Top Ten Tuesday: (Five) Places I Loved So Much, I Set a Book There

Created by and with thanks to That Artsy Reader! This week’s theme is exploring much-loved book settings–but I’ve already done a take on that, here, so I thought I’d shake it up. Instead of book settings I’d love to visit, I’m thinking about settings I loved so much, I decided to set a book there!

[For clarity, these books are WIPs–but in case you’re interested, I went into researching them in further detail recently, here!]

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1. Gower, Wales
WIP: an angsty, second-chance romance duology
I needed some moody woods my teenage sweethearts could run from the world into… And I found an absolute paradise in these woods in Gower.

2. Rhossili, Wales
WIP: see above
As mentioned in my writing research post, I followed a Rhossili cliff edge out to the edge of the world, with my characters in my shadow.

3. Oxford, England
WIP: a buddy romcom about two platonic soulmates who make a terrible, drunken decision to road trip stalk their high school exes
Also as I mentioned in my writing research post, I took dignified, beautiful Oxford, and painted it red with my loveable screw-ups. Sorry, Oxford. (But not really.)

4. London, England
WIP: see above
True story: I went to London for the first time when I was fifteen, and I fell in love so hard, I swore I’d move there the second I was an adult. Life happened, and London life didn’t–so I gave those dreams to my characters, so they could live it instead.

5. Stonehenge, England
WIP: YA high fantasy about witches who control the elements, and the fae they’re at war with
I took one look at witchy, mysterious Stonehenge, and decided it had to be the entrance to some magical world or another. And then I visited, and saw a marking in one of the stone pillars that *actually* looked like a silhouette of a person entering the rocks. Tell me I’m wrong…

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How important is the setting of a story to you?