Over the last few days, I've realized something...I'm homesick for Morrisville. Not so strange until you consider that Morrisville is the fictional small town setting in the Rennie Harlow series. It's such a fun quirky little town. People keep dying all the time, but it's such a cozy atmosphere filled with eccentric and lovable (at least in my opinion) characters. Morrisville is fictional but its geography is, to some extent, based on a real small town I lived in when I was a kid, Hillsboro, IL.
I think some of it's in reaction to getting close to finishing my current project. The end of this project is rather violent, scary and stressful, for me and the characters. So, I think the desire to go back to Morrisville is more of a desire for a different kind of life for the moment, something a little less tense and hectic, which is sort of surprising given, if things keep going the way they are, Morrisville will be the murder capital of the state. That's something no one ever thinks about when writing cozy mysteries all set in the same town! So, now I'm actually contemplating returning to the Rennie series for another project, but something a little different than the two books I've written in that series already. I'll keep you posted if I decide to go forward with it...
But here's what I'm wondering...have any of you ever been homesick for a fictional location? When I was younger, I used to long to be on the starship Enterprise NCC-1701 D because yes, they kept almost getting blown up or taken over, but everyone belonged and had a place and it felt safer than high school. If I were a kid now, I'd probably be homesick, longing to be at Hogwarts (love those books!)
So, where have you wished that you lived? Tattoine. The Millenium Falcon. Genovia. Sunnydale. The O.C. Stargate Command. Perhaps, the attic above Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies? Whose palace/house/moisture farm/ship's quarters/etc, have you ever wished you live in? Post comments below...I'd love to hear your answers!!!
BTW, major bonus points for the person/people who can identify all the movies/television shows/books that the locations named above come from. Ed, are you up to the challenge? : )
Talk to you tomorrow!
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6 comments:
Alrighty ... let's see here *cracks knuckles*
Tattoine: duh ... Star Wars.
The Millenium Falcon: double duh ... Star Wars again
Genovia: I only know this because I'm married, but the Princess Diaries
Sunnydale: Listed city of residence of one Miss Buffy, the Vampire Lay-er er ... I mean Slayer. Vampire Slayer!
The O.C.: I'm going to guess the O.C. television series
Stargate Command: Stargate, but only the TV series, not the movie as there was no "Stargate Command" per se.
the attic above Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies: The Little Princess (thanks Google)!
How'd I do? Any I missed?
Damn...you're good! : ) I knew you'd google the last one and get it. I had to look it up myself because I couldn't remember the name of the school. I'm impressed on the Genovia one. Either you listen a lot more closely than any of us suspected or your wife volunteered the information *grin*
So, a triple gold star for you!!! But you didn't answer my question...have you ever been homesick for a fictional place? As homesick as one can be for a place that you've never been...if that makes any sense!
Stace,
Ok, I'll bite and answer your question...just please reserve judgment for a later date ; )
I used to want to live on the spaceship with the Aliens from V (anyone remember that series at all?) -- for some reason I felt like those aliens would "get" me (I was a strange child...makes sense, I guess, since I've turned into a somewhat strange adult). I was also homesick for the homestead on Little House On The Prairie (the show) -- even now I watch re-runs and can't help but want to be there (I have no idea why...I hate the outdoors and I'm alleric to horses, so I probably would have been miserable there). And I used to be homesick for the world of Meg from A Wrinkle In Time...I loved that world when I was a kid!
Stac
I get homesick for a number of places. TV wise, I get homesick for the tumbling world of Sydney Bristow. (Probably why I own all three seasons on DVD.)
In the world of my imagination I miss Millers Kill, the Burg, Cleveland, and St. Paul. Oddly though, I think that it's the characters I miss, not necessarily the places. (Cleveland being the exception because I lived there.) I miss the people that my favorite authors bring to life. Once I finished your latest, I really missed Rennie, and want desperately to know how she's doing.
I think that's one of the greatest gifts an author has, to give the gift of friends, even if only for 200 pages at a time. I'm a serial series reader because I become so involved with the characters, I have to know more. I am so involved when I read that my husband can have complete conversations with me, and I won't hear a word because of the conversation I'm in. I can never finish a book at night because I feel an empty loss, almost like death of an acquaintance.
Anyone else have that problem too?
Becky
What a lovely thing to say! I think that's the best compliment anyone can ever give a reader -- that you've given them "friends" so real that they are missed when they're gone! I actually printed out your comment and posted it on my wall : )
For the record, I miss Rennie too (I always miss whoever I'm not with at the moment, I guess I'm fickle that way!) and I'm sure she's up to her eyeballs in trouble, as usual. : )
As for losing yourself so completely in a book that you don't hear what's going on around you...*grin* Ask my mom about that. I drove her crazy during my childhood by doing just that. When I'm reading and it's good, I can tune just about anyone or anything out. My husband knows that all too well, I'm afraid.
And if I finish a book at night, I feel keyed up, like I have all this energy with no place for it to go. It's a feeling of closure, I guess, but always too abrupt. So, I too, have stopped finishing books at night just before bed.
Thanks, Beck : )
Okay, duh, I meant "writer" in my last post in the first sentence, not "reader."
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