Remember that old Garth Brooks song “Unanswered Prayers?” Like many country music classics, it tells the story of how a man ran into a woman he once loved and longed to marry, but she’d rejected him. Instead he married someone else, and happily realizes that not having his old prayer answered was indeed the real blessing.

I’ve always loved that song, and that concept. And, since I have a few ex boyfriends around the world, I’ve often thought that not marrying some of them -- even if, at one time, I thought I wanted to -- was my blessing. I love the man I chose! But that doesn’t mean we can’t Google the exes and find out where they are, right? Come on, every single one of you reading this has Googled an ex...if you haven’t, then you either don’t have one or you’re lying.

So, imagine my surprise when I did just that and came upon the home of a former boyfriend home featured in Architectural Digest -- a 25,000 square foot mansion in the Hollywood Hills so breathtakingly beautiful, it hurt to look at it. But look I did...and in walked my teenage daughter, causing me to offhandedly joke that if I had married that guy, we’d be living there.

When faced with that mansion, my daughter didn’t quite get the concept of unanswered prayers or the fact that she wouldn’t be who she is (or possibly at all) if I’d have married someone other than her father. No, her eyes popped open and she squealed and demanded to know WHY I didn’t marry him so we could be living there.

I laughed it off, but the conversation stuck with me and the next day, the whole story of DON’T YOU WISH landed in my imagination as my first young adult novel. DON’T YOU WISH is the story of plain, unpopular, uber-average teenager Annie Nutter who has that same conversation with her mother. But in the novel, Annie’s dad is an inventor and just that day, he’d invented a mirror he calls “Picture Perfect” which reflects not you, but a flawless version of you. One lightning strike and a cracked mirror later, Annie wakes up in a parallel universe...and things are pretty different here.

Although her mother is the same person, she’s married to someone else and Annie is Ayla Monroe, gorgeous, rich, popular, and flawless. It’s not all clear at first, but one Annie/Ayla does know is that she finally has everything she’s ever wished for.

And it doesn’t take long to realize the price for perfection is very, very high.

I am so excited to have my first young adult hit the shelves today and thrilled that the story has a basis in real life. I’m also over the moon that the book has been optioned for a feature film and a screenplay is written and being shopped as we speak. Which just makes me wish...never mind. Like Annie, I’ll be thrilled with what I have so far.

So...what have you wished for and didn’t get, only to realize that sometimes wishes, dreams, and even prayers are better off unanswered? If you don’t want to answer, then just admit it...you’ve Googled an ex. One commenter will win a copy of DON’T YOU WISH!

www.roxannestclaire.com

Location, location, location. Anyone who’s ever bought, sold, or rented a house or apartment knows that’s the mantra of the real estate agent. It’s the mantra of some romance readers and writers, too. Right now, one of the most popular genres of romance novels is one where the setting is so important, it IS the genre: the small town contemporary.

A few years ago, this genre didn’t even exist. Although authors had set hundreds of romance novels in small towns, it wasn’t until the entire series-set-around-a-town concept took off -- my guess is with the amazing popularity of Robyn Carr’s Virgin River and Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove books -- that the setting truly became a character.

Whether it’s waterfront or mountaintop, clustered around a harbor, tucked into a valley, deep in the south, along the edge of the sea, or nestled into the heartland, inventing geography has become as challenging and complex as characterization in this genre, and just as vital when creating the series concept.

In fact, for me -- and I suspect the same is true of other small town contemporary authors -- the stories came second; the setting came first. For my recently launched Barefoot Bay series, I chose Florida because I’ve lived in the state for over twenty years, and I’ve personally experienced many aspects of this diverse and picturesque peninsula.

I worked for years in the colorful, ethnic metropolis of Miami, then moved to raise my children in a sleepy beachside town with stunning views of space shuttle launches. My sister lives in the rolling hills of rural north Florida; my son’s a University of Florida Gator up in quaint but cosmopolitan Gainesville; I’ve got strong connections to the historic Tampa Bay and family living in vibrant Jacksonville. Best of all, we’ve taken multiple family vacations in the Conch Republic, the uniquely eccentric paradise also known as Florida’s Keys.

But when I first closed my eyes and tried to imagine the perfect location for a series of contemporary novels where the setting would play a key role, I went instantly to the beauty of southwest Florida and the white sands and emerald islands dotting the Gulf of Mexico coastline.

The magical “barrier islands” are accessible only by boat or causeway, and the thousands islands and keys that hug the entire coast of Florida all have different personalities. Some are overdeveloped with multi-million dollar mansions, some are laid back and home to artists and retirees, others are trendy, luring tourists with world class resorts and jaw-droppingly gorgeous sunsets, while a few are charmingly stuck in the 1950’s with trolleys for public transportation and mom-and-pop businesses that close when the fishing is good.

