tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post292867048144295855..comments2024-03-25T09:56:16.164+00:00Comments on An Awfully Big Blog Adventure: Writing and Place: How Santa Barbara Sunshine Led To a Tale of Wolves and Snowy Woods – by Emma BarnesUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-26849807226215616652014-06-01T17:22:06.449+01:002014-06-01T17:22:06.449+01:00Hi Eloise - I just saw your comment. An interesti...Hi Eloise - I just saw your comment. An interesting example of contrast in place you live and place written about - I hope your daydreams will keep feeding your writing.Emma Barneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02718171070716804800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-76189043279648463442014-05-25T02:28:34.129+01:002014-05-25T02:28:34.129+01:00Bit late to be commenting on this, but it was food...Bit late to be commenting on this, but it was food for thought for me. I think I'm quite similar, in that I've been living in some years in Mexico, and that has certainly sharpened and deepened my appreciation/love/nostalgia/etc for Britain. The book I'm writing (or attempting to write) is set in a parallel Victorian London, and lots of the other stories I dream about are very English in their settings. I think I daydream about all that I miss in order to escape to it. But on the other hand, there are some daydream-stories that are very much rooted in particular places I've visited here - like the old house that was so obviously the home of a rather sinister magician. So I think there are two potential and opposing processes... and too many different stories flitting about in my brain!Eloisenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-27063259993786155142014-05-17T09:43:19.625+01:002014-05-17T09:43:19.625+01:00Thanks very much for those examples, Maya. When I...Thanks very much for those examples, Maya. When I was first thinking about this post, I thought of other examples besides Susan Cooper, but by the time I came to write it I'd forgotten them!Emma Barneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02718171070716804800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-3816913372045820112014-05-17T08:06:24.571+01:002014-05-17T08:06:24.571+01:00Santa Barbara sounds such a wonderful place to be,...Santa Barbara sounds such a wonderful place to be, Emma, and that Conference is such a renowned event. Wow! Maybe not just "homesickness" but also that when the writer is free of the real-world frets of a familiar place they can them emotionally afford to use it as a setting? Lovely post and photo. Penny Dolanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16386668303428008498noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-87619945353670861232014-05-17T07:53:50.785+01:002014-05-17T07:53:50.785+01:00Very interesting point. Perhaps a lot of writing i...Very interesting point. Perhaps a lot of writing is about trying to recapture something that's lost - a time, a place, a person.Sue Purkisshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09084528571944803477noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-81581745483575406642014-05-17T07:45:26.372+01:002014-05-17T07:45:26.372+01:00"But I wonder how often writers are inspired ..."But I wonder how often writers are inspired to write about a setting precisely because it isn’t there?"<br /><br />I was actually thinking about this a couple of weeks ago, after I realised that two books which are (to me, at least) very atmospheric and evocative of England were written while their authors were abroad: I Capture the Castle when Dodie Smith was living in America, and Rebecca when Daphne du Maurier was in Egypt.<br />Maybe it's just a coincedence, or maybe that's the secret to writing an evocative novel - move away from the place in which it's set!<br />mayahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13325673973210555338noreply@blogger.com