Which Places do we Love?

 RHYS BOWEN: As you now know, my new book, THE CASTLE IN THE GLEN  is set in Scotland. I’d been wanting to set a story there for some time but couldn’t find any story idea that would fit until now. So I was delighted to send my heroine, Emma, up to the Isle of Skye to experience that atmospheric scenery as she tries to solve an old murder case. 

Scotland is one of those places that draws people…that mix of wild scenery, mists, storms, Celtic heritage and traditions and a wee bit of magic thrown in. We love to think about storm kelpies, shape shifters and small towns that only appear once every hundred years. When you set a story in such a place you start with a degree of expectation and even a sense of danger. Perfect for a mystery.

Thinking about this it’s interesting to me that some settings seem to resonate with readers more than others. Two of my books that have sold the most copies are the Tuscan Child, The Venice Sketchbook. There is something about Tuscany and Venice that draws people. We get a clear picture of hilltop towns, of canals and bridges. And of course they come with all the history and romance too. When you open a book about Tuscany you expect history, romance, sweeping vistas. If I set a book in Cleveland Ohio, I’d have to work hard to take my reader there.

Other places that seem to have instant appeal are Paris, of course. So many books with Paris in the title (yes, I’m guilty too). And look at Jenn’s Paris is Always a Good Idea, which I’m loving on TV!!! Then there is  the English countryside. Set a book in the Cotswolds or Cornwall and people will want to read it.  The other one is Nantucket. How many books have I seen recently with titles like The Nantucket Summer, the Nantucket Heartbreak. Now I’ve been to Nantucket and it is charming but there are so many charming villages up and down that coast. Why not the Gloucester Summer, the Kennebunkport Romance? I suppose Nantucket is an island, which makes it more appealing.

So I’d like your take on this: how important is setting to you? Is deciding on setting one of the things you do first? Or do you create your characters and then decide where to put them? Have you ever wished you’d set a book somewhere else? Why do you think certain places seem to draw in readers more than others? 

LUCY BURDETTE: I adored the Isle of Skye in your new book Rhys, but then all of your standalone titles have had wonderful settings. But think about Ann Cleeves for a minute. I suspect her best-selling series is the Shetland books, though I don’t know that for a fact. I like the backdrops in Vera and Two Rivers, but Shetland really stands out. You might remember that I took my family there a few years back because of Ann’s mysteries. It’s just as spectacular as she describes it, both in words and in the TV series. Kent Kreuger is also a master at setting–mostly the boundary waters of Minnesota. He’s able to use the setting to magnify the darkness of the books–this happens with Icelandic authors too.

Key West is different because it isn’t dark, at least on the surface. The contrast makes it an amazing place to set books. You don’t expect crime in such a beautiful place! Lots of my readers have been there once and the books allow them to travel back to a place they love. That’s how I feel about Paris!

HALLIE EPHRON: Scotland! Key West! Miss Marple’s St. Mary Meade! Philip Marlowe, Easy Rawlins, Harry Bosch, none of them could be rooted anywhere but Los Angeles. 

When I was writing my first novel I mistakenly thought that setting was “window dressing” - you needed characters to be rooted. But there’s so much more to it than that.So many great mystery novels, in particular, are particularly great because of the setting. (Hoping to one day to hang out with Cara Black in Paris on one of her tours of Aimée LeDuc’s hangouts.) Rhys, you totally ace it with THE CASTLE IN THE GLEN. *AND* we get to visit it in two timelines!!

JENN McKINLAY: Thank you for taking me vicariously to the Isle of Skye, Rhys! It’s on my list but this was so much easier than actually booking a flight. 

Setting is huge for me as an author. I like to write about places I want to visit because…research trip! As a reader, I definitely enjoy a well written setting but I’m more open to different places because I don’t have to write about them – if that makes sense.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I had the joy of taking myself to the Berkshires (in my imagination and memory)  for MOTHER DAUGHTER SISTER STRANGER, and it is fascinating how my lived experiences there for so many summers came back in the loveliest ways–and sometimes,  the scariest. And when you are actually there, you see and hear and experience things that make it so authentic. The turn of a phrase, or someone’s nickname, or how the windows fog up when you go inside.  