I took the best of all those characteristics to create the Barefoot Bay series, set on Mimosa Key, a fictional island off the coast of the Naples/Fort Myers area. Before I even outlined the first book, I drafted the history of the island, a few of the most influential (and colorful) townspeople, and got a sense of the politics, businesses, neighborhoods, and “personality” of the area.

Only then did I start the process of creating the characters and the stories, launching the series with a hurricane that wipes out the homes and changes the lives of the people who live on the island’s serene and pristine inlet of Barefoot Bay. One of them is Lacey Armstrong, a single mother, a granddaughter of one of the island’s founders, and a woman who -- much like the island where she lives -- survives and thrives no matter what mother nature throws at her. She has friends and family, dreams and desires, and a rich personal history. And on the pages of BAREFOOT IN THE SAND, Lacey learns to let go of the past and find a future with one extremely sexy, younger architect who helps her change the face of her island...and the state of her heart.

No question about it, having the setting as a character has definitely influenced how and what I’ve written in the series. I’d love to hear from the Writerspace community: which small town contemporary setting is your favorite and why?

***

Roxanne St. Claire is a New York Times bestselling author of nearly thirty romance, suspense, and young adult novels. Visit her website for excerpts and info on all of her books: www.roxannestclaire.com or stop by www.facebook.com/roxannestclaire for daily updates and the occasional picture of a hot guy or cute puppy.

When I first started writing, I limited my settings to places I’d visited or lived, starting with the most exotic St. Barts (TROPICAL GETAWAY) and moving to another vacation favorite, France (FRENCH TWIST), and then trying a locale just up the road, Daytona Beach (KILLER CURVES).  I set books in Miami, a former address of mine, then Boston, another place I called home.  Then California and back to the Caribbean, a few in New York, and a couple of repeats, then I took a few research trips to Charleston and the Keys as I wrote more and more books.

After a while I ran out of places I’ve lived or toured.  I wanted to send my characters to Venezuela and the Azores and Malaysia and other places I’ve yet to see and couldn’t afford to visit.  One day, I was listening to Nora Roberts answering a question about her research on her many and varied settings.  I think she was referencing Alaska (but it might have been wine country) when she said, “Nope, I’ve never stepped foot in that place.  But I’ve traveled, and I read, and I know people, and, God knows, I have an imagination.”

Lightbulb!!  I really don’t have to visit every place I write about?  The answer is no…but I do have to read, know people, and use my God-given imagination.  These days, I do all of those, and sometimes I write about places I’ve never been, and other times I call upon my life experiences. 

In the two books I have releasing back-to-back this month, there is one of each. SHIVER OF FEAR is set primarily in Northern Ireland, a country I’ve never visited.  The plot dictated the setting, and when I learned that my editor had been to many of the places I describe in the book, I admit to gulping a little worry.  However, when she read the first draft, she assured me I’d nailed it, and the many reader letters thanking for taking them on a trip to Ireland confirms that the research, videos, books, and one really awesome friend who lives in Belfast all worked. 

The trick, for me, is to educate myself about the locale, the culture, the “sense of place” and then use research to get the details right.  Once I have a local source, I have no qualms about sending an email that asks some strange questions, like where cobblestone streets begin and end, what color lights flash on a police car, and does the hotel use card keys or metal?  Then, when I’m writing, I drop in a detail or two, and use YouTube videos and books to give me an overall feel for the place.  (You can find anything on YouTube.  Need to get into a belltower in Enniskillen? Check.  Walk the length of the shipyards in Belfast? Check.  Tour the Europa Hotel? Check.) 

Of course, I add my imagination, using sensory memories of other places.  I’ve never been to Ireland, but I have been to England several times.  I remember beer-laden smell of a pub, the timelessness of a stone church, the endless lavender on rolling hillsides, and the terror of careening through narrow country roads…on the wrong side of the street.  I hope I brought all of that to the writing to enrich the reading experience.

Right after I finished the exhaustive research and writing of SHIVER, I launched into the next book, FACE OF DANGER.  This time, I not only had visited or lived in every single setting in the book, I had strong personal connections to many of them.  That made the writing the setting easier, but still I focused on details, and this time, they came from my memory.  For example, one of the earliest scenes in FACE OF DANGER takes place on the backlot of Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, when the heroine convinces a movie star to use a body double because of the threat of a serial killer.  Many years ago (too many!), I had small roles in two television shows filmed on the Paramount lot – Laverne & Shirley and Bosom Buddies.  My TV career was shortlived, but the details of that studio setting were never forgotten.   

