This week’s Romance Weekly questions are from Brenda Margriet – How do you choose the setting for your book? Does where you live inspire you? This can apply even to books set in paranormal worlds – what do you use from “real life”?  If you arrived her via Gemma Brocato, hope you’ll continue the Romance Weekly hop.

Living along the coast of Virginia, and always around the water, plus a lifetime of vacationing on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, has inspired me in many ways. The local beaches have become part to of my brand. That doesn’t mean my characters don’t travel to other parts of the area,  country and world.

I’ve also applied local settings to paranormal works. In my novella, White Doe, I used an Outer Banks legend and tweaked it into a modern day shifter theme.

Closer to home, Norfolk Naval Operations Base and Oceana Naval Air Station provide a basis for military stories. Fentress airfield, where Navy pilots practice touch and goes, is practically in my back yard. Yes, I love jet noise. Living in a military-minded community feeds my patriotism. Last year I wrote a SEAL romance, Trident Valor, which won the erotic category in Chesapeake Romance Writers, Finish the Damn Book Contest 🙂 This year I’ve decided to include my love of dogs by writing a military K9 novel.

Football is another passion I put the page after our area had a short-lived semi-pro team. I’m hoping to self-pub Game On! later this year. For the last several months I’ve posted snippets of it on my website for Weekend Writing Warriors 8 Sentence Sunday blog hop.

Next week I’ll be posting 8 sentences from a Valentine story entitled, Cupid in Camo. On Monday, I’ll post the compete short story in my newsletter so be sure to sign up!

Now on to the lovely Xio Axelrod, author of The Calum. Let’s how she picks settings for her books.