I’m a gal for all seasons. Couldn’t, wouldn’t live in a clime where I didn’t get a definitive winter-spring-summer-fall. Of course, global warming may change that. Autumn, a.k.a. fall, is the season that gets me fired up. It is the “bad boy” of seasons. And, I do love those bad boys — at least the fictional ones.

It’s that too short period of time between the September equinox and the December solstice. For me, it’s that time of rich texture and glorious color. Everything is ripe and full and lush, much like a woman in her prime. The sky is blue and clogged with billowy white clouds that are constantly on the move. Impatient. Going somewhere. There’s a nip in the air. It’s the IMAX® of seasons, man! It’s a season gone wild.

This is when I begin to think about setting as character. It’s a living, breathing thing for me. Like autumn, it gets me all fired up! If I’m reading a story and the setting isn’t rich in texture and glorious in color — and by that I mean full-term, ready-to-pop — then the story isn’t working for me. I’m not necessarily talking about an abundance of detail here. I’m talking about setting, as a character, finely honed. It’s something I strive for in each and every story to bring that story alive to you, the reader.

In a workshop on setting, JoAnn Ross once said, “Whenever we write a book that makes readers believe that the story could not have happened to any other two people, at any other place in time, but also makes them feel as if they’ve been transported to the location of our story, then we’ve done our job.”

I believe this to be true.

Elen