Writing About Where You Know. by Misha Herwin
My novels and short stories often spring from a single vivid image. It will be as clear as a photograph and will show me my protagonist and where the narrative takes place. In “Picking up the Pieces” it’s Liz striding across the Downs in Bristol towards the ornate Art Deco confection that is the Grand Hotel. The building that inspired it exists, though it has a different name and doesn’t look exactly as I describe it in the book. For me, that is not important, what matters is that the hotel is the starting point of the action; the Palm Court is where Elsa summons her friends for her startling revelation. The house in “House of Shadows” is also based in reality. In my childhood, Kings Weston House was the mysterious mansion on the top of the hill, where no one was allowed to go. Not because it was cursed, or haunted, but because it belonged to the university and was private property. Intrigued by its inaccessibility, I made up a story about an unhappy l...