It occurred to me (as it did to you all, of course) that this title could be misleading. "Where" as in where to write, or "where" as in the locale of our stories? Both good questions. Glad I (we) asked it. Where we write...I had a laptop years ago, back in the earlier days of laptops. It was relatively heavy as far as laptops went, relatively large as far as they went too, but I was thrilled with it. I could work with it at the kitchen table, at the dining room table, at a table not in the house, in bed, even. I was Freed! Freed, I tell you! (Not that my NAME is "Freed," but...you know.) The disadvantage of it was its relative clumsiness in editing. And in those days I was doing a LOT of freelance editing. So much so, in fact, that during the longest, most painful assignment, I broke down and upgraded to an iMac. It was one of the early models, lime green (because it clashed with everything, a fact I found charming), and it sat square in my office, and it didn't travel (except to the repair shop, but that's another story, and should not be taken as a negative reflection of the iMac in general, because it's just mine, which is usually the case). And you know what? I LIKED the fact that it didn't travel. And that's how I realized I was a stay-in-one-place kind of editor and writer. I can do both while traveling, but not with a laptop. Where we write...locales. I like making 'em up, myself. That way I don't have to worry about getting everything right. In FESTIVAL OF STARS (on sale now from Cerridwen Press! Go check it out at www.cerridwenpress.com/productpage.asp?ISBN=9781419909054)(what, me shameless? I've learned that to have shame in this business is to starve, so check it out now!), I used West Seattle and Mercer Island as locales. One I had some familiarity with, and when real life kept changing it on me, I decided to keep it the same, because it's a fairy tale, and I didn't see any reason to make the locale any more real than the story. In SLEEPER (www.cerridwenpress.com/productpage.asp?ISBN=9781419908552), it was easier...because the only thing the locale in the story had in common with reality was the name "Seattle." Nothing else, and then the locale moved to a fantasy, so I didn't have to worry about it. And in 30-DAY GUARANTEE, well, it's a graphic novella. I wrote the script, didn't do the art. If the artist wants to go for details, images of Seattle are all over the place. (Subscription at myromancestory.com!) I also remember the fretting before I let the details go. I don't see how people writing nonfiction keep up with reality. It keeps changing!

 

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