Welcome to another week, on the Romance Writers Weekly blog hop! Today's prompt is: "The setting of a romance novel can be vital to the story. Where do you set your books and why?
BUT FIRST: TL/DR. The time and place where (when) a story is set really colors the story itself. So setting is super important, IMO. I look for settings that have an emotional resonance for me--places I've loved or lived in because, ideally, I want a setting that can almost function as a character on its own.
Oberon, California. This is the setting for the series I'll be re-releasing starting this year. The setting was super important combining everything I love/loved about California. It's really a love letter to the place that will always be home to me.
LA Love Lessons--ditto.
Angels in the Afterlife. The books are mostly set in limbo--except for Christmas Angel which releases next week!!! That's set mostly in my new home state of Texas. And partially in NYC--which was also home for awhile. It's a very nostalgic book for me in a lot of ways. And super Hallmark-Christmas-Channel-esque since it features one hero who's all about the small-town life (he runs his family's Christmas Tree Farm) and a second hero who's a NYC Financial Planner.
Celtic Legends. This is set in 19th century Ireland, which is where/when my maternal grandparents were born and raised. Again, I felt a lot of nostalgia writing these even though I'm sure my grandparents would be appalled to learn that they were the inspiration for an erotic romance series. Or maybe they wouldn't. Who knows?
Children of Night. I was living in the San Francisco Bay Area when I started writing this series, so of course I had to set it there! Also the first book was set partially in 1969--so where else would my hippie chick MFC have been?
Inked in Oaktown, Love Among the Runes, Finders Keepers. Same as Children of Night. I was living in the Bay area, when I started writing these, so even though I made up (or seriously modified) a lot of the locations they were all grounded in the world I knew best at the time.
Sierra Shifters. Well, the name says it all. This is a spin off of Children of Night. I needed a forested location within a few hours drive of San Francisco where werewolves could roam unmolested. Where else could I have set it?
Games We Play/Atlas Beach NJ. For the first twenty years of my life I lived in New Jersey. It was fun to go home again, if only virtually. But how it came about was that I signed up to take part in the Sandwich Shop book series and needed to pick a classic sandwich. If you've never been to New Jersey, you might not know about the Pork Roll/Taylor Ham controversy. North and South can't agree on what to call it, but everyone agrees that it's the best sandwich ever--even my niece, who's never actually lived there.
Winter Hearts. I love Alternative History, and I love Christmas season in New Mexico, AND I knew I wanted one of the characters to have been born and raised Quaker. So splitting the story between Pennsylvania and Santa Fe was just so obvious.
Now, hop on over to Leslie Hachtel's page to learn where she sets her books. And don't forget to check out her book The Dream Dancer.
Lady Bryce has a gift.
She can enter dreams and persuade her will onto others.
It has served her well, especially in eliminating unsatisfactory suitors of her father's choosing.
But when she encounters Lord Rowland she wants him more than any-thing and decides to visit him in his sleep and make him desire her above all others.
As a virgin, she has discovered a diary from a leman who describes seduction in detail.
When she has driven Rowland to the edge of longing, she extracts a promise that he will marry her.
As time passes, Bryce and Rowland fall in love.
But will their love be able to conquer all once Bryce’s secret is revealed? Then Rowland must decide if he truly loves her or has been bewitched.
A Fallen Angels Paranormal Romance Collection
A Fallen Angels Paranormal Romance Collection
Perfection is impossible, even for this collection of angels.
Once esteemed immortals find themselves banished from the heavenly realm and condemned to a life on Earth amongst the mortals, unless they find a way back through the veil. Before they can find redemption they must first learn how to navigate their new life.
Will they find a new appreciation for humanity and choose this life over the one they were created for?
Grab this limited edition collection now before it disappears beyond the veil.
