LUCY BURDETTE: As I’m writing this, it’s early March and I’m frantically wrapping things up with several projects and starting to pack for New Zealand. This has made me think–is there ever a vacation during which I can turn my writing brain off completely? I doubt I will be setting a book or story in New Zealand, though never say never! We went to Australia about ten years ago and I’ve not written anything about that, aside from a blog post. I did start a short story about a crime on Lord Howe Island off the coast of Australia, but I realized quickly that I didn’t know enough to continue. I didn’t understand the local culture or how the police would behave–I’d be flying in the dark and subject to making mistakes and garnering criticism. Maybe this trip will be different? Maybe I’ll write nothing and only relax. What are the chances Reds? Have you ever done that?
JENN McKINLAY: No. I don’t think I’ve ever been on vacation (since I got published) when I didn’t work. That is a very sad statement. I remember when the Hooligans were little and we’d go on our annual beach vacation to San Diego, I’d get up at 5 in the morning and work in the bathroom - usually sitting on towels in an empty bath tub - just to get the day’s pages done so I could be on vacation during the day with the fam. Most of my vacations - Florence, London, Paris, Ring of Kerry, etc. have been because I needed to research the area of the place I was writing about. Maybe someday I will travel without my laptop…someday!
HALLIE EPHRON: I do think that, if you’re a writer, your “writing brain” never turns off. I can be in the bathtub and still seeing myself as a character. Or go somewhere and imagine the words I’d use to describe its essence. I think every trip I’ve taken in the last ten years has generated a setting or a situation or a feeling that’s turned up in a story I’ve written. It’s an occupational hazard.I confess, I’m the least fond of the Agatha Christie novels that she obviously set somewhere she vacationed or visited. Take me back to London or St. Mary Meade I want to beg of her. And Roberta you are so wise to NOT write a story set someplace you don’t know well enough. I started setting YOU’LL NEVER KNOW, DEAR in Beauford, South Carolina, and realized I didn’t know enough about its amazing history, so I created a fictional town nearby that I could have my way with.
RHYS BOWEN: I have taken some vacations with the express purpose of writing about the place where I am staying. This was true for Mrs. Endicott in Cassis. Also Tuscany and Venice. I never set a book in a place I am visiting for the first time, but somewhere I am familiar with. I go back knowing what details i want to reassure myself about.
If I am not writing I am always jotting down ideas for future reference.I find airports, trains, cafes are wonderful sources of inspiration. As Hallie said, you cannot turn off a writer’s brain.
DEBORAH CROMBIE: The only non-England trips I’ve taken in ages have been my yearly jaunts to the Round Top antiques fair with my daughter, and even though I am not “writing” writing, I am always looking at things and people and thinking about my books. I don’t think it’s possible for writers to ever really turn their writer’s brains off–and I’m not sure I’d want to. Nevertheless, Lucy, I hope you have a lovely vacation and come back refreshed and ready to dig into your book!
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I agree with Hallie, writer’s brain never switches off. And I also agree with the idea that you need some familiarity with a place in order to write well about it - They’re all large cities on the water with lots of snow and cold weather, but Boston is different from NY which is different from Chicago in so many small ways that you can get wrong if you’re not reasonably well-versed in the area!
As for vacations, since I started writing professionally at the turn of the century, 98% of all “vacations” have either involved writing (Nantucket,) research (anyplace in New York State,) meetings with agents and the publisher (NYC) or conferences. The latter has been great - my kids have accompanied me to Alaska, California, Alabama, Chicago, Florida, Michigan… they and their Dad got to have fun while Mom taught or spoke!
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Hmm, so interesting! I have never gone anywhere for the sole purpose of research (except for my entire TV career, which I did not realize was research at the time.), but wow, everything is possibly something. And it's not only setting, of course, it’s how people behave, or what they do or say or eat. Or, for example, the sign we saw in Nevis when we had to go to the police station to get a drivers license. (They make tourists buy them :-)) There was a big sign, warning that houses were being broken into across the island, and to especially beware, because the perpetrator “might be disguised as a vicar or a meter man.”
It makes me laugh even to type that.
I have never ever not taken my laptop.
Red readers and writers, do you take your work on vacation, or are you able to switch gears completely?
In our family, vacationing generally seems to involve visiting family, so taking work along doesn't usually happen [although there are always moments when teacher-me sneaks out]. I think that, for the most part, "taking your work with you" depends on what your work might be and I can see how it would be difficult/impossible to "switch off" your writer's brain . . . .
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