I just got back from a week in Door County, Wisconsin, where I was scouting locales for book six. If you've been to any of my reader events, you'll know that I try to choose scenes for the chapters much like a film director would. I outline in such a way that I know how each chapter advances the story or the characters -- but I leave the setting open so that I can find locales that enrich the drama. I do that by visiting the area, finding dramatic places that reinforce each scene, and taking voice notes and photographs.
Why Door County? I wanted a setting in the Upper Midwest -- like the Stride novels -- but one with a more rural flavor, where there's tension between natives and outsiders. Door County, which is like Cape Cod dropped into the Midwest, fits the bill perfectly. It's a beautiful area, filled with lighthouses, deserted dirt roads, and quaint little shops -- but there's also an inherent discomfort between long-time residents and wealthy arrivals from Chicago. That anxiety is part of the plot of book six. I'm really excited about the story and characters and can't wait to share them with you.
While I was there, I also visited the lovely Novel Ideas bookstore in Baileys Harbor, which is run by Michelle, an alumna of Anderson's bookstore in Naperville, Illinois. (Yes, another of those former Chicagoans!) I'll be calling into Michelle's book club in October, when they read IMMORAL.
Meanwhile, UK fans are counting down toward the release of the fifth Stride novel, THE BURYING PLACE, in September. (I know, I know, it's a long wait until the US release in April.) One clever reader managed to get her hands on an advance reader copy from the UK and wrote to tell me it was the best book yet. That's what I like to hear.
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