I’m writing a scene that takes place during a cold Spring day after a long winter in Buffalo. I’m guessing at what it must be like to see that first crocus poke up through the snow. This is a stretch for me because I have always lived in Southern California and I can look out my windows in February and see flowers blooming. The geraniums in the boxes on my bedroom balcony have flowers all year long.

I chose Buffalo as the setting because I wanted my heroine to be out of her element. She goes north from Birmingham Alabama to work. I also wanted to set the story in the house my great grandfather owned in in Buffalo before the stock market crash in 1929. I remember stories my aunt and father used to tell about going to Sunday dinners as children in this wondrous big house their grandfather lived in before he lost his fortune.

The house is no longer there, and my dad is gone, but the memories are still so clear for my aunt, and I’d like to honor those memories in a small way.

Usually I pick a location I know for a book, or if I need specifics I can’t find, I make up a location. This is the best of all--seeing it through the eyes of one of my very favorite relatives!