew the waitress, so I assume they're locals. Weathered men with a white German shepherd unloaded fishing gear and stowed it in their boat. The dog was clearly familiar with the process and leapt into the boat as they backed it into the water.

If it isn't possible to visit a place you're writing about, try to find someone who lives there or who's been recently to answer questions for you.

Setting can be a strong influence on the characters and the way a plot unfolds. Weather often plays a part. When I wrote Cold Comfort, I visited Williamsburg, McClellanville, and Washington, but there were many things I didn't know. I found someone in an online group who lived outside Washington and helped me with traffic patterns and some of the areas I wanted to include. She told me what locals call features such as the Key bridge.

Now of course I want to set something in this area, the Florida panhandle. It's beautiful and quite different from upstate South Carolina, which has its own kind of beauty.