Story Settings with Denise Covey #IWSG

As many know already, IWSG is starting up a free newsletter. To sign up for it, click here. It will be released on the last Wednesday of every month and it's going to be awesome! If you are an IWSG member and would like to submit a short piece for consideration (no longer than 200 words) on anything to do with writing, publishing or marketing, then please send a DOC to Chrys Fey at chrysfey(at)yahoo(dot)com with "Member Article" in the subject line, no later than March 2nd. If you'd like to be considered for the first newsletter, then please send your article no later than February 17th. 

Also, I'm over at the IWSG Website with a cover reveal for our short story anthology from the IWSG contest, so don't forget to pop on over.

And check out our new IWSG Badge! 

And now, introducing the lovely and talented Denise Covey, a fellow Aussie whom I admire a great deal. Take it away, Denise.

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Do you ever feel insecure when you’re developing your setting in your stories? Do you set your stories in places you’ve lived or visited? Or…do you take risks and set your story somewhere exotic?

That old adage ‘write what you know’ has been discredited. Now it's ‘write what you’d like to know’. But there’s something to be said for setting stories in places we know. Readers somehow feel its authenticity and dive right into the story.

Here are a couple of examples from the myriad I can think of...

Did Harper Lee know her Maycomb County when she penned To Kill a Mockingbird? Did her local knowledge of the setting lend authenticity to her powerful story which still resonates with readers today?

Jump to today.

I’ve just finished reading the second in the series by Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling), set in London, and can’t wait to grab the third which I see is out. Well I daresay JK knows London like the back of her hand. You can hear the jackhammers pounding away in the streets and cough up the dust in your throat; you can feel the chill air; slip in the murky snow; drink in the pubs with the flawed aristocracy, the twits…all as you follow her Private Investigator Cormorant Strike on his mission to solve the crime du jour. It has authenticity. It has a I-live-here-and-this-is-my-London tone.

I’ve always been a champion of the authentic setting, so for my novella, Under the Tuscan Moon, I recalled trips to Italy. Those medieval towns haven’t changed much since back in the day. Walk in those forests surrounding these towns and you could be back in the 1700s, the time my paranormal series is set. The wild pigs still hunt for truffles and other delicacies, the crumbling villas tower over the villages like vengeful giants.

This is my Italy...

Here's the blurb:
Within the velvety Tuscan sky, a harvest moon glows like liquid amber. Mysterious shadows seep noxiously through the unsuspecting forest, preying on the vulnerable, whose blinded gaze mocks their senses.
A man.
A woman.
Forever locked in a sensual embrace.
A werewolf howls…
A cloak swishes…
And, 
Alabaster flesh waits to be torn.
Timing is everything in the Danse Macabre.
On this night the nectar of revenge is at its sweetest.
Just ask Vipunin…
“Who is Vipunin?” you ask.
A tormented soul, longing to recapture the life stolen from him a century ago. His wait is finally over. His love, Ciassia, has returned and she will be by his side for eternity…
Or so he thinks…

Thanks so much for having me, Lynda!

Under the Tuscan Moon

A paranormal romance

Book One – Cassia

 Amazon.com, Amazon.uk, Amazon.au

Denise Covey hails from that land Down Under, where she publishes flash fiction, short stories and travelogues in Australian magazines. When not writing, she teaches English Lit to her rapt senior students who think it’s way cool to have a writer as a teacher. Under the Tuscan Moon is her first, but not last, paranormal romance. Denise has decided it’s way cool to live in a world of vampires, angels, demons and werewolves.

Join Denise on Blogger, Word Press, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Wattpad.