Setting: Does It Matter by Author Cara Putnam

Setting: Does It Matter?

When you’re reading a novel, what’s the first thing that grabs your attention?

Is it the characters? The genre? An interesting take or twist? Or could it be the setting?

For me, it’s often a combination of the above. If there are interesting characters, I’ll keep reading a novel that might have a plot I’ve seen a dozen times – after all, there are only so many basic plots. (For an interesting article that summarizes the different theories, go here.) But I love a book that transports me somewhere, that seems like a vacation in a book even if it’s a suspense or thriller. 

With Shadowed by Grace, I had the pleasure and challenge of recreating multiple locations across Italy, a country I long to visit, but missed on both trips to Europe. So how could I create a landscape I’ve never seen, but readers have visited? Lots of research. And then more research. And after that a bit more.

I also had to recreate Italy during WWII. So I couldn’t simply look at how Italy looks today. I had to locate photos, descriptions and more from that time. As we all know, places change. The open field behind my house ten years ago is now a subdivision with 100 houses. Imagine that kind of change on a grand scale over 70 years. 

How did I do it? Here are a few tips:

Look for the right websites. Several scenes were at Montegufoni, a castle in Tuscany. I read about it in books, but also found the website for the castle. In its history it contained information about murals that were added in the twenties. Those show up in the book. Poking around the photos gave me a great idea of the layout of the castle. I did the same for scenes at the Vatican.

Read the right books. I stumbled on a great diary written by a British woman who lived in Tuscany during the war. Her journal gave a vivid account of what it was like for Italians in that region. You can imagine my excitement when she mentioned the Monuments Men by name in her diary.  My stack of research books seemed massive, but each one added detail that made the book more realistic. 

Decide which details to incorporate. All of that setting research creates an abundance of information. Not all of it should be included. What will make the setting more real for people who have been there? When I wrote A Wedding Transpires on Mackinac Island, I included information about the clop of horses’ hooves and the strong smell of fudge. Anyone who has been to the island could connect with those sensory details. For Shadowed by Grace, I focused on the destruction of Naples, the juxtaposition of a castle stuffed with refugees and the buzzing planes overhead. Each detail had to serve a purpose, in this case making the setting more real. 

Cara C. Putman graduated high school at 16, college at 20, and completed her law degree at 27. An award-winning author of seventeen books with more on the way, she is active in women's ministry at her church and is a lecturer on business and employment law to graduate students at Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management. Putman also practices law and is a second-generation homeschooling mom. Putman is currently pursuing her Master’s in Business Administration at Krannert. She serves on the executive board of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), an organization she has served in various roles since 2007. She lives with her husband and four children in Indiana. You can connect with her online at: Website, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Goodreads. 

Purchase links: Christianbook.com, Barnes & Noble, Amazon

About the book: 

Rachel Justice is desperate to save her dying mother. She doesn’t want to leave her, but she accepts her newspaper’s assignment to travel to Italy and photograph war images. No one knows her photography is a cover and that Rachel is really seeking to find the father she never knew, hopeful to get some help with her failing mother. Dedicated to her mission, Rachel is focused on completing it. Soon, though, she finds her priorities and plans changing when she is assigned to Lt. Scott Lindstrom, on mission as a Monument Man. Their meeting will have far-reaching consequences. Will this derail her plans? Will she ever find her father? Is her faith enough to carry her through?

People can read the first chapter here.

The Borrowed Book is giving away a copy of Cara's newest book this Friday. Join in on the fun!

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Setting the Tone of Story by Author Gail Sattler

Something that writers need to figure out in every book is setting. We need to make it unique, yet familiar, and many authors struggle with whether to use real locations or make them up to suit the book

I did a little of both for the setting of my books in my Mennonite series, which for now is two books, first The Narrow Path, and the second, out now (and with a 4 ½ star rating with Romantic Times) The Path to Piney Meadows.

You might guess that the name of my town is Piney Meadows.  This town is created yet is based on a real town in the same area, which is northern Minnesota.  I don’t live there, but I know people who do, one of whom used to live in the actual town, which I have renamed.  Because I couldn’t stick 100% to the real details of the real town, I made it fictional. Yet I am still true to the details of the climate, topography, flora, and fauna. I use a number of real locations that are close by, so anyone who has been there, or will ever be there, will feel the familiarity, and that makes it “feel” real to the reader, or anyone who has been there.

Part of how this is done is that I really have been in the area, even though not to the actual small town that became “Piney Meadows, MN”, and it’s been many years. For those who think they can use the internet to fill in the blanks, that isn’t the most accurate source. Successfully using setting in a story is more than reciting facts of temperature and wind velocity. It’s how it feels to be there, and many things go into that feeling. All it takes is to be wrong with one, and a reader who has been there will know the difference.

