Guest Blog: Setting--warped a little

Over at The Bookcase, I'm guest blogging today on why SECRET KEEPERS is set in Palmetto, loosely based on my hometown and its overlay of New South over Old South. Sometimes it helps to have a lousy sense of direction-- you can just, you know, make things up. Or warp them. Take liberties. Earn your poetic license.

For example, I changed the cemetery name from Springwood to Springforth. I thought Springforth was a better name for a cemetery, anyway. And that outdated Confederate Monument--you see them in just about every southern town-- I tweaked that, too.

Sometimes I find inspiration right in my front yard. The pitcher plants, Love-Lies-Bleeding, and moonflower vine in my garden prompted some poetic license. Amaranth, a seedy, neglected estate in Secret Keepers, has a secret garden. When the Blooming Idiots gardeners stumble upon its bounty of botanicals, they find a few other-worldly flowers as well: secret keepers are flowers with a potent aroma that trigger a powerful memory of love in a person’s life.

Read the entire post here.