Can I set an interesting novel where I live?

[Eve]

I live in a small town in a remote part of West Wales UK, where sheep greatly out number the human inhabitants. There are remote farms in the hills, and a near by village is describes as 'Deliverance' without the banjos. I'd rather write about Louisiana but as I've never been there, probably not a good idea. I just love James Lee Burke and Tammy Hoag. Could a novel set here interest readers. I love novels with a strong sense of place.

[Dana King]

I htink a sense of place will be far easier to create if it's a place you're familiar with. That's not to say it has to be an exact replica of your little town, but the location will be strongly influenced by your experience. Any place can have a mysterious element: old secrets, family fueds, outsiders, the possibilities are great anywhere. The things that motiviate people to do wrong don't change that much from place to place.

Now, could you set a story in Louisiana? Sure, and you might be able to pull it off. Remember, though, JLB lives there, he'll include little things between the lines you can't hope to get. You may be able to learn a little about how to use your town from reading how he gets the most out of New Iberia Parish, though.

Good luck.

[Eve]

Thanks, sounds like good advice to me.

[Eve]

Family feuds are something the Welsh around here excel at, they last generations.

[Jon Loomis]

Dana's got it right, I think--you could set a novel anywhere, and sometimes it matters to agents editors; an exotic setting helps to sell books, they tell us. But in the U.S. market, a little town in Wales would seem pretty exotic--the trick would be in getting plenty of local color/flavor into the book, so we foreigners can really experience it. That's what's great about Burke et al--they make you love their settings as much as their characters. The Scandinavian mystery writers do a great job of turning bleak, dark, cold, thinly inhabited places into settings for crime novels--maybe check out a few of them.

[Eve]

I must say the replies are making me reassess where I love.

[Jeff Ross]

Yes. Because where you are you know better than anywhere.

[Pepper Smith]

Rhys Bowen has a series she'd set in Wales. Don't see why you can't write an interesting story set there as well.

[Eve]

I'm looking up Rhys Bowen on Amazon.

[Mary Dee]

I live in in the Mojave Desert, in southern Nevada, very near Death Valley in the USA, and I worry about rattlesnakes nesting on the property. A neighbor was bitten and now has a maimed hand, and someone else had a finger amputated because of a spider bite. I must guard the dog from coyotes. I get mail service only on those days that something is delivered because my mailbox is not the sort described in the code and rural delivery is privately contracted. It is legal to wear a gun into the grocery store and a few do.

I suspect that these details might be unusual for someone in Wales.

Too me it is the same old thing and Wales is exotic and fascinating and totally interesting.

[Eve]

Wow!
I suppose anywhere not home seems exotic...but crumbs...your reply alone is half way to a novel. What a wild place to live.
Where I live the lanes and back roads seem to go no where, and it is usually raining or misty. We are not far from the Brecon Beacons national park an area of wild hills. No coyotes but there are occasional sightings of a big cat, it was considered a myth, but it has been proved now that some sort of large cat is breeding in Wales. A place can be only a few miles from town yet be totally isolated. Though people don't carry guns, most of the farm houses have several shot guns, often just laying around. The history and the Welsh Language, the oldest still spoken langauge in Europe, make Wales very different from England.
I'm just reading a book about Witchcraft in Wales, at one time every village had it's witch or cunning man. Maybe I should appricate what I have.

[Sylvia Dickey Smith]

SURE you can! I did just that. My Sidra Smart mysteries are set in Orange, Texas, as Cajun and Creole as Louisiana since it sits just across the river from Lake Charles. I have found marvelous support for the books. Sold 150 books in one weekend there. I find that many people are attracted to down to earth, solid people, many who are real characters--emphasis on the last word! It is surprising how much fun readers have when they read a book set outside the typical big cities like London, or Houston, New York, San Francisco. Go for it! If you have any questions, email me and I might can direct you toward resources. Like you, I love a strong sense of place, and that can sometimes be difficult to define. Which is why I chose Orange, Texas--it has its own personality--not duplicated anywhere else.

[Eve]

Thanks I might take you up on that. I think I might be able to set something here after all.