Blogger: Wendy Lawton
What do Amish fiction, Gilmore Girls, and Mitford have in common? The creators of all of these have tapped into our longing for a sense of belonging.
I spent last several days in Dallas at the American Christian Fiction Writers Conference. It’s always an exhilarating opportunity to connect with novelists and aspiring fiction writers along with editors, agents and other publishing professionals. There’s a real sense of belonging. A community of like-minded people who care about each other.
At the same time, I was reading Virginia Smith‘s new Tales from the Goose Creek B & B series. In minutes stolen mostly from sleep, I read the introductory novella, Dr. Horatio vs. the Six-Toed Cat and the full length The Most Famous Illegal Goose Creek Parade. I loved them! Two delightful reads and I’m a huge fan of this series and already long to move to the fictional Goose Creek, Kentucky. Yep. I’m a Creeker.
I’ve talked before about my enthusiasm for Louise Penny‘s Chief Inspector Gamache series set in the fictional Quebec town of Three Pines. As I’ve talked with other ardent Penny fans we all agree we want to meet at The Bistro someday. The village of Three Pines is more real to us than many of the brick and mortar towns surrounding us.
It’s the same with Amish or Amish-like series. I’ve actually visited the Kentucky Shaker community Ann H. Gabhart used as the setting for her Shaker village of Harmony Hill. Her new Hidden Springs murder mystery series offers the same sense of place. Ann understands the importance of a sense of belonging. She lives on an idyllic farm a mile from where she was born. She worships at a small country church just a short drive through winding country roads. Sigh!
Judith Miller has written two series about the seven Amana Colonies— High Amana, East Amana, Middle Amana, West Amana and the others. Each settlement is a community built around the concept of hard work, caring for one another, keeping the old ways and serving God. The one thing all six books have in common is that deep sense of belonging.
The same dynamic is the reason I love Alexander McCall Smith’s #1 Ladies Detective Agency. Precious Ramotswe, a “traditionally built” African woman starts her detective agency in the small village of Gabarone in Botswana. Her innocent wisdom and love for Botswana invites us into a community that somehow becomes our own. A sense of belonging to Botswana.
Think of the other ones we love— Lauraine Snelling‘s Blessing, Betsy & Tacy‘s Deep Valley, and on and on.
When I’m in need of regrouping or mindless refreshment I shamelessly binge-watch television episodes of Gilmore Girls— set in the town of Stars Hollow. Almost all the characters and settings are centered around the grassy town square. The townspeople walk to Luke’s Diner, to Doose’s Market or gather at Miss Patty’s. The setting becomes another character in itself. A sense of belonging. People leave and drift back throughout the series. I also binge watch British series, like Cranford and Lark Rise to Candleford, for that same sense of belonging.
And Garrison Keillor. I’ve long claimed Lake Woebegone as my true hometown.
- Wendy (middle) with sister, Linda, & brother, Jimmy, on the steps of the Folsom Street apartment house.
Funny isn’t it? Do you know where I really grew up? In the Mission District of San Francisco. We lived on the second floor of a four-apartment building on Folsom Street. We owned a car but it was housed in a rented garage several blocks away. The lot our building was on was very deep. Behind our building was an unlikely treasure— an English garden. The the garden paths were lined with abalone shells and it was fenced with Victorian iron railings. An old wisteria grew up the high rickety back stairs to our apartment. The garden gate was always locked but our landlady, Mrs. Miller, an English war bride, would open the gate to us while she gardened. It was there I learned about flowers– scotch broom, nasturtiums, irises and old English roses. The Mission was not a prestigious address. Not then. Not now. The lot next to us was a burnt out foundation– a pit that made the perfect playground for a pack of kids. Best of all, a billboard had been erected in the front of the empty lot. The billboard supports became the frame on which we built a platform–a clubhouse– with found boards and bent nails. Our own urban treehouse. A sense of belonging in a noisy neighborhood.
At ACFW, our talks with editors often turned to “What’s next?” Why do readers still crave Amish? What is it that makes these books so perennially popular? It is that sense of belonging. C. S. Lewis named that deep need for place Sehnsucht— a German word he translated as an “inconsolable longing.” Lewis had it for all things “Northern.” He came to recognize it as an earthly expression of our longing for heaven.
