
Catnapped and Doggone
Is there any setting that I really want to write about but haven’t? I can’t believe I’m about to paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld (please do not tell my mother) but there are known unknowns and unknown unknowns and setting is the unique opportunity to explore both. Let’s start with the know unknowns and the settings I would like to write about.

Now, Savannah is my known unknown. I’ve been there a couple of times. I can imagine myself taking a small cottage for a couple of months and writing while I watch real Savannites meld into unforgettable characters. I can feel the moist touch of the still air on my face and taste the grits which would feed my body as my new stories feed my soul. It’s a setting both tangible and as yet unknown, secret and alluring.

The Hague is my unknown unknown both because I’ve never been there and because so much is alien about it. Different language, culture, world view. It is my challenge setting. For me, it’s like the new planet populated by new species envisioned by George Lucas or Frank Herbert’s post-apocalyptic time jump in Dune. I may not know what’s there. I may not even know “there” is there but what a place to ponder.
No one asked me, but I might also want to add I’ve got a healthy list of settings in which I’d like to write. Most of them are warm and sunny, with fruity drinks, endless ideas and good friends to share them with but I can’t really write about them. James Hilton already did it in Lost Horizons. But that doesn’t mean I couldn’t visit.
Thanks for reading.