SO funny–the opposite works, too. When I wrote ALL THIS COULD BE YOURS, Tessa had to go to Des Moines. (too long to explain) I had never been to Des Moines, so I researched  like mad and it turned out that the Des Moines Public Library (and its surroundings) became the setting for several crucial scenes. So of course I went there on book tour, and I laughed for a solid hour. Because it looked exactly like how I had written it in the book! It was SO funny! I kept  thinking: My book is REAL!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Setting is SO important! One of my early influences was Tony Hillerman; there’s nothing in his books - character, crime, economy, dangers - that doesn’t flow out of the setting. Yes, there are times I wish I had written a series that took place somewhere other than the chilly Adirondack piedmont, usually when one of you are taking a research trip to the French Riviera or the English countryside!

There’s an interesting example of setting in Lee Child’s ONE SHOT. The midwestern city where the action takes place is never named, but Lee got the small details and the vibe so right multiple readers over the years have sworn it takes place in Columbus, or Cincinnati, or Omaha, or Kansas City, etc, etc. A lesson in how the particulars and the feel of a place make the setting for the reader, not the street names and locations.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: You couldn't have picked a more atmospheric setting than the Isle of Skye, Rhys! And what a fabulous place to "have" to do research!

I'm a sucker for setting, both as a reader and a writer. Setting has almost always been the first trigger for my books, a place that tickled my imagination, sometimes one already familiar and sometimes one I've wanted an excuse to visit. And I have to admit I'm most likely to pick up a book by an unfamiliar author if the setting appeals. Now, why we are attracted to certain places more than others is its own mystery…

RHYS: Now it's your turn. How important is setting to you? Are there some settings that instantly draw you to a book?

You Say Tomato, I Say Yes!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Do any of you grow tomatoes?

Should the tomatoes be ready now?

We planted them, just as we usually do, not as many as in previous years, but whatever. And we usually plant Sun Golds, which are those little orange cherry tomatoes, which are so sweet and so delicious and I adore them. And grew like mad.

But we couldn’t find them this year, and I reminded myself that everything doesn’t have to be exactly the same every year, so go with the flow.


So we got another kind, I forget the name, and I have to say this is a different experience.

First of all, this plant, this particular plant, was never happy. It is in a perfect tomato place, many plants have thrived here before, but this one, I could tell from moment one, was not enthusiastic.

It produced two little tomatoes, bigger than a cherry tomato but not as big as a big tomato, and they were growing nicely, even as the leaves were giving up the ghost.

They tried to grow, but yeah, they were not happy. See all the yellow leaves? And it had just the right amount of water and sun.

It tried, it really did, but I could hear the death rattle. I picked one of the tomatoes, the redder one, while it was still too green, after the rabbits got the other one. 

We put it on the windowsill to ripen, and here it is. Next to a peach. You can see the size. ::shaking head:: It did the best it could.

As for our other tomatoes, they look like Roma tomatoes, that Italian tomato shape. They are still super tiny. Should they be so super tiny still?

Even the grocery store, Whole Foods, does not have those fabulous tomatoes that I long for every year.   Why? Even the heirlooms are not tasty.

One of my favorite things in the world is tomato toast. It is toast, with tomatoes on it. No mayonnaise, no butter, no anything. Just toast and tomatoes. The tomato juice sinks into the toast, and it is ambrosial.

But the better the tomato, the better the tomato toast, and so far we are at 80% good.

What’s your tomato situation, Reds and Readers? Are you as fond of them as I am?

((PS: AND THE WINNER of HER PERFECT LIFE IN gulp, mass markeet paperback is : DEE! Email me your address at hank@hankphillippiryan.com)

Books On The Path to Extinction?

 Did you enter the JUNGLE RED GIVEAWAY?  Winner announced below!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  It’s topical not only because the trade paperback of  ALL THIS COULD BE YOURS comes out tomorrow--see how cool?-- but there's a whole sea change about paperbacks right now that's pretty interesting.

There used to be two kinds of paperbacks: a trade, which is about the size of a hardcover book, and the mass market, the kind you could fit in your back pocket or in your purse or in the glove compartment. If you took in it your beach bag and got sand in it, or if it got dropped into the bathtub, you really didn’t care. They were kind of… disposable. 

All of my books have come out first in hardcover and e-book and audio, and then additionally  in trade paperback size, and then a year after the initial publication of the hardcover, in mass market paperback. (See? ARC, hardcover, trade PB, MMPB, and audio CD.)

But no more. No more mass market paperbacks. Done and over, and extinct. So they say.

