It's the setting

by Rain Trueax

My idea for the blog that led to so much trouble was reading something another author had written about the importance of not forgetting to talk about and advertise backlists. If a writer has been at it long, they likely have some kind of backlist-- most of which has fallen into Amazon's black hole. Their ranking algorithms favor the most recently published books. 

Mostly (with two exceptions), my backlist is made up of contemporary romances written from the 1970s through the early 1990s. For those years, they were what I most enjoyed writing and reading. I liked having characters deal with today's problems but still have the mythology of those who take care of problems and build things-- the pioneer and cowboy ethos.

If you don’t read romances, you don’t know that while the love story is at their heart, they are about relationships, problems anyone can run into (even if unlikely in some situations), and in mine at least, with a setting important to the story.

Frankly, I believe, not just in fiction, that the location of our home is important to the energy of life. 

“Where we choose to be—we have that power to determine our lives. We cannot reel time backward or forward, but we can take ourselves to the place that defines our being.” Sena Jeter Naslund 

For a book, this can be key to why it works or does not. When people live somewhere, does it strike the reader as being realistic, whether it's inner city or wilderness? How does where these people live change, heal, or challenge them? In all of my books, where they are set is a secondary character. Some writers set their books in places they've never been. It can work. I prefer though tht mine are always in places I know pretty well-- or at least have spent time. 

I have six contemporaries set in Portland, Oregon, one in Arizona, one in Pendleton, Oregon, and two in Montana.  Mostly, they are places where I'd love to live. Most of us can't live everywhere we might wish; but as writers, we can set books all those places where we live in our imagination. This also works for readers as they become part of a landscape they might never be but can feel as though they have.  

It might seem, due to my living a rural lifestyle, that cities would not appeal to me. Au contraire.  I think the ideal life would be a home right in the heart of a city with a second home somewhere in the wilderness-- the best of both worlds.

Portland would suit me just fine as it offers so many amenities, plus being set in so much natural beauty with two rivers and forests all around. I was born there and lived in and near it for 30 years. It is where I met Ranch Boss. Today, I enjoy my visits when I walk along the Willamette River, visit the museums, shops, and eat at restaurants with varied ethnic recipes. Trips to enjoy the symphony or a show are memorable-- and sometimes appear in one of my books.

I would seriously consider moving back when, due to aging, we need to leave the farm, except it’s gotten so expensive (a lot of people like it). Not to mention the property taxes would kill us where we live on Social Security. Still, I can base some of my books in neighborhoods that I especially like and return to through my characters. 

Next Saturday will be more about those contemporaries and why I wanted them where they ended up being.