Chalk one up in the "happy" column

[naomi_jay]

As if to remind me that I'm not a talentless hack wasting her time, here's a brilliant review of AFTERLIFE from Bitten by Books.

"This well-written and thoroughly engrossing novel has much to offer all urban fantasy and paranormal romance fans."

I love that the reviewer thinks it's set in England. One of the biggest issues my writers' group had with AFTERLIFE, besides the question of whether Yasmin could eat bacon sandwiches or not, was whether this book was set in America or England. Privately, I've always envisioned Shoregrave as a gloomy Northern England coastal tone, with plenty of Lovecraftian influence, but my usual response to the question was "it's wherever you want it to be."

And once again, this is a nudge that Halflife needs to be written. Of course, today I'm toying with the idea of trying to write something for the Nocturne Bites line. I really love these - they're about the only ebooks I buy and actually read, and I'm a fan of the longer Nocturne books too. Obviously this is all post-BLOOD HUNT, but I'm thinking a nice 10-15k novella will make a nice break between finishing BLOOD HUNT and starting the as-yet-untitled YA novel for my agent.

Comments

[wtfbrain.livejournal.com]

I also thought it was set in England. :) That might possibly be my brain imposing a location, knowing where you're from, though.

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

I'm actually kinda glad of that, because my writers' group thought I used too many American-isms, which I didn't see myself! I guess most of the urban fantasy stuff I read is set in America, so I've internalised a lot of it?

[wtfbrain.livejournal.com]

That's probably a big part of it. Now that I'm in Poland, I keep getting bits of inspiration from places and things around here, but I can't decide if I should just incorporate them as is, which means possibly setting the whole novel here, or just borrowing bits and pieces and setting it in Random Town, Canada (or possibly USA). Hmm.

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

I'm quite fond of making up random towns and cities rather than using real ones. That's mostly down to laziness on my part though - saves actual, like, researching.

[wtfbrain.livejournal.com]

While I lived in Banff, I ended up incorporating elements from the town into my worldbuilding, and then ended up deciding to actually *set it there, but I think you're right - making up random locations is probably the way I'll go: it's fun, and yeah, saves on the research time. :)

[etaknosnhoj.livejournal.com]

I think quite often it varies from person to person: I read a lot of American books and watch a lot of American TV and films, so even though I'm English, I'm quite familiar with a lot of Americanisms and use them in everyday speec. But people who don't and aren't, might think it sounds incongruous.

Maybe this is why people keep asking if I'm Australian.

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

I was asked once if I was South African. I've no idea where that came from.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Ditto! Except for the being English part. And apparently I have an accent that is either Californian or Canadian or English. Even though I have never travelled outside of the country. Prose-wise, it still surprises some people that I am, in fact, Australian.

[rowanda380.livejournal.com]

congrats on the great review!

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

Thank you ^_^

[tezmillertm.livejournal.com]

I thought it was gloomy English coastside. But maybe that's just the stereotype we have here of England ;-)

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

Just like we think Australia is nothing but barbeques and poisonous snakes!

[tezmillertm.livejournal.com]

To quote Seanan McGuire, Australia is the "Land of Poison and Flame" ;-)