Eureka Point by Betty Ann Harris

Why you chose that particular setting? My book, Eureka Point, is a romantic suspense, in which the main character, a beautiful and successful Park Avenue interior designer, must assume a new identity and relocate to a somewhat desolate area far away. Eureka Point is an old Victorian seaport town on the rocky shores of the coast of Northern California. The setting is the opposite of New York, where the main character is from, and represents a new start for her. But the severe rocky coastline, with its cliffs and rough seas relates to the danger that still surrounds her.

What does the setting add to the story? The setting adds a sense of mystery, suspense, and danger to my story.

Could you write the same story in a different setting? The setting is so essential to my story that I don't think I could write the same story in a different setting. One thing I do as a writer is spend a good deal of time describing the scene and scenery in order to draw the reader into the story.

Why or why couldn't you use a different setting? If I used a different setting the story would not be as interesting or exciting.

Did you use a real place as a basis for your setting? A rather strange thing happened to me while I was writing this story. I decided on Northern California and just picked a name out of my head. I picked Eureka as the name of the town but I also wanted to use a lighthouse on a point, so I decided on Eureka Point. When I was researching Northern California on a map, low and behold, there was a town on the coast named Eureka. Friends tell me they think I lived there in former life, or they think I'm psychic.

Or, did you create the setting from scratch? I created the setting from scratch but it does exist.

Is there anything else about your setting that we need to know? Feel free to share. The area of Northern California portrayed in my book has many cliffs and rocky shores, where shipwrecks happened in the past. It is rumored in my story that the ghosts of old sea captains roam around, adding more to the sense of mystery and danger.

Please provide your website link. I have a blog titled, Writing By Moonlight. The link is: http://www.writingmoonlight.blogspot.com
My website is currently being re-done.

What is the link to buy your book? http://redrosepublishing.com/bookstore/product_info.php?products_id=89

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? If you were to go to Eureka Point, you would see charming inns, historic and old lighthouses, rocky shores and dramatic cliffs. The people that live in the area are laid back and enjoy visiting wineries and great restaurants. This area of Northern California has a very termperate climate with temperatures in the fifties and sixties a good part of the year. If you were to visit Eureka Point you should bring along comfortable shoes and have a jacket handy.

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 of my book is Eureka Point and it's available at Red Rose Publishing under Mainstream Romance, Suspense.

Thanks for allowing me to share beautiful Eureka Point, California with you.
Betty Ann Harris

Eureka Point, A romantic suspense

e-book now available at Red Rose Publishing:

http://www.redrosepublishing.com

Murder at Work by Yvonne Eve Walus

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?

Hi, my name is Yvonne Eve Walus and I lived in South Africa for 16 years. "Murder @ Work" (Echelon Press, 2004) and "Murder @ Play" (Echelon Press, 2009) are set in South Africa of the 1990s. The nineties were a fascinating time in South African history: new thinking challenging old beliefs, the media slowly hinting at the possibility of equality for all people, hope and goodwill rising despite the escalating violence. The whites still had a cushy lifestyle: secure jobs for the men, large mansions with swimming pools for the women (many women chose to stay at home and look after the family with the help of their domestic servants). The non-whites still vacuumed the thick carpets and polished the silver BMWs at work, then went home to mud shacks. But the changes - the changes were already afoot....

What does the setting add to the story?

I see South Africa as a character in my books: the reader gets to know it and to watch it change during the course of the story. The South African setting shapes the characters too: because they were born and brought up there, in that particular cocktail of white wealth and Calvinist code of right and wrong, they can't help acting in a certain way. Most South Africans of the 1990s would sex outside of marriage as something undesirable. Most men (and a lot more women that I'd care to admit) would see a thinking independent woman as a threat to their way of life. All that makes for quite unique murder motives, motives that are uniquely South African. And then you have the means: in the 1990s, everybody was familiar with guns and knew how to use them - most people owned at least one.

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?

The year is 1990.

• When you go to a doctor or dentist, don't take your wallet. The bill will be sent to your home address... but if you're a woman, the bill will be addressed to your father or your husband. Women don't trouble their pretty little heads with bills.
• If you're a woman, expect to be stopped at the door to an alcohol bar: that place is for men only, and your husband is welcome to go in while you wait for him in the street.
• Even if you are a career woman earning more than your husband does, you will need his signature when opening a credit account in a supermarket or a department store.
• If you're a man, the size of your manhood is directly proportional to the size of your gun.
• Gambling is illegal.
• Sex with a person of another race has only just been made legal. The Group Areas Act, however, is still in force, preventing people of different races from living in the same suburb.
• Your car costs half as much as your mansion.
• This year, you will pay more for a security fence than you pay for your daily house cleaning.
  

