Small town or big city...setting sets the tone of my books

 I live in a small town.

A really small town.

Like, an everyone-knows-everyone-else small town.

And I have to admit, it has its upsides and downsides. The upside is everyone knows one another and looks out for one another. The downside is...everyone knows one another and the nosiness factor is HUGE! I used to tell my daughter she couldn't sneeze in school without four people calling me and telling me she was sick. And those 4 people didn't work at the school.

I grew up in New York City. Can't get any more big-city than that, can ya? LOL.

The move from big city to small town was jarring to me at first. I'd never had people actually stop me on the street before and ask after my husband, my daughter, my dog. And I'll admit, I guarded my privacy like it was the crown jewels at first, not giving an inch of information. Over time I grew less stringent and more relaxed. The nosiness was, for the most part, just the townfolk's way of showing they cared.

It's no wonder when I started writing romance I set all my original books in a small town. 

Using a smalltown for a setting in a romance novel allows you to write across all spectrums - from ultra serious to a romcom. My romances tend toward the romcom-y because my characters are quirky. Remember that old Bob Newhart show set in the small Vermont town Inn - and the cast of unusual characters that revolved in and out of the inn on a daily basis? There were the three "Darryl" brothers; George the inept handyman; the clueless sheriff and the snarky welcome wagon lady. All provided comic relief for Newhart and his wife - two big-city people who'd relocated to the tiny Stratford Inn.

In my own town I've met people who mimic those tv characters to a T. What's that saying about art imitating life? Quirky characters can get lost in a big city. In a small town, they're heralded.

In a big city you may not have the individual and close camaraderie you have in a smaller town, but you do have neighborhoods, ghettos where people of the same mindset live, and you have friends to connect with.

In romance you can write a fabulous meet-cute in a big city you wouldn't be able to someplace smaller. Say two people meet by happenstance during a tour of the Empire State building, or maybe a military widow is visiting Ground Zero and meets her next great love. There's the ballet, the opera, the theater district - all places you don't find in small-town settings. Those places set the tone for your romance book, too. Fast-paced, loud, lively. All things a city is.

Small towns have a slower, more relaxed vibe to them. I was the proverbial fish out of water when I first arrived from NYC to smalltown USA. That scenario alone sets up a great romance story - the fish out of water meets the dyed-in-the-wool small towner. Conflict is inherent in just the meet-cute, never mind the setting!

When I start a new book it's usually the characters I see first in my head. Once I have them figured out I think about the setting. Putting a metropolitan doctor who is used to the treat 'em and street 'em world of an urban emergency room into a rural, backwoods town where many residents don't have running water is a great way to juxtapose that fish-out-of-water scenario. Maybe his nurse is a lifetime local and she has to educate him in the ways of suburban life and medical care.

Or take a world-famous writer who's used to jet plane travel and first-class accommodations and have part of her book tour be in a town famous for nothing other than a huge snow storm a half-century ago and nothing close to a five-star hotel. The owner of the town bookstore is her love interest and right there you've got a champagne vs. beer romance setup. The tiny town is everything she's not used to but everything she comes to love.

Setting is so important to how a writer tells her story. I've written my share of both smalltown loves and big city HEA's. And I don't have a favorite. I simply write where the characters tell me they live...or want to.

Visit Peggy at peggyjaeger.com where she blogs daily about the things in her life that make her say, "What??!!"

No simpering heroines need apply by Peggy Jaeger

 The theme this month is STRONG WOMAN. Kinda serendipitous for me, since my tagline is I write about STRONG WOMEN, the families who support them and the men who can't live without them.

I couldn't write about a weak woman if my writing career depended on it. Well...maybe if it was that serious. But still...

A strong woman character in fiction is integral to any plotline or story arc, especially if her strength is wrapped around, and steeped in,  her vulnerability. 

Some of my favorites are the following.

Eve Dallas of J.D. Robb's IN DEATH SERIES. 

Eve is a homicide cop in the year 2060 with a dark, tortured past. Born to two parents who used her as a way to make them money, she winds up killing her father when she is about 5 years old. She's rescued, taken into foster care, and when she reaches maturity becomes a police officer. She works her way up the ranks to Lieutenant, never losing the desire to stand for the dead and bring justice to silent victims like she was. Eve is a badass in the true sense of the word, but she is so completely vulnerable when it comes to emotions that sometimes the reader can't help but laugh at how uncomfortable she is with them. This dichotomy is the bedrock of her fabulousness as a character.

Hester Pryne from The Scarlet Letter. 

Scorned for the emotion of passion and vilified for living out her sexuality, Hester is a woman I would like to have on my girl squad. She is loyal, true to herself and those she loves, and doesn't suffer fools. Many may think this choice is a poor one for me because Hester was first and foremost a shunned woman in the society she lived in. But...I'm sure as women we've all done something in our lives we wouldn't want to be made public to keep ourselves out of ridicule and scorn equations. Luckily, many of us did those things before social media ruled the world.

My girl Lizzy Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. In an era when a woman's only option was a successful marriage, Lizzy, who is no spring chicken, refuses two men in the course of a few chapters. One because he's a fool and she could never love him. The second is because she's mad at him and thinks him arrogant. The truth of her character comes when she realizes her mistake at thinking Darcy arrogant in a negative way. Once she discovers who and what he truly is, her heart opens and she confesses her mistake - something only a strong woman can even think of doing. Because in so doing, she is opening herself to potential scorn and ridicle.

Jo March in Little Women. Selfless to a fault - hey, she cut off her hair to make money for the family - witty, and snide in the best girlfriend way, and loyal to no end, Jo epitomizes the girl we'd all like to be when as teens.

I'm going to add one of my heroines from my Will Cook for Love series, Gemma Laine from A Shot at love. 

As a child, Gemma's father left the family to be a free man without responsibility or care. Gemma as an adult has grown to be uber-responsible and knows she will never abandon her family for any reason. She is wary of men due to the poor example she was shown as a child and vows to never let a man have control over her like her father did to her mother. Gemma is a fifth-degree black belt, can shoot like a sharpshooter, and can take a man twice her size down with one punch. With all that she still feels, deep in her soul, she is unworthy of love and is filled with personal angst. I think she deserves the title Alpha female. When she meets FBI agent Kyros Papandreous, it is a true battle of alpha dominance between them. Who compromises is the fun part!!

There's this meme that I love that makes its way around the Internet every now and again

Amen!

Peggy Jaeger writes about strong women, the families who support them, and the men who simply can't live without them. Follow her on social media: