Writing Your Life…

Over at Jamieford.com (linked below) there’s a discussion about where you live and how that might influence the settings in your books. 

For me it’s obvious.  I set all my books in places where I’ve lived.  But as I thought about it more, I realized there are more subtle things from my life I’ve included in my writing without even realizing it.

For instance, in the book I just revised, one of the male characters lives in an awesome Cape Cod in Maryland.  The foyer I gave him, is actually the foyer in my house.  Though his foyer is bigger and not cluttered with the remnants of kid-life.

Apparently I think a lot of my foyer, because the way I wrote it, was clearly slanted toward fabulous.  It’s really ordinary and as anyone knows, its beauty depends on who is looking at it. 

Writing fiction is tricky for that reason.  If you care what people think, anyway. 

A women’s book club in Oakmont read one of my novels a few months ago.  The other day I was shopping with the kids and ran into one of the women and she exclaimed “Oh, I thought you had two boys!”

She had decided the character in the book who had two boys, was actually me.  Well, no.  Not the case. 

I’ll be sure to tell her the foyer in the most recent book is without a doubt, mine.