Please provide your website link.

http://yewalus.kiwiwebhost.net.nz/

What is the link to buy your book?

"Murder @ Work": http://www.amazon.com/Murder-work-Yvonne-Eve-Walus/dp/1590803256

Sinbad's Last Voyage

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...

I definitely do not live in any of the places described in my book! If I did, I wouldn't have time to write about them! I wanted it set partly on Earth and partly on other planets so contrasts could be shown, as seen through Andi's eyes.

Why you chose that particular setting?

It's a couple of centuries in the future so technology would be advanced enough to allow for planet travel, also also for crime to have followed explorers into outer space.

What does the setting add to the story?

Sinbad lives in Old Town in the Thieves Quarter. By unwritten law, the Federation stays out of Old Town because they have no jurisdiction there. When my hero and heroine have to leave, they leave the planet because Andi's likeness has been posted on every continent on Earth. There are loudspeakers on the highways blasting out her description as she speeds away from a pursuing Federation Marshal's Drone.

Could you write the same story in a different setting?

I imagine the basic story--man wrongly arrested, escaping from jail, wife and hunter searching for him while unconsciously falling in love with each other--could be set anywhere.

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

Because I have an SF frame of mind and I saw this as a futuristic story and never anything else.

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

None whatsoever.

Or, did you create the setting from scratch?

I'm certain there were unconscious influences somewhere along the line, but as far as I know, everything--from the Thieves Quarter in Old Town to Antilla City with its five miles of shopping malls to the jungle planet of Albegensia--was made up out of whole cloth, in my imagination.

Please provide your website link.

www.tonivsweeney.com

What is the link to buy your book?

www.lulu.com; www.doubledragonbooks.com.

Tell us some specific details about your setting.

On Earth, the people are still much the same, struggling to get along. There's so much pollution now, however, that one group has retreated into an area inland where they've established a cult, the Naturals, growing their own food, making their own clothes, using herbs to cure their ills. They don't use anything that wasn't used by their ancestors in the mid-twentieth century and this, along with their doctrine of "Everyone is created equal," they've been placed on the Federation's Suspects List. Because they also provide the country with two-thirds of its flood supply, they are soon taken off the List, however. They also don't believe in space travel or even air flight and when Sinbad takes Andi up in th mariner, it's the first time she's ever been off the planet and she's terrified. Prisoners are kept in Penal colonies on asteroids and political prisoners are sent to the Toxic Zone, the area which used to be Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, and Missouri and was later turned into a gigantic asbestos disposal area, and then into a prison. Sinbad has the dubious distinction of being the only man ever to escape from the Toxic Zone.

What would we see? What sort of people are there?

Besides the Naturals, there are the city dwellers, and the Federation people--both of whom are much more affluent--and the prisoners in the Toxic Zone. Earth hasn't become a very nice place to live if you're "different." It's become a holier-than-thou place, where to be considered "human" or Terran, is to be desired. Conquered people are considered "animals" until they've been admitted into the Federation, and accepted the Faith of Earth. The first thing done to a conquered planet is to send in soldiers and missionaries. The farther from Earth one gets, the freer and more friendlier the planets are.

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?

On Earth, you'd better bring a pollution mask and your ID card and don't talk back to anyone wearing a uniform with the Federation "Stars and Planets" on the sleeve! You don't want to go to Felida. They don't like humans!

Thank you for sharing details about your book setting. Now, what's the title of your book and where can we buy it?

Sinbad's Last Voyage, (Book One in the Adventures of Sinbad) available from www.lulu.com or www.doubledragonbooks.com

Spring House by David Bowles

Title: Spring House, Book 1 in the Westward Sagas

Author: David Bowles

Web site: http://www.westwardsagas.com

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? My novel is based on my family history, and the book is set in the time and place my ancestors, who are the main characters, lived.

What does the setting add to the story? Setting is crucial to the story--the family farm was turned into a battlefield in the Revolutionary War. My main character fought in that battle while his mother, wife, and children hid in the nearby spring house.