One example, in The Narrow Path, Ted and Miranda were in the car driving north on the highway. He was adequately dressed for the climate, but she was not. I had Ted turn up the heat on full, but Miranda was still cold. Ted was too warm, so he stopped the car in the middle of the highway (it was night when there was no traffic), he got out of the car, quickly took off his coat, tossed it in the back seat, got back in the car, and kept driving. To make sure my memory served me correctly on all the details, I emailed this scene to my friend who lived there, and she emailed it to her brother, who still does live in a nearby town. He emailed me back saying the scene made him laugh, because not only was I exactly right with the scene details, he does that exact same thing himself.

I got it right.

For my current book The Path To Piney Meadows, I did a lot of research on chickens in the area – of course they can’t survive outside in cold weather, so I had to find out what to do in that kind of community. I now know a lot about raising backyard chickens in general, and what is needed to build a good and realistic chicken coop in the city. 

With the current trend in raising backyard chickens, many people don’t just keep their chickens outside. Because you can’t potty-train a chicken, you can buy chicken diapers on eBay. Check it out.

Gail Sattler lives in Vancouver BC (Canada, eh!) with her husband, three sons, two dogs, and a lizard who is quite cuddly for a reptile. When she's not writing, Gail plays piano for her church's worship team, electric bass for a local jazz band, and acoustic bass for a community orchestra. When she's not writing or making music, Gail likes to sit back with a hot coffee and read a book written by someone else.

She doesn't twitter but has a Facebook page.
Her website - www.gailsattler.com
Book site - www.mennonitefiction.com

Facebook page for the Bloomfield Series - www.facbook.com/bloomfieldclub

If you like Where's Waldo, try to Go Get Gnorman - www.gogetgnorman.com

Don't forget to stop by Friday and enter to win a free copy of Gail's latest release, The Path to Piney Meadows!

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Setting by Cara Lynn James

How important is setting to your story? Do you think much about setting? In some books it seems almost irrelevant. The story can take place anywhere—any small town, suburb or city will do since it doesn’t have much impact on the plot or characters.

But in my Ladies of Summerhill series (historical romance) I could only set the books in Newport, Rhode Island because the stories involve the richest people of the Gilded Age who loved to socialize and spend their time among their own elite crowd. This was the age of conspicuous consumption and Mrs. Astor’s ‘Four Hundred.’ That was the number who could comfortably fit in her New York ballroom. 

America’s Gilded Age began after the Civil War and extended into the early twentieth century. This was the era of rapid and enormous economic and population growth. The term “Gilded Age” was coined by Mark Twain and refers to the gilding of something with a superficial layer of gold. The phrase makes fun of the ostentatious display of wealth that characterized high society. These millionaires were industrialists, financiers and entrepreneurs whose names still ring with the sound of wealth—or former riches. Who hasn’t heard the names Rockefeller, Carnegie, Astor and Vanderbilt? These so-called “robber barons” were sometimes admired and sometimes reviled by the common folk. But they and their life style fascinated their generation and ours as well.

During most of the year a lot of the super rich resided in New York or other East coast cities. But for the short summer season they flocked to places like Bar Harbor, Maine or Saratoga Springs, New York or the Berkshires or Adirondacks.

So the society itself can become a great part of the setting. If the Gilded Age social climbers are the main characters it might be better to set your story in a place like Newport or Saratoga Springs with horse races etc. They only vacationed in certain locations and with certain people. Exclusivity ruled the day. In books about the turn-of-the-century elite you’ll mainly find upper class characters and their servants, with a few ‘social climbers.’ 

Different places attracted different classes and types of people. While the millionaires who vacationed in Bar Harbor, Maine enjoyed a more sedate life and less ostentation, they purposely chose to stay away from Newport, the premier summer resort on the east coast. Make sure you pick the right location for the story you want to tell.

The people of the Gilded Age didn’t stay in one place for very long. They travelled from resort to resort in their private railcars with family and friends while enjoying their privileged lives -- for the most part. I’m happily following them to their other playgrounds.

My newest book, A Path toward Love, (available August 14^th) also has Gilded Age millionaires (billionaires in 21^st century dollars) as characters. But they enjoyed ‘roughing it’ in the mountains.

Sagamore, one of the Great Camps of the Adirondacks, was owned by Alfred Vanderbilt. The ‘campers’ loved the rural life, the sights and sounds of the forest, the call of the loon over secluded lakes, and the simple pleasures of hunting and fishing. But they did bring their taste for luxury and comfort even into the rustic north country. 

