By Robin
Barefield
Do you write
novels set in the big city, on the farm, in the halls of an Ivy League college,
or in the English countryside? Maybe your
characters work in Hollywood or manage a huge hotel in Las Vegas. No matter
where your books take place, you must submerge your readers in your story and
make them feel a part of it. When a reader opens one of my books, I want her to
see the towering mountains and rocky shoreline of Kodiak Island, and I want her
to feel the salt spray from the white-capped waves slamming into her boat. I
hope she also smells the salty ocean,
the fruity tundra, or the steamy bear droppings on the trail in front of her. I
encourage her to see, feel, and smell all these things and more in my novels. I
need to open her senses to Alaska because my mystery novels take place in
wilderness Alaska, not in an urban setting.
The setting of a novel is as important as the characters.
Do you know your setting well, or does your story occur in a place where you’ve
never been? A setting the author knows well provides the basis for a more
authentic, vibrant novel. Even if you write science fiction, the setting can
have elements of a place you know.
My husband and I live in the wilderness on Kodiak Island,
and the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge
surrounds our home. Kodiak sits in the Gulf of Alaska, 250 miles
southwest of Anchorage. It is a mountainous island with steep peaks rising from
sea level and a shoreline carved by glaciers into deep, fjord-like bays. In
addition to this rugged geography, the Alaska Current, an offshoot of the warm
Japanese Kuroshio Current, flows northward near Kodiak, bringing warm water to
the frigid Gulf of Alaska and spawning weather conditions which are often
violent, change rapidly, and may vary considerably from one area of the island
to another. In addition to its dramatic
weather, Kodiak is famous for its huge brown bears, and more than 3,500 of
these bears roam the woods of the Kodiak Archipelago.
As an author, I enjoy throwing my characters into this
dangerous, inhospitable environment. The wilderness setting offers me ideas to
move the plot of the story forward or to provide background and depth for my
characters.
I have lived in the Kodiak wilderness for 35 years, so I
know it well. If I tried to write a mystery set in Dallas or Paris, I’d be lost, but I find it easy to drop my
characters into the wilds of Alaska.
Where your story occurs is one of the most important
aspects of your novel, so I encourage you to consider
your setting. Make it easy on yourself and use a location you know and
can bring to life.
________________________________________________________________________
Robin Barefieldlives in the wilderness on Kodiak Island where she and her husband own a remote
lodge. She has a master’s degree in fish and wildlife biology and is a wildlife viewing and fishing guide. Robin has
published three novels, Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, and The Fisherman’s Daughter. She draws on
her love and appreciation of the Alaska wilderness as well as her scientific
background when writing. Robin invites you to join her at her website: http://robinbarefield.com, and while
you are there, you can sign up for her free, monthly newsletter about true
crime in Alaska. Robin is also a charter member of Author Masterminds: https://authormasterminds.com/robinbarefield.
If you would like to watch a short webinar about how Robin became a published
author and why she writes Alaska wilderness mysteries, follow this link: http://bit.ly/2pcCOo6
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