Novel Settings--Familar vs. Exotic--Which Do You Prefer?

Happy Wednesday, everyone,

Naomi Rawlings here, and I’m wishing you all a warm and lovely spring day from Michigan’s rather cold and windy Upper Peninsula. (And yes, I saw a few snowflakes touch the ground while writing this post.)

The month of April is especially exciting for me this year, as my first-ever published novel, Sanctuary for a Lady, releases. And did you know I’m not the only one with a debut novel this month? Author Jessica Nelson, had her first novel, Love on the Range, release as well. (Congratulations, Jessica!)

So as any eager new author would do, I raced to Walmart last week and found my book on the shelf (right beside Jessica’s). As I stood back admiring my novel in an actual store, available for anyone to buy, I noticed that my setting was a little different from the books beside it. All three other books releasing from Love Inspired Historical this month are set in the 1800s, and all three other books are attached to the United States in some way. Two of the stories are set in the American West, and the third involves a sea journey from Ireland to America. Then there’s my book, lonely little Sanctuary for a Lady, set in France during the late 1700s and without a single mention of America throughout the entire novel.

Did you know my publisher considers this setting a bit of a risk? That Love Inspired Historical has never before published a novel set during the French Revolution? So my publisher is rather curious to see if Sanctuary for a Lady will sell as well as Love on the Range and Brides of the West and The Wedding Journey.


Novels set in the United States generally tend to sell better than novels set other countries. Please understand there are exceptions to this rule, and a book set in a foreign country can sell just as many copies as a book set in the United States. Novels set in England are rather popular as well, but in general, foreign set books sell fewer copies.

I’m not the only Love Inspired Historical author dipping into the pool of European fiction, however. Last month Eva Maria Hamilton had her debut novel, Highland Hearts, release. Highland Hearts is set in the 1700s like my novel, and it takes place completely in Scotland. Our publisher has asked both Eva and I to consider writing sequels to our novels. Eva’s will be set in Scotland again, and I’ve just started working on a second novel set during the French Revolution. And while Eva and I and others are writing, our publisher is watching to see whether these novels sell a good number of books, or whether Love Inspired Historical will want to publish novels set primarily in the United States and England in the future.

So I’m curious about you. What type of historical novels do you prefer? Do you like stories set in foreign or exotic places and unfamiliar times? Or do you like stories set that take place on American soil and within the past century and a half? If you had to pick between a book set in Europe or a book set in the United States, which would you chose, and why?

How to Write a Novel in Ten Easy Steps

Allie here. I’m busy putting the finishing touches on my Alaskan historical, and life has forced me to do a lot of writing in public places lately. Which means lots of people have stared at the two-inch-thick stack of papers in front of me and asked me what I’m doing. Which leads to the “I’m an author,” conversation, which leads to the inevitable, “Where do you get your ideas?” question.

I always give the same answer: “I don’t really know. I’m afraid if I thought about it too much I’d ruin the wonder of it.” It’s usually then that I get the “you’re one of those crazy artsy people, aren’t you?” looks, as if fiction should be more scientific. As if you could craft a magazine article entitled “How to Write a Novel in Ten Easy Steps.”

So I got to thinking....

Allie Pleiter’s How to Write a Novel in Ten Easy Steps:

1. Gather chocolate, coffee, a fussy laptop, and about 200 hours of uninterrupted peace. Start typing.
2. Dream up the woman every one of us would like to be. Then give her a few flaws so we still like her, because we can be a catty bunch and we’ll get mean if she’s perfect. Type until you break a nail. Get manicure before going on to Step 3.
3. Discover what she loves most, and then figure out a way to put it all in jeopardy. Replenish supply of chocolate and refuse any familial offers to consider decaf.
4. Dream up the man we all wish we married--mentally, physically, spiritually, and maybe even financially--and ensure he says the perfect thing at the right moment. Then mess him up a bit because every woman still holds to the fantasy that she can fix her man. At this point you will probably be typing faster, so keep your manicurist’s number handy.
5. Have a creative crisis. Throw manuscript across the room in fit of terror that your talent has somehow left the building and the book police will take away your future once they figure out the fraud you really are. Eat any chocolate you may have left.
6. Project aforementioned crisis onto your characters. Figure out the highest cost she’ll pay to reach her goal and then double it. Uncover the last thing in the world your hero wants to do and force him to do it--repeatedly. Make sure, however, to do all this between scenes of unspeakable tenderness and things so romantic they’d barely ever happen in real life.
7. Let your heroine and hero discover their love. Cry so hard your family members (and perhaps your pets) show concern for your perspective. Show spouse where the number of pizza delivery service is because doing something so mundane as feeding the family can’t compete with true love.
8. Have a family crisis. Every author worth her salt has one per book, often several. Really, how would we know what real life is if it didn’t keep sticking its nasty nose into our writing lives?
9. Type until every one of your nails is in hideous condition and the “e” is worn off your keyboard. Make your hero a better man because of your heroine’s love. Let your heroine be forever changed by the love of her man. Resolve their problems in ways that have you reaching for tissues every ten minutes.
10. Type “The End.” Consume much chocolate and more coffee, dance around the house in your sweatpants because who has time for laundry? Make sure your printer breaks just as you need to print it out--this is every author’s badge of honor.
11. Ha! You thought we could stop at ten? Start all over again, kiddos, now we need to revise.....

If you want to see how well this system works, check out my novella Bluegrass Easter in the March release, Easter Promises.