So there you have it. That sense of belonging partly satisfies our sehnsucht— our inconsolable longing for our ultimate home. As novelists we simply call it the setting, but it is more. So much more.
What about you? What literary settings give you that sense of belonging? Do you see how powerful setting can be and how much readers long for a sense of place?
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~ Wendy, I don’t know about Gilmore, not something I ever watched much, but Lauren Graham, well that’s different. Anyway, to my mind, a need greater than food, sleep, sex, power … you name it, a need so captured by God’s design of the church, yet so tragically overlooked in the clergy-laity trend of historic church life, is to satisfy the need to be needed.
~ Inclusion and a sense of being a real stakeholder in church, business and the home, is an incredible motivator, the key to personal growth, the single greatest way to turn critics into advocates, a powerful unifier, and the true secret to church growth.
~ The contemporary church thinks entertainment suffices, which overlooks the far, far greater need for integration into an inclusive kingdom.
~ Feminism may well have missed that real men never wanted to be lords over their homes, they just wanted to feel as valued and included in their families as moms more naturally are. Yet I have counselled so many who could not see that point and so ended up being miserable for all the wrong reasons. It may be the real key to infidelity.
~ That said, one of the keys to my marriage has been reciprocal acceptance and valued inclusion of my wife and children – that, more than anything else, freed us of rebellion and disharmony.
~ So, if our writing also aspires to inclusion, rather than arms-length entertainment and lack of touch, well, guess where that will lead.
~ Thanks for another challenging topic.
*Oh Peter, thank you for your deep insight about the church and belonging. Just a few moments ago, I was praying for our congregation–which is in better shape than ever in our tenure here, but still lacking something. You nailed what is missing. We have some old-timers and some new-comers (to Christ and to the church). They “belong” to their separate cliques more than to the whole. Henceforth, I shall pray for a spirit of inclusion.
*Entertainment does not suffice. Entertainment results in faith that is a mile wide and an inch deep. The Church worked diligently to make sure our kids were never bored, teaching them that faith was fun. They grew up ill-equipped to face the storms of life.
*Do you see a parallel between people who change churches when there is a better show somewhere else and those who change spouses thinking someone else will make them happier?
*Amazing how Books & Such inspires deep thought so early in the morning! Bless you all.
The parallel is so composing Dear Shirlee, that Paul uses marriage as a model for the mystery of the church. “Spiritual infidelity” is bound to happen when we are reduced to observer status.
should be ‘so compelling’
Interesting, Peter. I should have thought about the church as the ultimate place of belonging.
And you had some excellent observations about family. A friend of mine, Jeff Stewart, said it so well– “Family is loving each other at the top of our lungs.”
Wendy, you are so right about place mattering in the stories we write and read. Jan Karon made us feel we were visiting family and friends in her Mitford books. Garrison Keeler welcomes us there in Lake Woebegone to see what the neighbors are up to. And they somehow make us feel, not like outsiders, but as though we belong. Ginny brought Goose Creek people to life so we can “watch” their happenings with a smile. I want to do the same with my books — invite readers into my fictional towns and places. I want my characters to crawl up into the readers’ hearts and find a home while they are reading my stories and strolling through my fictional places.
I’m not sure idyllic is how I’d describe our farm. We have plenty of thistles and weeds, but I am thankful and feel blessed to have roots in this place.
And, Ann, you do exactly that. Your Christmas book a couple of years back, Christmas at Harmony Hill, framed my whole season.
Roots. That’s what we long for.
Hi Wendy,
I live in Wilmore, KY which is not far from Shakertown. We have an IGA, Subway, and Chinese restaurant and a dollar store. We are small town America, and I love it. When my dog behaves, I get to visit with friends and neighbors on our evening walks. You can’t run out for a gallon of milk without seeing somebody you know. And when the grocery store had trouble competing with WalMart in the next town, a man started a campaign challenging us to buy food for at least two meals a week from Leonard at IGA. Wilmore is definitely a town to live in if you want a sense of belonging.
Thanks for sharing this need in our fiction!
Sounds not unlike the town I live in. Although we did recently get a Taco Bell as well as a Subway. Progress.
I’ve got a sense of belonging. Right here. On days when I literally can’t do anything else, this is one place I will be, this community.
