https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com
Welcome! You’ve arrived at the blog of PJ Colando, a member of the Insecure Writers Support Group, which is the brainchild of Alex Cavanaugh, an esteemed sci-fi writer and film critic. Here’s his page, an important place to check out: https://www.alexjcavanaugh.com
Here are the co-hosts that help Ninja Captain Alex, manage this large group to which writers of all ilk throng. Click on their links to check out their contributions, too.
J Lenni Dorner https://jlennidorner.blogspot.com/
Janet Alcorn https://janetalcorn.com/
Diane Burton http://dianeburton.blogspot.com
PJ Colando https://www.pjcolando.com/
Jenni Enzor https://jennienzor.blogspot.com/
This is an enduring online support group, in part because insecurity seems to be as integral to the writer’s life as talent. Every other moment one or all of us feels like we’re a hack. Call it the ticking clock of our mutual dogged determination.
The other part is that the advice, support, applause, and solutions are real. Each month members check in to respond to a question. The July question: If you could live in any book world, which one would you choose? There are no right/wrong answers. Herein lies the freedom of expression that is central to our preoccupation with writing.
This question was difficult for me because I enthusiastically embrace travel as much as reading. The duo shares the second spot on the heap of my life’s passions – my husband is No. 1. We are fortunate to have enough income to afford both hobbies, which can be expensive. But, no more expensive than professional sports tickets, coupled with fine wine, cognac, and luxury cigars.
World-building is the province of great writers. These experts can enliven their characters and plot with the immersive world they create. Some are so skilled that a reader is transported, something that has helped cope with our protracted Covid-caused homestay. In the instance of science fiction writing/reading, one could visit another planet. Time travel novels fostered living in a different time, as well as place, unfettered by disease.
Consider England’s Forest of Dean. There, you’ll encounter winding paths, dense dark green foliage, and an air of hidden secrets – a model for fantasy world-building. J.K. Rowling, the Harry Potter series author, grew up nearby and spent time in the forest, which is the inspiration for the book series, Forbidden Forest. There are traces of her childhood cottage home, which may/may not feature a tiny closet under the stairs that served as Harry’s bedroom. Wanna verify with me?
My husband and I visited Edinburgh, Scotland during a trip that included England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, On the grounds of Edinburgh Castle, are Mary, Queen of Scot’s, riding stable which was the model for Hagrid’s House, Edinburgh is the perfect city for her world-building. The graves at Gray’s Church famously sport key character’s names, including Voldemort. Further, we visited the Elephant Tree House, where she wrote the series, reportedly nursing a single cup of tea and biscuit because that was all she could afford.
But I wouldn’t want to inhabit that world. Not only do I not identify as a Muggle, but I adore living in southern California, the land of perpetual sunshine and joy.
My husband and I edged the Ngong Hills, Kenya while on a sensational safari, one of the many trips of a lifetime we’ve taken.
Danish author Karen Blixen wrote Out of Africa, chronicling her time living on a coffee plantation from 1913 to 1931 at the base of Ngong Hills in Kenya. While we adored our trip, I wouldn’t want to live there. The feelings that permeate the book – and the movie of the same name, starring Meryl Streep ad Robert Redford – are loneliness and isolation.
Ernest Hemingway set his book, The Green Hills of Africa, in the vicinity of our safari on the great migration route, shown in the movie, The Lion King. Our emphasis was on sighting the wild beasts in their habitat, not hunting and killing them as trophies. And, while our safari accommodations were deluxe –
I wouldn’t want to inhabit that world. I live in a paid-for home with no packing-and-unpacking necessary.
Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, primarily takes place during the Roaring Twenties in fictitious towns on Long Island’s north shore. Neighboring communities housed wealthy families who lived in lavish mansions but with one significant difference — “old money” families inhabited East Egg. Across a small bay, West Egg’s inhabitants were considered “new money” social climbers. Jay Gatsby, the main character, lived in West Egg, threw elaborate parties, and pined for his love Daisy, who lived across the bay, married to another man.
While the world of forbidden elegance holds allure, the recent plundering of women’s rights by the Supreme Court assures me that the era was not for me. I’m not even certain that the women in the novel could vote.
I wouldn’t want to inhabit that world. I’m having a difficult enough time considering an America dumped back into the ’50s.
Who can forget the lively adventures of Tom Sawyer in Mark Twain’s famous novel? The book is set in the fictitious town of St. Petersburg, Missouri, along the Mississippi River. My Faith, Family, Frenzy! book series has much in common with this geography and mores of the small town. The books are available on my author site https://www.pjcolando.com.
Because we are enthusiastically engaged in travel, my husband and I have visited many settings, but, as Dorothy famously said, “There’s no place like home.”
Hi,
Traveling in the U.K. is very nice. I hope you enjoyed your trip there.
Thank you very much for co-hosting.
Shalom aleichem,
Pat G @ EverythingMustChange
Thanks for checking in, Patricia. My name is Patricia, too, and I love it, but the nickname stuck to my skin lo-o-ong ago.
England’s Forest of Dean sounds interesting. Glad your husband and you can travel. Thanks for co-hosting this month.