Could you write the same story in a different setting? No

Why or why couldn't you use a different setting? The story is historically accurate, and the history happened in that setting, and much of the action revolved around the setting.

Did you use a real place as a basis for your setting? Yes, the story is set in Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina, which was important in the American Revolution.

Or, did you create the setting from scratch? No

Is there anything else about your setting that we need to know? Feel free to share. The Battle of Guilford Courthouse was a pivotal battle in the American Revolution, though it is not as well known as some other battles. The book was released at the 225^th Observance of the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, and I participated in the observance at the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, which includes land that had been my ancestors' cornfield before the battle was fought on it.

Please provide your website link. http://www.westwardsagas.com

What is the link to buy your book? http://www.westwardsagas.com/order.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? The setting is a North Carolina farm during the Revolutionary War. The people who lived there were hard-working Scots-Irish Presbyterians. If you were traveling to the setting at the time of my story, you would travel over rough roads in a Conestoga wagon, carrying your Dutch oven and food to cook over the open fire as you traveled. Visitors would need to know that they might encounter fighting between the British and Continental Army. They might want to hide in the spring house with Margaret Mitchell, her daughter-in-law Elizabeth, and her grandchildren. However, the crude little shed designed to keep dairy products cool was already overflowing with people.

Thank you for sharing details about your book setting. Now, what's the title of your book and where can we buy it? Spring House, Book 1 of the Westward Sagas is available at http://www.westwardsagas.com/order.html as well as Amazon.com and bookstores.

Cynthia's Attic Series

This description takes in the whole series (3 books): Cynthia's Attic: The Missing Locket, The Magic Medallion, and Curse of the Bayou. Since it's a continuing series, I thought we could talk about the setting for the entire series.

Why you chose that particular setting?

I chose Southern Indiana because that's where Cynthia's attic was located. The dream takes place in a mysterious attic. At times the attic is exciting and mysterious, but many times it is dark and foreboding. I'd just finished telling my best friend about the recurring dream I'd had for almost 20 years, when I had a "light-bulb" moment. It occurred to me that the dream took place in the attic of my childhood friend, Cynthia. We used to play in her attic all the time. When I realized that it was the place of my dreams, the dreams stopped and the writing began.

What does the setting add to the story?

I've always been told, "Write what you know." I had so many pictures of my hometown, Corydon, Indiana, in the early 1900s that I knew exactly how it looked, how the people dressed, and what the downtown looked like. I believe this adds a certain realism that I might not be able to achieve, otherwise.

Could you write the same story in a different setting?

The main characters, Cynthia and Gus, travel to many locations. Since they have a "time-traveling trunk," they're able to visit many locations, including an early 1900s cruise ship, a cottage in France, a Louisiana bayou, and New Orleans.

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

The stories are loosely based on stories from my childhood. To make the adventures realistic, I wanted to begin the books in Southern Indiana.

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

Yes. My hometown.

Is there anything else about your setting that we need to know? Feel free to share.

The Cynthia's Attic adventures cover a 120-year span; from 1964-1844. Most of the action takes place in 1914 where Cynthia and Gus first meet their 12-year-old grandmothers! Life in the early 1900s was quite different from life in the 1960s. Although the books are categorized as fantasy/fiction, I like to describe them as historical fiction with fantastical elements. The books give the reader a sense of history without bogging them down in facts.

Please provide your website link.

http://www.marycunninghambooks.com

What is the link to buy your book(s)?

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b/103-7177880-8331022

Tell us some specific details about your setting.

What would we see?

A small town, dirt streets with large sycamore trees looming over the streets. The center of town is the courthouse square. A split rail fence surrounds a small stone building, the first state capitol of Indiana. The bandstand is also in the town square, and many Friday nights are spent listening to the town band and attending an "ice cream social."

What sort of people are there?

1914: Settlers, Corydon natives who are third generation. Bankers, farmers, blacksmiths, business owners, mothers, fathers, and children running down the streets, gathered on the sidewalk playing marbles, or getting a frosted malt at Rosenbarger's Ice Cream Emporium.

If we were traveling to your setting, what should we bring with us?

Only your imagination. As Cynthia and Gus travel through time with only the clothes on their back and some necessary clues on their destination, they don't need money or food, although Gus has been known to stuff a hunk of lunch meat in her pocket.