* I can’t really say that I have much of a sense of longing; perhaps it’s from years spent in Zen practice, or the relatively early realization that you shouldn’t get too close to people because they might get killed, but I do pretty well at being at home where I am, and ‘when’ I am.
* I do understand ‘longing for belonging’; I do understand the power of an attractive setting. They are, however, something of a temptation, because they place the unattained on a pedestal, while our real opportunities – and duties – are here.
* It’s good to look up to Heaven, unless we’re walking on the edge of a precipice. Might get there sooner than we planned that way.
* Without indulging melodrama, it’s been forcibly brought home (!) to me in the past five days how ephemeral life is, and that the present is all I have.
Eternity is in our hearts. It is the rope that extends through the veil, to anchor our souls. In itself that gives meaning and a nobler purpose to our lives, but it also enables us to resist contrary tides, which helps to chisel away what doesn’t fit our mortal frame. That eternal yen also defines how we approach today – as in not just living for now, but for an eternal significance. A parachute without air pressure flaps around lifelessly, but contrary winds makes it firm and vital. We need such contradictions and counter-forces to give us backbone and to define our lives, else we would just live day-to-day with no higher aspiration. Yet, our eternal future will always determine what we do now, today, in this moment.
You raise an excellent point, Pete. I think we are getting at the same thing; for me all moments, past and future, are in the present. It’s the ‘circularity’ of the Asian psyche taken to its logical end, a single point which contains the sum of all things – Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever.
* C.S. Lewis hinted at this, perhaps unintentionally, with the final book of the Narnia series, in which the Pevensie children discovered that Heaven was really Narnia raised Incorruptible – they had come full circle, and known home again, for the first time.
I love the Narnia allusion. As children they experienced two worlds, but as they grew that converged into one, with no further chance to cross. I guess that describes spiritual maturity. We start off with heaven way off there and life so imminently here, but with time they converge into a continuum that eventually transcends our immortality, without disrupting our continuity. A great man was asked what he would do if he knew Jesus was returning today. He replied, “same as I do every other day”. Sorry you are cast down – but as Paul said, “not forsaken”.
Never forsaken, but nonetheless called to duty even when cast down, and I would not have it any other way.
Andrew, I love that you brought up the fact that community, at least in real life, can also be found in a place like this one. Some of us will never meet this side of heaven, but we can encourage, understand (at least to a degree) and come alongside each other as we walk out our days. Great perspective!
This is where my best friends live, Jeanne.
Wise words, these: “They are, however, something of a temptation, because they place the unattained on a pedestal, while our real opportunities – and duties – are here.”
And this community is your home, Andrew. With folks who value you and pray for you.
You had me at your title today. As one who has felt off and on for most of her life like she didn’t belong, that sense of belonging (and of acceptance) is a comforting gift.
As for settings, the first one that came to mind was Green Gables and Avonlea of Anne Shirley fame. I love the way L.M. Montgomery brought that setting to life and made it a safe place for Anne to grow and learn what belonging truly was. The characters, Anne’s made up, lyrical names of “normal” places deepened the setting for me.
Yes! Anne Shirley found that place to belong. And we did, too, in her Green Gables.
I remember meeting a collector one day who loved the dolls I created around the Childhood Classics. She said that her life as a child was unspeakably evil, unspeakably cruel. Her only escape was in books like Secret Garden, Little Princess, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Anne of Green Gables and others. She found her strength in literary worlds. She belonged to those worlds.
I loved being with you just a couple days ago.
I loved Anne of Green Gables (still do!). I grew up close to PEI and always wanted to play Anne. 🙂 I also loved the settings created in all of the Nancy Drew books. They came alive. And yes, the community of writers is amazing. It was fun meeting everyone at ACFW. Now we’re back among the “normals.” I best stop talking to myself, huh? 😉
Coming from a safe home and having the love of reading encouraged from a young age, my heart goes out to the lady you described. I’m glad she had her books. I forget how much literary words can strengthen a person. That’s another good reminder for us as we write our stories.
*I loved being with you too. 🙂 Hard to believe ACFW 2015 is over. Sigh.
