Life has chapters, just like books.
Right now I’m transitioning from rural life to town life. We purchased the house in town the fall of 2024 because we were putting our farm up for sale and wanted to know where we would be going when it sold. That chapter was exciting and full of wistfulness of finding the right home.
We did. I love the view from all of my windows. We are isolated enough that we aren’t looking into any neighbors’ windows and we have a gorgeous view of the Eagle Cap Mountains that I write about in my Gabriel Hawke books and the Elkhorns which will be referred to in my Cuddle Farm Mystery series. Out the dining room window we see a couple of rooftops and a hill my hubby knows elk are going to come over when there is a bad winter. 😉
It’s an older house so there has been painting, fixing, and soon a remodel because the kitchen and dining room are too small. But first I will be moved into the house by April 1st. That’s when we are to be off of our farm. Hubby will stay on helping the dairy that he’s been managing hay fields for the last twelve years. Just for this summer to help the person taking over. He’ll stay there in a mobile home on the hay ranch and come help make out new place the way we want on long weekends.
I’m excited about a smaller house to clean, I can run to the store whenever I want, not make a list when I run out of things and have to wait until someone goes to town. I’m excited for the things I can attend without having an hour drive to and from the event. I’m also close to all the areas I write about in my mystery series. That is a real plus. I hope to get to more Native American events and culture a few more connections.
This is not the last chapter in my life but it is certainly one of the most looked forward to. I’ll continue to write, but we also hope to do a bit more traveling around the U.S.
We spent a week last month in southern Utah, hiking in parks and enjoying the weather and scenery. We plan to do that for a couple weeks every winter to get out of the longer, colder (usually) winters than we are used to.
I’m excited to see how the changes, might enhance my stories by living so much closer and being able to do even more trips to locations. I’m only an hour and a half away from the Umatilla Indian Reservation the location of my Spotted Pony Casino Mystery series.
Right now, I’m trying to get all the rooms ready to put the furniture that will fit in and try to keep up with writing on my current book, Captured Hummingbird, book 15 in the Gabriel Hawke novels.
As a reader can you tell when a writer knows the area they are writing about?
Writers, do you like to see places first hand if you write about real places?
Ladies of Mystery 
I can hear the excitement in your words–this is an exciting transition. I too have to feel I know and understand a place in order to write about it. Locations shape us. Knowing a store is nearby has you thinking differently about what you need or want compared to someone who goes into town perhaps only once a week. Enjoy your new place and all the opportunities it brings.
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Thanks, Susan. Yes, it is going to be a change from what I’ve been used to, but I’m up to the challenge.
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You new home looks wonderful! Enjoy the surrounding.
I always visit places I write about. Since my Sydney Lockhart mysteries are set in historical hotels, I stay at each one while doing my research.
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Thanks, Kathleen! That sounds like fun, staying at a historical hotel. When I wrote historical western romances, I always visited museums and historical societies in the areas where the stories were set.
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Your new place sounds lovely. Wishing you the best time there – may it be all you want and more.
As for actually seeing locations, I agree. I’ve been a travel junkie all my life and have set many a book in locations I’ve actually been. Being rather poor during my single years I still found time to travel, but when I got back I would do a proposal (synopsis and three chapters – this was during the bad old days of trad pubbing) and submit it, then take the entire cost of the trip off my taxes as a business expense. And I would have the rejection slip as proof. It didn’t always work, though, because more often than not the publisher would accept the book and I would be stuck having to do a book I really didn’t want to! Now I’ve published enough books that the IRS is satisfied when I claim a trip as a deduction… at least, no problems since I’ve started self-pubbing.
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Thanks, Janice! I had the same thing when I went to Hawaii and then wrote one of the Shandra Higheagle books set there. I discovered something that would play into a plot for a book, and then, when I went to Iceland, I discovered I could get Gabriel Hawke to the country feasibly.
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Wishing you many new adventures in “town!” You’ll enjoy the convenience of being closer to the action. but might miss some of the privacy and solitude of the farm. Either way, changing thngs up is good for the writer’s mind! My Witch City Mysteries are set in the real witch city of Salem Massachusetts, and I think of the city almost as one of the characters–with moods and personality and beauty and ugliness.
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Thanks, Carol! I know I’m going to miss the privacy and solitude, but I can always head to Wallowa County and hang out in the forest for a day. I agree that the location often becomes a character. Thanks for commenting!
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l agree that visiting a place you’re writing about adds more depth to the story than just research alone.
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Thanks for commenting, Sharon. That’s how I feel, too.
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