What I learn from that (if anything) might affect how I write my next book, or the one after that. Once my book is out there in the world, readers can take what they want from it (if anything). To me, writers and readers are two sides of the same coin – though the coin can look very different when you consider one side and then the other! That’s as it should be, of course. I do listen to feedback and read (some, not all) reviews, because I like to consider responses to my writing, and think about what to take on board. Genre brings expectations with it, and I don’t want to disappoint readers or waste their time with stories they never wanted in the first place. I am careful to label the results as well as I can with regard to genre. I write what I want to write, pretty much, and if it doesn’t sell then it doesn’t sell. I’ve come to realize in my… comparatively “mature” years that I’m more hardnosed about this than I thought.
Of course now I am just itching for the pandemic to be over so that I can visit Arizona! If you had a grant to write any book you wanted as a freebie without worrying about sales, what kind of story would you like to tell?
I loved it! And I hope that local readers feel I got it mostly right. The uneven sidewalks, the above-ground cemeteries, the murder count on the front page of a newspaper, a certain hole-in-the-wall place that sold local and international newspapers… All kinds of little details found their way into those final chapters, some of which I was writing while I was there. What a privilege it was! All had their effect on the novel, but New Orleans was the most vivid to visit and to write. New Orleans New York City, and Brooklyn in particular for Albert’s childhood home Denver, with trips up into the Rockies Washington DC, and Arlington and Seattle. To breathe the air and walk the streets and get a feel for the people and culture was well worth the effort. Back in those pre-internet days I relied more on Lonely Planet guides than Google Maps. It still might not read as a local would have written it, but at least it’s not all down to my imagination. It always boosts my writerly confidence to be able to get my feet on the ground, as it were. B, and we stayed in some of those places. While I was writing it, I was lucky enough to take my first overseas trip with Mr. Sterne, is set in a number of locations across the United States. Have you ever taken a trip to research a story? Tell me about it.
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