|Pigeon Point Tobago, setting of a scene in Cafe au Lait|
who can bring a location, time and social context so vividly to life that I feel I've not just read about a place but actually spent time there. What is setting precisely? It's the overall atmosphere (place, time, society) and the particular physical setting of each scene.
|Vizcaya Museum & Gardens, Miami, from Give Me the Night|
The settings in my books are usually places I know intimately, such as the Caribbean and South Florida, or that I've imagined intimately, such as the post-apocalyptic barren permafrost wastes in my speculative short story, Bird. Whether the scene is a placid
|Arctic tundra, similar to the landscape in Bird|
How important is setting to your writing? Do you labor over it, or is it a mere backdrop to that all-important element--the plot?