Our time there was brief because we were on a tour bus, but it looms large in imagination –
I loved every country of the UK – and even loved the cities of Dublin, London, and Edinborough. So much history in each one’s architecture and culture. So different from America – and so different when one is a tourist I suppose.
The only traveling I want to do is get an RV and see the US. And maybe go to Ireland one day. I’m a homebody.
Thanks for co-hosting.
Thanks for stopping by, Melissa. My first book, Stashes, was written about adventures on an RV trip in the US… it was fiction because, while I wanted to do this, my husband wanted a sailboat…
I went through the same effort to find a better world. I too live in SoCal, am addicted to the weather. I try endlessly to find somewhere to move with cheaper gas, taxes, food, and pretty much everything, and fail!
I always remind myself than perpetual sunshine, fostering sunny attitudes, is worth a lot of money!
Great descriptions. That’s how I feel about cities. Great place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there!
Thanks for the compliment, Mary. Yes, green grass is better than concrete and quiet, calm is better than hustle-bustle…
Hi. Thanks for co-hosting and for this sneak peek into some lovely book worlds. I’m wondering how St Petersburg slipped my mind when I was writing the answer to this month’s question. Loved Tom Sawyer’s world while growing up.
St. Petersburg would be cool, except for the long winter’s chill. We traveled there to see the paintings of the Hermitage and loved, loved, loved. What’s also to love is the freedom to leave and then live in the U.S., far, far from Putin and his perils.
It was interesting reading the real places that Rowling was inspired by. What a gift that you and your husband travel so much! I’m sure that gives you lots of inspiration for your writing.
Here’s the thing, Jenni –
Though my husband and I have traveled the world, when I began to write, I set my book series in the Midwest where I grew up.
I think my books are a sort of homage to the rural small towns there, but I’m not moving back – ha! It’s quizzical…
I can’t wait to travel more. Hubby and I just took a trip to Italy and Greece and enjoyed every minute. My problem is I want to live everywhere. I think it’s the insatiable desire to learn and understand and you can only do that with time.
Ah, falling in love with places visited. All enthrall, don’t they, yet there’s no place like home where one doesn’t have to search for one’s toothbrush!
I with you. I don’t mind traveling in my head to fictional realms, but I don’t want to stay in those places for the rest of my life or probably even a year or more. I know what I’ve got now and that seems to work okay for me.
Thanks for hosting!
I adore co-hosting, Arlee!
I like modern appliances, indoor plumbing, and my fully-adjustable bed too much to consider another era.
I would love to travel this world, see all the sights with my own eyes, experience the cultures beyond the pages of a book. Someday, maybe, once my kids are old enough not to need me around.
Did you know you can travel virtually, Loni? The Louvre and other museums have virtual tours, for example… Now, to the kids to nap all at once. For an hour. While the maid does all the laundry and chores.
Good points, PJ. I loved Christmas Carol but I don’t think being poor would be much fun. And I couldn’t be a fighter pilot in Star Trek. I suffer in tight spaces. Thanks for co-hosting.
I adore co-hosting, Joylene, because it increases the social interaction and interface of this group’s members. One day/month not to write in isolation.
I love to travel. I’ve tried to make work trips count. Books set in another time or parallel universe where we’re not controlled by robots and algorithms sound nice to visit. Thank you for co-hosting!
Thanks for checking in, Adrienne. Travel is a great thing – (shhh) I once wrote off the entire cost of an expensive trip to a book I wrote that was set in its locale… research, you know!
Talking about traveling in the UK makes me jealous. I’d visit all the time if I could.
Thanks for co-hosting IWSG this month!
It’s time to go to the UK – the value of the pound has fallen, I hear.
I think your tour took a fair number of liberties with what inspired JKR’s writing. The films, maybe. But then, what’s a good tour without some great story-telling?
Thanks for co-hosting today!
Thanks for checking in, Jemima. Are you a Scot or a Brit?
I very much enjoyed reading about your travels and how they connected to your book selections.
We choose to travel via our sailboat, La Vita. I’m forever changed because our adventures allowed us to live in and appreciate another culture (Mexico).
Thank you for co-hosting this month.
Lynn La Vita @ http://la-vita.us/
Thanks for the compliment, Lynn and I’m glad you’ve traveled via sail, a mode that sounds sensational and exotic to me.
Traveling is wonderful, but I have always been glad to come home from any trip I’ve taken during my life. I guess the same is true with books. Reading is amazing, but our home is closer to heart. At least it is if you live in a democratic country. As we do.
Agree. Agree. Agree, Olga.
Thanks for co-hosting. Home is where the heart is 😀
Home is where the heart is – yes! Cliches – though too often used – are truth.
I agree with you and Dorothy: “There’s no place like home”! As much as I love these other places the world over, I don’t think I could ever move from my Sacramento area of California, and sometimes I wonder if I could ever have the heart to leave the small town of my birth there.
I think it’s really neat how these authors have used real-life places they had either lived in or been to and create their own worlds and settings from them.
If sci-fi authors can create words without data or facts… well, any author can. Google is great!