Darlene, How fortunate you were to grow up near PEI. I’ve always wanted to visit. 🙂 And I devoured Nancy Drew books. All the different places her mysteries took her . . . I envisioned every one as I read those books. 🙂
I love that you mention Alexander McCall Smith in the same post as the Goose Creek series. When I describe it to people ( I SO loved the first novella and novel) I say it reads as if McCall Smith retold Cranford in Kentucky. Sometimes you just want to settle into a place and appropriate its world for a bit— makes you nostalgic for a time period you never lived in or people you have never met ….
According to Richard Bach, fictional characters can be more real than people with bodies and heartbeats.
Exactly! Setting can be so very important– a world-building, so to speak. Hopefully it’s a world readers will want to visit and revisit.
I Loved seeing you at ACFW, Rachel.
I love having Goose Creek mentioned in the same post too, Rachel! Thanks, Wendy.
Just wait till your readers start commenting– this series is an absolute delight. I can’t wait to go back to Goose Creek.
While waiting to see if the morphia would help this morning – no luck yet – I picked up ‘First Light’ Geoffrey Wellum’s lovely, haunting and lyrical memoir of flying in the Battle of Britain. And a phrase came to mind – ‘The West of the Imagination’.
* When I was much younger, I felt that I had been born too late, that those two months in the brilliant summer of 1940 were the ultimate expression of faith, hope, and charity.
* They were, but that interpretation became clear with hindsight (though many of the people involved did realize that something very special was happening). The course of the bloody years that followed made it possible for us to chip a metaphorical David from the rock.
* The vision that stands before us today is not the reality; the reality was cold and frightening and suffused with the deep tones of loss, but that is secret that only the statue knows; we see our David’s rippling muscles and curly hair, and that answers the longing for nobility that we seek.
So very true. (Praying relief of pain, Andrew.)
I love this, Wendy. It’s a reminder that our settings are critical … for our readers to love our settings and want to hang out there. In my last work, I fell in love with the setting when I went to visit the people there … and I hope it shows in my work. I’ll be even more intentional on my next work … with the understanding of its importance to the heart. Belonging … that’s why I loved my grandmother’s home, visiting her … she’d be outside waiting for me to get out of the car … she’d make my favorite foods … she’d cry when I left. I was welcome there, anytime. She didn’t need a day to get the house ready … 🙂 And Andrew’s so right … this is the sweetest community here, and you all welcomed me at ACFW … like you’d known me all my life. Regardless of where I’m at on this writing journey, you wrapped me in your arms, treated me like family, prayed over me. Jeanne, I’ll never forget you praying over me. And my sweet roomie, Jennifer … I can’t tell you how many times she’d look over at me and say, “You belong here. You belong here.” 🙂
Jennifer was right. You do belong, Shelli. I loved getting to know you. I’m excited about your book, because. . . well, you know.
I just copied and pasted your response into my file of encouragement. Oh, yes! 🙂 Thank you.
I long to visit so many of the places you mentioned: the fictional Mitford and Deep Valley and Candleford (Dorcas Lane, c’est moi!) as well as Anne Shirley’s PEI, Eugenia Price’s St. Simons, GA, . . . . I grew up in a fairly anonymous suburb and feel no particular pull to go back there, but I have many fictional “hometowns” I cherish.
For me, it also ties into my love of historical fiction: a longing and nostalgia not for anything that happened during my own lifetime, but for things that happened long before I was born. Strange, when I think about it.
I don’t think it’s strange at all, Jenny. Our values tend to forge early, and are rooted in a past that changed far more slowly than the world we see around us. We often find that we don’t fit in well in this life, and by creating the mental (and sometimes physical) ambience of another time, we create the fulfillment of our souls, insofar as it’s possible this side of Heaven.
Beautiful, Andrew. Right … I don’t think we are meant to quite fit in here … or else, we’d never long for Heaven, our place of forever belonging.
Jenny, I loved Eugenia Price’s Savannah. 🙂
Exactly. And if only we could always create characters who seem to live and breathe– Dorcas Lane– yes!, and Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert, Chief Inspector Gamache (who is the Atticus Finch of this generation), Ingeborg Bjorkland, Precious Ramotswe. . . Sigh!