So weird! You could buy them, though, in grocery stores and drugstores, too, and they were perfect impulse buys. I completely remember gasping with delight when I saw my books in the CVS, and in Star Market. It just made them seem like real books. And like I was a real author.

But after you read them, then what? I just found my battered mass market of In Cold Blood-- you can see I’d tried to use tape to keep the cover on, and failed.  But I do love this book, and it is a permanent fixture around here. 

It’s hard to donate paperbacks, because they are so battered so easily. And it’s hard to throw them away because, well, they’re books. And how could I throw away this shelf in my house:

or this one:

or this one?

ANYWAY. It’s not going to matter anymore, because as I said, they’re not going to make them anymore. 

 Tell me what you’ve heard are the reasons, but I heard that during the pandemic the paper costs went way up, and the administrative cost to make them and ship them from China went way up, and they were not cost-effective, and people were using Kindle instead.

So as a result, the big distributors decided they weren’t going to distribute them anymore. And as a result of that the publishers decided they weren’t going to print them anymore.

What do you think about that? Will it change your life? Will it change your reading? Will it change your buying habits? Do you have any mass market paperbacks that you will never part with?

HALLIE EPHRON: I’m sure it’s a business decision on the part of publishers. Pumping out an ebook costs so much less (no paper, no printing, no shipping and warehousing…) And I get it – over time I’ve become much more likely to download an ebook than buy a hard copy. Still I miss that mass market size – a book I could tuck in my pocket and then leave behind in my hotel room for the next lucky visitor. Buy in the airport and finish by wheels-down.

LUCY BURDETTE: I have a fondness for mass market paperbacks because my first eight books came out in that format. However, I understand this is a totally financial decision. I’ve learned to step back when the publishing gurus say something is gone because before you know it, it will be back again! Personally, I find them hard to read because the type is so small. But I get it that books have gotten so expensive that it’s hard for people to fit hard covers and big paperbacks into the budget.

RHYS BOWEN:  My early books came out as MM paperbacks a year after the hardcover but switched to trade paperbacks around ten years ago.. I think mm paperbacks fell out of favor because the type is too small for older readers, also because it’s harder to hold them open without their falling to  pieces. Personally I choose e-books over trade paperbacks. And if I’m buying it’s the hardcover. Not that much more expensive and looks better on the shelf. 

My Lake Union books come out in all formats on the same day. Strange but true. 

DEBORAH CROMBIE: My books have only been trade and hardcover for a long time, but the early ones were hardcover and then mass market. But I think e-books now fill the mass market budget category and I suppose it makes sense for the publishers to discontinue the format. I’ve held on to some mass markets over the years, many of them out of print and irreplaceable, but when I’ve tried to read them the pages are yellowed and the print is too small. Maybe they will now be valuable to collectors?

Personally, I read in all formats, hardcover, trade, e-books, audio books, but I especially love trade paper. Still easy to carry around, but I don’t have to worry about leaving my Kindle–or worse, my iPad–somewhere!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: So many paperbacks! I still have them on shelves, in the attic, in boxes in the back of closets. I just can’t seem to make myself throw them away. 

I agree that the “affordable, and I don’t want to invest in a ‘good’ book” market’s been taken over by ebooks, but they will never replace the joy of spending hours in Owl Used Books lovingly going over each and every title to come up with five for one dollar. Not to mention the thrill of finding something interesting left behind by a traveller at a B and B, hotel room, or airport lounge. Ah, well. Tempus fugit, I guess.

JENN McKINLAY: Mass Market Paperbacks were all I read in high school and college because the price was right and the portability unbeatable. Alas, that print is so dinky, I much prefer trade or hardcover now. I was a heavy e-book reader for a decade but I’m so burnt out from screens that I just want a book to read. 

HANK: AND if YOU want a book to read:  BREAKING NEWS:  the winner of the very first Jungle Red Quarterly Giveaway is Diane W!    Diane@W**********.com       Diane, email me at hank@hankphillippiryan.com and send me your address–and SEVEN books will come your way!

And to all who entered–we are so thrilled! And we hope you enjoy our personal newsletters!

Now, Reds and Readers, what do you think about mass market paperbacks? Are there any that you will never give up? Will this decision change your life? (And one lucky commenter will get a MMPB of my thriller HER PERFECT LIFE! See? It's now a collector's item!)