Location, location, location

See that image to the left? That's what color the sky was all day long yesterday.  That's the color it is right now. That's foggy summers for you. Is it 8 a.m. and time for breakfast? It it 6 p.m. and time for dinner?  Who can say?? White, white, white, all day long—there's no gradation in color as the day progresses, because no sun really penetrates the fog. And then suddenly it's night, which is dark, as per usual. Sometimes we get days and days and days of this, and it's a wee bit like being in a padded cell. (Not that I have any first hand experience with that, mind you. )

What's funny is that often you can take a ten minute train ride from where I live through a short tunnel to the other side of the hill, to another neighborhood, to find the sun shining, the sky a brilliant blue. It's like that scene in The Wizard of Oz, where Dorothy opens the door to her flying house after it lands and suddenly everything goes from black and white to vivid color. If we get too many more days of white skies, I may need to visit Oz. Do they give the weather report by neighborhood in other cities? They do here.

Anyway, I’m working on revisions for THE SECRET TO SEDUCTION, and in a marvel of synchronicity, this week on the old British comedy series As Time Goes By (Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer, shown on PBS), the very dry-witted Lionel Hardcastle (played by G. Palmer) is working on the revisions to his monumentally dull (and he knows it’s dull) book, My Life in Kenya. The book is about—wait for it—his life in Kenya. As a coffee planter. He’s already revised the book once, but his hyper “boy publisher” (this is what Lionel calls him) Alistair Deacon has more revisions in mind, and their conversation goes like this:

ALISTAIR (exuberantly): “We LOVE the book, Li. LOVE it. But the manuscript wants something. [tilts head back musingly]. What’s the word, what’s the word…?

LIONEL: Burning?

Cracked me up.

Fortunately, I'm having a lovely time revising THE SECRET TO SEDUCTION. Seriously. Lovely. It's wall to wall sex! Just kidding. Don't mind me. A wee bit punchy after a late night working on revisions. (There are walls in the book, and there is sex, and the two might just work in tandem in a particular scene, but that's all the hint I'm going to give at the moment.)

As I'm working on revisions and various other things, the story of my next book is playing softly in the background of  my mind, and one of the things I think I'm fairly certain of is where the first love scene will take place. Not where in the story arc...but where as in location. The surrounding environs. And I don't know if it's quirk or not, but so far, in every book I've written, I invariably write the love scenes first (it's the "dessert first" method of writing), because, as I blogged about yesterday, scenes often pop fully formed into my head, and the love scenes are among them. And as they're the most important scenes in the story, I want to give them my freshest energy.

But first I coax them into existence by asking myself where I want the couple to be, and I wait for some sort of image to shimmer into being in my mind. On a pier?  A hunting box?  A garden? A gallery of statues?  A tiny attic room, with stairs creaking as the heroine begins her tentative climb toward our hero? What feels delicious, evocative, appropriate, sensual? What can I immerse myself in as I write? Something invariably comes to mind, and somehow it fits the story. (I once a told a dinner companion about my locational approach to love scenes, and he nearly choked on his prime rib from laughing, for some reason.)

Someday I'll write more about my overall process, because I have metaphors galore for it, and they're all just dying to be used. But for now—what's your idea of a good Regency-set love scene location?? :) [And see if you can guess which of my books, current and forthcoming, feature the above-mentioned love scene locations . LOL. I'll send a signed book to the first commenter who gets it right].

Comments

[Shirley]

How about in a stable, for a good place for a love scene? :)

My guess for the locations:

Pier: BATS!
Hunting Box: "The Runaway Duke"
Garden: "To Love a Thief"
Gallerly of statues: "Ways to be Wicked?" (I don't know yet!)
Attic: The Secret to Seduction?

[Ranurgis]

Sniffle, I can't participate in that contest yet. I haven't read even one book yet. As I indicated before perhaps, I feel so terribly tired all the time that I rarely get in 2 pages of reading before I fall asleep. Actually, at present, my best place to get any reading done is the W.C.

As for locations: how about a library under the stern face of great-grandfather (I know, too common) but you've picked all the unusual places already. What about a grotto but I think they didn't come into style until later in the century or were these ever popular in GB. I can remember seeing them in Austria. OK, this one is a no-no I guess because it's a place used by another author but it may give you some ideas: a little stream which had a huge tree beside it and a grotto was created by the area where the water had washed soil from the mammoth roots of the tree.

Sorry, no imagination.

[Julie Anne Long]

Shirley—oooh, good guesses! But I can't tell you yet whether or not you pegged 'em all. I'll tell you tomorrow. :) And a stable...hmmm....rustling hay....the smell of leather...you might really be onto something. :)

Ranurgis—no imagination?? I beg to differ. You waxed very nearly lyrical, there. :) Are you sure you don't have a romance novel lurking somewhere in you?? No doubt you have quite a few on your nightstand. :) I can't speak to the genesis of the grotto, but you painted quite a pretty picture, there. :)

[KimW]

How about the kitchen or the carriage.

My guesses:

Pier: Beauty and the Spy
Hunting Box: The Runaway Duke
Garden: To Love a Thief
Gallerly of statues: The Secret to Seduction
Attic room: Ways to be Wicked

[Ranurgis]

Yeah, I'm sure. After all, these were things I've actually seen or already read--though not made love in. But no. For someone who had to ask her mother what to write a good description about for school and then had to be coaxed forward every inch of the way (g) no way do I have a novel in me. But yes, until I moved last November, I was walled in by books in every room in my apartment.