I’m a huge Gilmore Girls fan! I also enjoy many of the fiction series you mentioned. Also, Susan May Warren’s Deep Haven books. In ABA, I love Kristan Higgins’s books (except her current WF release), which are usually set in small towns where everyone knows everyone else. Her Blue Heron series is great! And, Susan Mallery’s Fool’s Gold series is fun and funny (although quite a bit
steamier than my usual fare, so I don’t recommend them to Inspirational/sweet readers). I read them because I love Fool’s Gold and I can skip the sex scenes. I have an opportunity to host a gathering to watch a JustFab sponsored episode of Project Runway next week, and I just thought, I need a place like Jo’s – a restaurant/”bar” that caters to women in Fool’s Gold.
Anyway, great post, Wendy!
Thanks, Carrie. And thanks for recommendations I haven’t yet dipped into.
I’ve long thought the current trend toward building housing “communities” is based on this very desire. Developments with houses, stores, restaurants, community centers, parks, etc. are trying to recreate what used to happen naturally before the advent of the highway system. Makes me happy that as a society we have yet to outgrow our desire to belong.
Yes. There is a town in the California wine country called Windsor that was created around a town square with interesting shops circling the square and flats above the shops. Houses within walking distance. a bandstand. It’s an upscale Stars Hollow. Unfortunately at California prices. . .
Wendy, years ago I was a social worker and Windsor was part of the area I served. The population was about 250 then and it was a very rural area. And I lived in the Mission District of San Francisco for a while, too. This discussion is adding to my homesickness. Sometimes I get homesick for all the places I’ve lived and all the places I’ve visited in books. Now I’m researching places in the 1800s for a story I’m working on and wish I could visit there. But I also love where I am now. Maybe when we step into Eternity we’ll be able to appreciate everywhere.
I love that you’re a “Creeker,” Wendy! Thanks for the sweet reminder of one of the reasons we read fiction–to belong.
When we feel like we belong, it’s hard to put the book down, isn’t it?
Wendy, your description of your childhood home, neighborhood and garden drew me into a story setting I want to spend more time in. I want to meet the lady who opens the gate. I wonder why the building next door burned to the ground. Maybe you or someone should write that story.
The first setting that came to my mind today, that has stuck with me from a book I’ve read, is the one in The Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter. Nature always grabs my heart, whether it’s a garden or a woodland. Loved this post. And I love spending time here at Books and Such. It’s a family setting here, for sure.
Blessings ~ Wendy Mac
Oh my goodness. The Limberlost! I’m a Friend of the Limberlost and even did a one-of-a-kind doll of Elenora for an auction to buy more acreage. It’s a real place and it’s beautiful. Tucked in the heart of the Indiana Amish community, it’s pristine. I have pressed flowers from the Limberlost.
Wendy, I’ll try not to covet those flowers. My daughter read Freckles and Limberlost several more times after I’d read them aloud to my children. I love it when I can share a ‘book place’ with the family. Thank you for enlightening me it’s a real place too.
You’re right. The more we feel threatened by this world, the more we need a retreat, a place where we are safe and accepted. Books & Such provides that for its authors, a place of family.
Thank you for saying that, Marilyn.
Maybe I’m the odd duck here, but I don’t read books for a feeling of belonging that the setting might convey. I want to relate at a deep emotional level with the struggles of the lead characters, but for me the setting is primarily the stage upon which those struggles ebb and surge. The setting should feel like a real-world place, but I don’t mind if it feels like a dangerous one that I would never want to inhabit myself. If the struggles of the leads are intense, it often will feel that way. I have read Amish romances and enjoyed them, but I would take a Dee Henderson romantic suspense over a sweet Amish romance any day.
I do echo the feelings of many that this blog is a place of community where we can all feel we belong. I look forward each day to reading the comments from the many folks posting here.
Interesting, Carol. You probably represent many a reader otherwise dystopian would never sell, right? Me? I’ll take a town square any day. 🙂
Very true, but I don’t think it’s restricted to dystopian. I’m not drawn to dystopian. Any of the mystery, suspense, thriller, and historical genres are likely to have high-stress settings, although some may include town squares. Even many of the good romances have high-conflict settings. They amp up the excitement of the read. Maybe it reflects my preference for higher intensity, higher stakes conflicts.