Later in the book, there are scenes set at a home in Sudbury, Massachusetts, which is based on the house where my husband and I lived when we were first married.  Set on a hill overlooking a pond, this Wedgewood blue colonial home holds some of my most blissful memories, so it’s no wonder the house is featured in the happiest scenes.  And then there are the dark streets of the industrial town of Lowell, Massachusetts.  Years ago, I had a public relations client with offices in Lowell, and I had to go there regularly for meetings…before GPS was invented.  Once I got lost and ended up in a less-than-completely-safe dead-end street, petrified for my life.  That street plays a major role in the book, the sensation of life-threatening danger still quite real to me.

I feel liberated by the fact that I can write about places I’ve never been as well as locations I know intimately.  What about you?  Do you prefer to read a book set somewhere you know…or take a trip to an entirely new destination?

I’m giving away a full set of The Guardian Angelinos:  EDGE OF SIGHT, SHIVER OF FEAR and FACE OF DANGER, all signed and sent with a $15 Starbucks Gift Card, so you can read, sip, fall madly in love…and take a trip to somewhere you’ve never been.  Leave a comment to enter the drawing!!

www.roxannestclaire.com

Once upon a time, a long time ago, I refused to write a series. As a reader, I hated picking up a book and thinking I’d missed an earlier story, and was a little offended by references to characters from previous books as though the author expected me to read everything she’d written.  As a writer, when I finished a book, I was done with those people.  Six months was enough, thank you very much.  On to the next hot guy and strong-willed girl, another adventure, a new setting.  So it was with a little prodding that I started the Bullet Catchers series back in 2005, my expectations low, my general knowledge about how to write a series next to nil. 

It didn’t take long to convert me.  By the third book, I saw the light, loved the recurring characters, figured out how to make a story stand entirely on its own but fit into a bigger arc, and, lo and behold, my book sales improved, too.  Readers love a series and once I started, I didn’t want to stop.  I wrote eight books and two novellas in the Bullet Catchers series, each one dear to me, each one different from the others but similar enough to feel like they bore my signature.

A little over a year ago, I changed publishers and they felt it was time to start a new series.  A new series?  Wha…wha…what?  Leave my beloved world, my established anchor characters, my bible of events, timelines, and eye color?  (No such book exists, by the way, except in my head.  But it’s real enough there.) 

I had to say goodbye to my series, and that was not a fond farewell. Trust me, an author doesn’t walk away from an established series easily, even though I organically knew the series was coming to the end of its arc. How could I ever recapture that magic?  I knew what I loved about my stories – the romantic adventure, the sexual tension, the alpha hero, the smartass heroine, the escalating danger, and the fun and fantastic secondary characters that peppered the pages.  I loved creating a world full of colorful characters able to maneuver through sticky situations, depending on one another no matter what the odds.  But what was missing?  How could I make a new series better, different, more exciting…without losing the magic?

The answer, for me, was family.  The characters in my first series were connected by business and friendship, but the element that I really wanted to explore was that complicated, crazy, conflict-rich world of family: the people we can’t choose, but love anyway.  And what’s better than an Italian family, a culture famous for passion and drama, connections and emotions, laughter, love, and food?  And, of course, I wanted to break the Soprano’s image and put some Italians out there who are fighting crime and taking down bad guys. 

That’s how The Guardian Angelinos were born.  They are the heart and soul of my new series, which starts this week with the book EDGE OF SIGHT.  The Guardian Angelinos are an ad hoc security and investigation firm that has none of the glitz and sophistication of the Bullet Catchers, but all of the smart, sexy, fearless, fun types of characters.

The new organization launches in the first book, when Zach Angelino reluctantly accepts the company’s first unofficial assignment: to protect Samantha Fairchild after she’s witnessed a professional assassination and the killer has her face on tape.  The problem?  Zach and Sam share a brief but passionate past, a torrid three week affair that ended abruptly when he went to war and never called or contacted her again.  She doubts she can trust him, but her life is on the line.  He knows he’s changed so much – scarred on the inside and out – and feels he doesn’t deserve her.  But neither one can fight the tsunami of attraction that threatens their hearts…while a clever, ruthless, creepy killer plans to snuff out their lives.

If you’d like to take a glimpse into the past and see how Sam and Zach first met, share that steamy three weeks with them, and feel the heartache of their last goodbye, I’ve got a “Freequel” (free prequel) up on my web site, www.roxannestclaire.com – just click on Free Reads and dive into “Taken to the Edge.”   I hope that short story whets your appetite for EDGE OF SIGHT!

If you’d like to win an autographed copy of EDGE OF SIGHT, leave a comment or question today and one winner will be selected to win!  I’ll be popping in all day to answer questions and talk about anything that’s on your mind!  And I’m chatting tonight at 9:00 PM Eastern Time right here on writerspace, so come on over to that party.  It’s always a good time!