I'm almost at a point where I feel guilty for not writing more fiction explicitly set in the Midwest. And yet I want to be able to write about other countries, and space, and places that don't exist. I am, through my research, building up an idea about the history of St. Paul. I just can't write everything at once!
It's kind of strange to have grown up with the assumption, more or less, that where I live has always been Nowhere as far as anyone not living here is concerned; and yet what's being driven home to me by my research is that the opposite is true. The fact that cities exist at all means that, at some point, there were fortunes made there, and trade and industries booming. The small town my mom comes from in Northern Minnesota has less than 600 people living in it today, but back when the stage (and later the railroad) ran through there it had a brewery of its own and several hotels and mills. Almost all of that is gone now.
I have yet to be accused of being quaint, and I haven't had anyone react negatively to the specifically Midwestern aspects of the book. Unfavorable reviews are part of the game, I think, and for the most part they haven't bothered me. What I do find frustrating (but need to get over) is when it feels like the reviewer is making a lot of assumptions about my knowledge and intent based on nothing more than his or her dislike of the text. But, I am not going to be one of those people who argues with reviews. That way lies madness--and worse!--unproductive madness.
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It's kind of strange to have grown up with the assumption, more or less, that where I live has always been Nowhere as far as anyone not living here is concerned; and yet what's being driven home to me by my research is that the opposite is true. The fact that cities exist at all means that, at some point, there were fortunes made there, and trade and industries booming. The small town my mom comes from in Northern Minnesota has less than 600 people living in it today, but back when the stage (and later the railroad) ran through there it had a brewery of its own and several hotels and mills. Almost all of that is gone now.
I have yet to be accused of being quaint, and I haven't had anyone react negatively to the specifically Midwestern aspects of the book. Unfavorable reviews are part of the game, I think, and for the most part they haven't bothered me. What I do find frustrating (but need to get over) is when it feels like the reviewer is making a lot of assumptions about my knowledge and intent based on nothing more than his or her dislike of the text. But, I am not going to be one of those people who argues with reviews. That way lies madness--and worse!--unproductive madness.