Ah, refreshing, Wendy. I do love a rich setting, but hadn’t thought abut it tapping a sense of belonging. Certainly Mitford tapped me–nostalgia and all that. Others that drew me in have been Liz Curtis Higg’s Scottish historicals. Bam. I am home there. And Sally John’s Beach House and Casa series also invited me in.
thanks for this interesting topic.
Yes. I also love historical settings.
Wendy, I’ve been scanning in our efforts to go paperless, and I’ve been going through my papers from high school and college. Just yesterday, I read a paper I wrote about Garrison Keillor, a sort of “interview” with him based on research. My teacher commented on the sense of community and that she wanted to live there. I’ll also claim Lake Woebegone as my hometown. 🙂
I know. I’ll never admit publicly that I’ve been known to sniffle at the first few notes of the Song of the Exiles. 🙂
How I love this post, Wendy! Stories knit around that sense of “home,” which is so often elusive in this world, are gems indeed. All of the examples you mentioned have that sense of warmth and peace. Whether it’s an entire community (a la Avonlea), or a more zoomed in focus on a single home and way of life (The March’s Orchard House, The Peppers’ Little Brown House), I had never quite put my finger on why they carry such a timeless draw. The notion that they are “northern” things– glimpses of Heaven– this is one I’ll be pondering with joy! Thank you for your insight, and for sharing your own childhood splendor with us.
Amanda, I knew the first time we met that we were kindred spirits. (I haven’t thought about Polly Pepper and Phronsie for a long time.)
A thought-provoking post. If asked yesterday what single element draws me into a novel, I would have answered, “A compelling character.” Of the three major fiction elements–character, plot, setting–I would have said Character trumps the others every time. That’s what makes me pick up a novel.
And yet, there’s Harmony Hill. And Mitford. And Narnia. And St. Mary Mead. And Pern. (Oh. Uh. Wrong audience. LOL!) I would read any book set in those settings, even if the characters and plots weren’t intriguing. In fact, the setting becomes a critical element of the story, and actually gives flavor to both the characters and the plots.
And Goose Creek!
Wendy,
Thanks for another interesting post. As Peter commented, the need for a sense of belonging is so great.
*I read that someone, probably Jan Karon, said she thinks people read the Mitford novels and books like them to get that sense of being part of a town–their town. People move around a lot now, and don’t get a chance to put down roots, so in their reading, they are looking for a place to belong. (She said it so much better than I can!)
And I agree. When people diss the Amish genre (as so many literary snobs are fond of doing) we need to remember what the draw is– I mean besides a compelling story and unforgettable characters.
Wendy, first and foremost – thank you for prayers, the support, and the love. It bears repeating – this community has given me the strength and the resolve to go on. Iam carried on giants’ shoulders. (And I have learned so much here!)
* A question on the Amish genre – to what degree do you think the Harrison Ford / Kelly McGillis film “Witness” helped in popularizing Amish stories? I know it made me look for more, and without that ‘background’ I might never have picked up ‘Rumspringa’, ‘Amish Grace’,and of course the wonderful Beverley Lewis stories.
I don’t know the answer to that, andrew. I think Bev Lewis was writing amish before the film, wasn’t she?
I know there has long been an interest in all things Amish. Back in my previous career, I created an Amish doll, called Frolic, in 1990. That was 25 years ago. It sold out immediately.
I’ll look up Bev Lewis’ backlist. Interesting question.
* And now you have a graphic for your next post, Wendy. I think I speak for everyone here…we have GOT to see a picture of Frolic!
According to Wikipedia, Bv Lewis started writing her Amish books in the 90s; ‘Witness’ came out in 1985.
You are so right about this, Wendy. We all need to be need and need to feel like we belong somewhere. I think that is why I have always loved cozy mystery series: they give me the adventure I crave while giving me a chance to get to know people in a community setting. Cedar Cove by Debbie Macomber books and TV series is also a fine example of creating a sense of belonging.
Good example, Cheryl.
Wendy, I couldn’t resist reading the blog today because of that fabulous teaser you put on FB. And Wow…what a great blog. I believe that need to belong drives each of us (and not only in the books we read), and we often make our decisions based on whether we will feel a connection or not.
Thank you, Karen. I’m grateful you’re part of my community in real life.