For visitors, what do they need to know to visit your setting?

Visitors would need to blend in with the times. They'd need to know that help and information was readily available. All they'd need to do is ask the right person. And, don't expect to find the Internet, cell phones, television, or even indoor "facilities!"

Thank you for sharing details about your book setting. Now, what's the title of your book and where can we buy it?

Cynthia's Attic: The Missing Locket

Cynthia's Attic: The Magic Medallion

Cynthia's Attic: Curse of the Bayou

Amazon buy link for all three books:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b/103-7177880-8331022

Cover of the Year - Asking for Your Vote

I just scanned the covers for Cover of the Year on Erin Aislinn's website and saw a lot of familiar covers - many were on my Judge A Book By its Cover blog last year :)

I invite you to visit http://www.erinaislinn.com/BookCoveroftheYear2007.htm and I hope that you will vote for Lady Lightkeeper which is one of my covers and it is listed as the winning cover for September.

If you prefer the easier route - feel free to email webmail@erinaislinn .com and put "VOTE for Lady Lightkeeper" in the subject line. I appreciate every vote :)

Nikki


Book Promo 101 - NOW AVAILABLE
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"Coastal Suspense with a Touch of Romance"
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Nimrod Rising - A Novel By Steven Clark Bradley

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... - Because Nimrod Rising is a vast story of International significance, my setting is really two/fold. I like to think that I have spent a large portion of my life in the cradle of civilization. The main setting of Nimrod Rising is really, Israel. Though it takes a bit of time before the book finally settles in that small but significant country, there is a real sense throughout the book that the story is heading that way. In a real sense, Israel is the spiritual center of the world. For Muslims, there really is no breakdown of society vs. religion. The religion of Islam encompasses every part of life. Sense I have worked with Muslims for over twenty years, I could see the radicalization of the religion long before Osama Bin Laden came on the scene. Most of the first section was written before 9-11. I have never claimed to be a prophet, and actually the need of such foretellers was never necessary. The changes taking place around the world were easy for me to see having lived there for so long. With the changes hitting America spiritually and socially and with the radicals in Islam beginning to strike us because of our support of the State of Israel, it was natural that the end game scenario should take place in the nation. The Israel is a tiny nation; its impact due to its very existence keeps lights burning in the great capitals of the world.

The other major setting is right inside the United States. We picture a nation and a world that has been devastated by terror and a nation that had lost its ability and will to defeat it. America is dissolving and the social attacks slapping the nation against the family, marriage, children and the elimination of civil rights required to fight the terror has left the nation devastated. The two settings converge into a massive wild ride that, of course you'll have to read the book to discover.

What does the setting add to the story? - I spent two years in the country of Pakistan and Bangladesh. That was an eye opener and it gave me a real feel for the culture, the lives and even the various smells of the Middle East. I also spent almost three years in Senegal West Africa where I lived amongst the people and grew to understand the impact of Islam on the lives of its adherents. Even in France, where I lived for over six years, I worked almost exclusively with the Muslim population. Later I went to Turkey and worked there for four years and traveled to Iraq and Israel and truly got a feel for Muslim society. By painting my story with words from my Middle Eastern experience, I was able to create a very true-to-life experience for the reader. Of course, the story itself only lent itself to the Middle Eastern setting.

Did you use a real place as a basis for your setting? - In the case of Nimrod Rising, it was easy to find the place of my story. Though Nimrod Rising is a work of fiction, it is based on historical fact and the events that form the story took place or will take place in the lands I describe. Also, Nimrod Rising spans several countries and they are all key locations. In some ways that made it easier, but in other ways it demanded very precise descriptions. I was helped a lot in that I had spend considerable amounts of time in each location, which helped me in the various cultural, political and layout of the land aspects of Nimrod Rising.

Could you write the same story in a different setting? - From the historical aspect and the biblical and extra-biblical material, Nimrod Rising could only have been written in the areas I used in the book.

Did you use a real place as a basis for your setting? - Yes, especially in the battle scenes of Megiddo and Pakistan and Israel. They are as real as they can get.

Is there anything else about your setting that we need to know? - I really want the readers to know that this is not a scary book as much as it is truly a book of hope and faith and a means of making sense out of a rising chaos throughout the world. There is a lot to be learned in Nimrod Rising. I know that those who read it and feel the power of the story will feel they will have had time well spent.

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