CJ Maxx - Coming Back a Virgin

Why did you pick the setting you used in your story? I'm not looking for -- "because I live there". I want you to dig deep and tell us...
Okay. I won’t give you “because I live there”. I’ll be more flippant, because it fit the story. Now, I’ll explain.

Why you chose that particular setting?
My hero doesn’t have a clue about romance or women. In his spare time he writes mainstream novels with pornographic sex scenes. I wanted his surroundings and his apartment to reflect someone with little intimate contact with actual females.

What does the setting add to the story?
It reinforces who he is. He sees his place as a cool bachelor pad. The state of disarray, the lack of food, the mismatched furniture, his collection of X-rated videos, the need of a thorough cleaning, and everything else points to the lack of females in his life and his cluelessness.

Could you write the same story in a different setting?
I suppose I could have made him a compulsive cleaner without a clue about women but it would have taken a lot out of the story. No, the setting’s critical to the story.

Why or why couldn't you use a different setting?
My whole point about the setting was to reinforce his weaknesses. Besides that, it gives my heroine something to bitch about, something to question why she’s there.

Did you use a real place as a basis for your setting?
No. The apartment is imaginary. I used the name of a restaurant in the Knoxville, Tennessee area but I never identify where he lives. I’ve used that restaurant in another story and I just like the name of it. I’ve never been there.

Or, did you create the setting from scratch?
Definitely from scratch, the apartment is never described until the heroine makes her walk-through inspection. Much to her disgust, I might add.

Is there anything else about your setting that we need to know? Feel free to share.
The transformation of the setting is essential to the story. It changes from a bachelor’s slovenly haven into something that a woman could enter without cringing. In fact, some actual romance takes places there.

Please provide your website link.www.cjmaxx.net

What is the link to buy your book?http://www.whiskeycreekpress.com/torrid/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=4&products_id=211

Tell us some specific details about your setting. What would we see? What sort of people are there? If we were traveling to your setting, what should we bring with us? For visitors, what do they need to know to visit your setting?
This is probably not a good question for me since the story deals almost exclusively with two characters inside his apartment.

Thank you for sharing details about your book setting. Now, what's the title of your book and where can we buy it?
The title is Coming Back a Virgin and the publisher is Whiskey Creek Press-Torrid. It can be purchased from them. The link is in a previous question.

Fraterfamilias by Peter Ferrer

Why did you pick the setting you used in your story? I'm not looking for -- "because I live there". I want you to dig deep and tell us...

It all started with Paris. My cowriter, Judith, picked it because Paris is a lovely, ancient city and we've both been to it. As the initial situation played itself out, it became a matter of logic--where would you go if you were fleeing Paris after you'd committed murder? You have money and you can take a plane. Well, it's a straight shot over to New York and once you get clear of the airport, you can go pretty much anywhere on the continent. The story had to be set in New York.

What does the setting add to the story?
New York is a port city, cosmopolitan and multicultural, with a venerable history of crime. This gave us a chance to show the collisions between some very different characters.

Could you write the same story in a different setting?
We briefly considered setting it in Vancouver (Judith is from Vancouver), since so many stories are set in big American or European cities, already. But it didn't work out.

Why or why couldn't you use a different setting?
The opening scene really establishes the parameters for the setting such that it could not be any other city in the world. To set it elsewhere would be like setting "Casablanca" in Poughkeepsie. It wouldn't work. It just had to be New York.

Did you use a real place as a basis for your setting?
City-wise, yes. And we very carefully researched as much of the layout of the public places (like JFK and the Port Authority bus station and the public transit system) as we could for realism. That was hard because neither of us was anywhere near New York at the time that we wrote the book, though of course we've both been there. I'm sure there were some errors, since it's not easy to research things like public transport online in this day and age. People wonder why you're doing it!

Is there anything else about your setting that we need to know? Feel free to share.
We started writing the story before 9/11. Ultimately, we chose to set it before 9/11, as well. New York has changed since then and we wanted to deal with the fin de siecle atmosphere immediately before that, when many things were simmering but not exactly public knowledge. We also wanted to deal with the city's history of immigration, its cosmopolitan nature. We worried that by bringing 9/11 into it (as setting the story after 9/11 would inevitably do), everything else would fade and it would become a 9/11 thriller. There is more to New York than that.

Please provide your website link:
http://www.geocities.com/rpcv.geo/other.html

What is the link to buy your book?
http://www.virtualtales.com/StoryProducts~tn~Fraterfamilias.html

Tell us some specific details about your setting. What would we see? What sort of people are there? If we were traveling to your setting, what should we bring with us? For visitors, what do they need to know to visit your setting?
New York has a huge number of very different people in a relatively small space, with many boroughs that have their specific, colorful histories. One thing you'd notice right away are the subway and the busses. We use both extensively in our book because our characters are too poor to use taxis and New Yorkers don't generally drive. It's a huge public transport system dating back to the 19th century. A visitor to New York would also need to know about JFK (since this, along with La Guardia) is the major airport for the city, and the Port Authority bus station. When it comes to city public transport, bring a map, money and patience. You can go all over the place and see things you might not notice if you drove a car. But it may take you a while to get there.

Thank you for sharing details about your book setting.
Thank you for having me!

Now, what's the title of your book and where can we buy it:
Fraterfamilias, under the pseudonym "Peter Ferrer". You can find it at Virtual Tales, Fictionwise and several other online venues.

Switcheroo by Herbert Holeman

Why did you pick the setting you used in your story? I'm not looking for -- "because I live there". I want you to dig deep and tell us...Why you chose that particular setting?

Well, San Francisco is my hometown and where I grew up and spent my career in law enforcement. Also, part of my motivation to write this story was to present an argument for protecting our national park system. And I wanted to do it in a non-pedantic way and in a manner that would not cause the reader’s eyes to glaze over. To that end, I incorporated the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite as a character in my story.

What does the setting add to the story?

I set the story in a real place that reflects the storyline and actual locales in which story events occur. A visitor to the story setting can easily feel the ambience and visualize the what and where.

Could you write the same story in a different setting?

Certain places and events, such as the Hetch Hetchy water supply system and the controversy surrounding it, are essential to the storyline.

Why or why couldn't you use a different setting?

The actual locales in which events take place are unique to the present story setting.

Did you use a real place as a basis for your setting?

Yes. The visitor would find the streets and locales in San Francisco are as described in the story. So too are the eateries, although they are otherwise named. The redwood forests on the San Mateo coast are also as described in the book and the raging controversy over Hetch Hetchy remains ongoing.

Or, did you create the setting from scratch?

N/A

Tell us some specific details about your setting. What would we see? What sort of people are there? If we were traveling to your setting, what should we bring with us? For visitors, what do they need to know to visit your setting?

I would say to the visitor, bring your appetite. My story follows the tradition of the Golden Age of the detective story where meals run "like a doughy thread" throughout the narrative. In the words of H. R. F. Keating, "Your really implacable sleuth could never go far without pausing to eat the appropriate meal." This tradition lives on in Switcheroo and in the City by the Bay in particular.

http://www.herbertholeman.com/