Location, Location, Location

I'm starting a new proposal and sliding into the location of the stories. I have to be comfortable within the fictional location. Apparently, so do readers.

On this note, a reader has just written me that she likes my mountain stories.

I like them, too. I can fit myself into a mountain story or one by the ocean. I cannot easily fit myself into a large city, but prefer small towns and the secrets they hold.

Another writer and myself spoke about U.S. locations and the frequency of oceanside series. They do well, there is no mistaking that.

Yet another writer and several opinions are that writing a story set in the Midwest is a difficult sell. That would be Missouri or Arkansas.

Now moving southward, you're into New Orleans ambiance, or Texas.

But books set on oceansides seem to do well, absorbed more easily, or are the readers just more receptive to oceans? I wrote several stories set on Lake Michigan and loved my visit there, a hotel room overlooking a harbor. How great was that!

Deserts do not appeal to me. Mountains, large lakes, and oceans do. The question is why?