“An Adirondack camp does not mean a canvas tent or a bark wigwam, but a permanent summer home where the fortunate owners assemble for several weeks each year and live in perfect comfort and even luxury,

tho in the heart of the woods, with no very near neighbors, no roads and no danger of intrusion.” - William Frederick Dix, Summer Life in Luxurious Adirondack Camps, 1903

Setting determines the kind of activities the story people take part in. Those hardy souls who camped in the Adirondacks fished, canoed, swam, hunted, hiked and picnicked. Since they owned enormous tracks of forested land, they had fewer neighbors to socialize with. They invited friends to visit. Unlike Newport there weren’t exclusive clubs to meet at every day or ornate ballrooms where the rich danced several times a week. The campers stayed close to home and led quieter, more relaxing lives.  

They also lived a far less formal lifestyle than they did in the city or at other summer resorts. As writers, we have to take into account the kinds of personalities, temperaments, likes and dislikes our characters would have. The socially inclined would be out of their element in a mountain camp without constant entertainment and variety. But other types of people love the outdoors and thrive among nature’s beautiful environment. 

It’s always fun to drop a character into a setting where she’s completely unsuited and see how she adapts. Or doesn’t.

A Path toward Love. This is a historical romance, set in the Adirondack Mountains during the summer of 1905. 

Katherine came home to forget her past.

The last thing she expected is a hopeful future.

Young widow Katherine Osborne returns to her family’s rustic camp on Raquette Lake in the Adirondack Mountains. She’s determined to live a quiet life, but her socialite mother is equally determined to push her into a new marriage while she’s still young.

Andrew Townsend has known Katherine since they were children. An attorney who is successful, but not wealthy, he knows she is socially out of his reach. But he’s curious what changed the free-spirited girl he once knew into this private, somber young woman.

Katherine has kept hidden the details of her unsuccessful marriage. When past sins come to light, she must turn to God for the courage to be honest. But how can she trust the God she feels has let her down? When she confides in Andrew, their relationship takes a dramatic turn into uncharted territory.

Amid impossible obstacles, two young people must learn to trust enough to walk the path that God has cleared for them. A path that leads to healing and restoration. A path toward love.

Cara Lynn James has written three historical romances, Love on a Dime, Love on Assignment and Love by the Book. Her newest novel, A Path toward Love, is set during the Gilded Age in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. Originally from Connecticut, Cara lives with her family in northwest Florida. 

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Where the Past Meets the Present: Setting and The Hound of the Baskervilles

I've been on a bit of a Sherlock Holmes kick lately, and I recently finished The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle. What a story! Definitely thrilling and mysterious. In considering what makes this story so terrifying, the setting stands out almost as a character in its own right. It's a living force that swallows victims whole and cries in the night. It's just downright creepy!

Below is an image from the Crime Scraps Review blog to set the mood:

So what can we learn from this story that will help us master the setting?

• Force - The moor is a force to be reckoned with, especially the Grimpen Mire, where people and creatures can be sucked into the mud and never be seen again. (Oh, how I detest thoughts of quicksand and the like! *shudder*) Watson sees and hears a pony dying in the mire, and it certainly adds to the terror of the story - especially with characters on the hunt (or the run), and just one misstep can be very dangerous indeed... While some of us might not be writing mysteries or suspense, our settings in all our stories play a huge role. What challenges will the setting present to our characters? Think of Wild West stories and how the ruggedness of the land really creates a sense of adventure and/or hardship.
  

• Fear - The moor leads to an emotional reaction in most of the characters, namely fear. The howling of the hound on those dark nights, the thrashing of the trees in the wind by Baskerville Hall, the one pinpoint of light or the silhouette of a man signalling a presence in the wilds of the moor... No matter the setting, if it's a good one it will elicit some emotion. Contentment at a cozy resort. Awe at the grandeur of the Rocky Mountains. Sorrow at the cemetery. Happiness at the beach. You get the idea! And the more senses involved in the descriptions the better!

• Foundation - The moor gives the characters a place to hide, Sherlock a place to play ;) , and a stage for the mystery to unfold. While setting isn't everything, per se, it's important as it can either limit or expand the action of the story. Will your characters move during the course of the story? How does the contrast in settings fit in with the theme? Will your characters travel? Or does the setting serve as a trap for them?

Let's connect the past with the present! Where is your current WIP set? What can you learn from The Hound of the Baskervilles and the scary moor that might help you use setting to deepen your story?

And one last, very important question - anyone else excited to see this story in the second season of the PBS Masterpiece version of Sherlock coming in May 2012???

(Moor picture from Crime Scraps Review. Book picture from Penguin.com.)

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