Wendy, the way you described your neighborhood in San Francisco immediately transported me. I would love to see pictures of your urban clubhouse.
I’d play Pooh sticks in The Hundred Acre Wood, and gad about with Little Bear in Else Minarik Holmelund’s world. If time travel was an option, I’d join Ramona Quimby for a play date. As an adult, I’d like to hobnob with the members of the The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society.
I wish we had photos of that clubhouse but those were the days long before cellphone cameras. 🙂 I’m guessing my mother would have been embarrassed to get out the old Brownie and take a picture of that rickety old structure. I actually only got admitted a time or two since I believe it was originally intended as a Boys-Only club.
And I second most of your literary destinations.
Thank you for this wonderful post, Wendy! I am a huge Gilmore Girls fan! I never considered the sense of community that the show stirs until you pointed it out.
I so relate to the idea of looking to book for a place to belong. As a kid I never felt like a fit. Being the first visually impaired student in my school, teachers didn’t know what to do with me and I was a target for bullying. I didn’t quite belong in the blind community but stood out as odd in the world of the normally sight. Plus I was one of those imaginative children who spent more time talking to made up friends than real ones. Let’s just call it what it was. I was weird! I loved the escape the Little House books, The Secret Garden, and A Little Princess provided. I wanted to BE Sara Crew. I was even willing to be a maid and live in an attic. Something about these stories took me to a place where was no longer the weird girl who didn’t fit.
I truly believe that my experience of never feeling like I fit in has stirred my desire create a welcoming, “you fit” feeling for others. I’m writing non-fiction right now, but I hope my readers will feel a sense of belonging. Friends tell me that I’m a nature “includer,” and I hope that’s true, both in writing and everyday life.
You are an includer, Jeanette. And yes, you’ve summed up why it’s important that we consider that sense of belonging in creating our settings.
Wendy, I just had to pop in and say thanks for this wonderful post. I appreciated all the thoughtful insights from you and everyone who commented.
And thanks for introducing me to some books and authors I had somehow missed. I adore many of the other ones mentioned.
No wonder the longing won’t abate to write a fictional series based on my idyllic town in the Sierras. This has given me much to mull over….
This sounds wonderful, Judy. I didn’t know you grew up in the Sierras. (The Mother Lode?) It’s one of my favorite places. I can just imagine how you could open your setting (and the Sierras) to readers everywhere.
Wendy, I started out in a small town of 900 people in the San Joaquin Valley, and then we moved to southwest Oregon where I enjoyed living in both Medford and Grants Pass. So I didn’t grow up in my beloved Quincy in beautiful Plumas County, CA, but I’ve lived here since 1992, (other than the three years I lived in Sisters, OR, another charming small town).
Thanks for your encouragement. I have amassed a lot of material on the local area, plus I’m blessed to live just up the street from our local museum, a treasure trove of local history. Feel free to come visit!
Great post, Wendy. It was wonderful to see you last week. And this has me thinking of ways I can add that sense of community in my next series. I’ve often thought that has a strong pull for some readers.
Oh goody! that’s what I was hoping to accomplish with this post. I think that setting can be as strong a draw as characters. And it makes the reader want to come back to your series over and over. Look at Lauraine– I think she’s up to seventeen books in her series and readers wait with bated breath to return to Blessing.
I loved seeing you as well, Cara. Thank you for so ably moderating the agent panel. You make it look effortless.
OOOOOh Wendy, You just gave me some great ideas for deepening the role of the setting in my attempted middle grade ms. Thanks so much! Hmmm…I like Joanne Fluke’s cookie murder mystery series set in small town Minnesota. Has that same feel, with yummy recipes too!
Especially in middle grade, Kristen. We want to experience a different place and picture ourselves living in it. As a girl I read so much YA and middle grade I longed to live on a tree-lined street called Elm. (Picture this urban girl longing for small town America.)
Hi, Wendy,
I’m enjoying Susan Wittig Albert’s China Bayles series. The mystery novels are set in Pecan Springs, Texas, a fictionalized town in the beautiful Hill Country and each one is named after an herb which is featured in the novel. In addition to a mystery, the reader learns about that particular herb, including medicinal, culinary and other ways of growing and using it. She even offers recipes!