More frequently, the author is unable to wrap their arms around how to make the setting work for them to the point where the story couldn’t take place anywhere else. I’d like to review two of my works as examples of where the setting is integral to the events, so that should it be set elsewhere, it wouldn’t be the same story.

Washington Academy — When the Building Has Secrets

Washington Academy in 7th Grade Revolution isn’t a generic school. It’s a charter school housed in a post-Civil War mansion in Spruce Pine, North Carolina. The building has tunnels, secret passages, and a cavern no one knew existed until seventh graders had a reason to find it.

The setting does something specific: it makes the students’ rebellion plausible. An ordinary school building offers nowhere to hide, no secrets to uncover, no historical mystery to anchor a plot. But a nineteenth-century mansion with hidden rooms and underground passages? The building itself is practically asking to be explored by curious twelve-year-olds who’ve declared independence from adult authority.

The Blue Ridge Mountains visible from the classroom window are also doing quiet work throughout the book. Dennis looks out at them and feels the pull of something beyond the walls that contain him. The mountains aren’t described at length, but their presence, and the contrast between their wildness and the school’s rigid structures, says something about what Dennis is fighting for.

The setting isn’t just where the story happens. It’s why the story can happen.

Los Angeles as Living Landscape

Secret of the Red Key (Homeless Myths, Book 1), a work in progress, uses Los Angeles in a way worth examining because the city isn’t interchangeable with any other American setting.

Los Angeles is specifically the right place for a story about homeless children who are also warriors destined to give mankind a second chance. Skid Row, the largest concentration of homeless population in the United States, grounds the children’s reality in something undeniably true. Little Tokyo, where the annual Obon Festival takes place, becomes the backdrop for supernatural encounters. Los Angeles sprawls from ocean to mountains, its districts laid out like a patchwork quilt with the Music Center bordered by a cathedral, Skid Row, a park, and the superior courthouse, each piece distinct in texture and character yet somehow cohesive. The tunnel system beneath the streets even becomes both sanctuary and danger as the series progresses.

Each location is doing character work. Skid Row establishes the stakes of the children’s daily survival. Little Tokyo opens a window into a cultural tradition the story needs. The ocean’s edge provides the mythological resonance of a liminal space—neither land nor sea. The tunnels mirror the children’s own hidden existence, invisible to the city above.

Remove Los Angeles and you don’t just lose a backdrop. You lose the framework within which the story operates.

How to Make Your Setting Work

If you want your setting to function as a character rather than decoration, start by asking these questions:

• Could this story happen anywhere else? If the answer is yes without significant loss, dig deeper into what makes your specific place unique, its history, geography, social texture, and secrets.
• What does the setting want? A place with strong character has something like an agenda; it rewards certain behaviors and punishes others. The Mississippi River rewards Tom’s wildness and punishes his attempts at conventional respectability. Naomi rewards vulnerability and connection. Washington Academy rewards curiosity and resourcefulness.

• What does the setting know? Old places have history. That history can be a resource, a threat, or both. McDougal’s Cave knows where Injun Joe hides. Washington Academy’s tunnels know where the treasure is. The Los Angeles sewer system knows what lurks beneath the streets.
• What does the setting hide? Secrets are one of the most powerful tools a setting offers. The cave, the tunnel, the hidden room, the thing in the water aren’t just plot devices. They’re the setting revealing itself to characters willing to look.

Your setting was there before your characters arrived and it will be there after they leave. Give it the weight it deserves.

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Setting is something that is important to every novel. It helps the reader to become immersed in the world, and it's something my editor often points out to me during my editing rounds with him. Since I see everything so vividly in my head as I write, I sometimes forget to put it on the page. But setting is far more than crafting a pretty description … it can influence the direction of the story.

When finishing a book you love, can you picture where it took place? Not just a vague sense, but the specific texture of the place—the smell of it, the way light falls, whether it feels safe or threatening, and where it keeps its secrets.

If the answer is yes, the author made the setting work. Not as wallpaper or stage dressing, but as a character.

What Setting as Character Actually Means

Setting becomes a character when it does what characters do: act, change, create pressure, reveal truth. A setting functioning at this level doesn’t just contain the story, it shapes it. Remove it and you don’t have the same story. You have a different story entirely, or no story at all.

This is different from vivid description. A writer can describe a place beautifully without making it matter. Setting as character means the place has stakes. It has personality. It pushes back.

The test is simple: could this story happen anywhere else? If yes, the setting is decoration. If no, it’s doing the work of a character.

A Look at a Classic

Decades before anyone coined the term middle grade, Mark Twain published The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. It remains one of the most instructive examples of setting as character in all American literature aimed at young readers.

Setting as character doesn’t merely surround the action. It participates in it, makes things happen, reveals who characters are under pressure, and sometimes determines their fate entirely. Twain understood this instinctively, and every significant location in Tom Sawyer proves it.

Consider Aunt Polly’s thirty-foot fence. It functions as a social statement representing the respectability Aunt Polly and her neighbors prize above almost everything else. As punishment for Tom’s unruly behavior, the fence becomes a burden of duty, the whitewashing a task designed to discipline him into conformity. But Tom manipulates his friends into paying for the privilege of doing his chore. The fence reveals Tom’s cunning precisely because it applies social pressure.

Jackson’s Island works differently. Where the fence represents confinement and social obligation, the island represents everything the town cannot reach. When Tom, Huck, and Joe Harper escape there to play pirates, they aren’t simply going somewhere. They’re going somewhere the rules of St. Petersburg don’t apply—where Aunt Polly’s respectability, the schoolmaster’s authority, and the town’s suffocating expectations have no jurisdiction. The island doesn’t just offer freedom. It defines freedom by contrast with everything left behind on the shore.

The Most Powerful Example

The setting of McDougal’s Cave acts as a character with genuine consequences. The cave is the refuge where Injun Joe hides, the place the town cannot reach him. But when the townspeople seal the cave’s entrance as a protective measure after Tom and Becky’s ordeal, they inadvertently transform his sanctuary into his tomb. The cave doesn’t change. The townspeople’s relationship to it does, and Injun Joe dies in the dark, starved, in the place he used as protection.

The cave acts. It receives Injun Joe in the guise of a haven and keeps him as a prisoner. No character made that decision. The setting did.

Twain’s genius was understanding the physical world his characters inhabited wasn’t neutral. St. Petersburg has rules, order, and suffocating respectability. The fence, the river, the island, and the cave each exist in a specific relationship to those rules—some enforcing them, some escaping them, one absorbing their consequences entirely.

Tom isn’t just a mischievous boy. He’s a boy in constant negotiation with what his specific place allows, forbids, and ultimately determines.

Could Tom Sawyer happen in a landlocked city without a cave or a river? Technically, perhaps, but it wouldn’t be the same story. The Mississippi river and its surroundings are as much a character as Aunt Polly.

Kate DiCamillo and the Town That Heals

Because of Winn-Dixie takes place in Naomi, Florida, a small town baking in the summer heat, slightly faded, full of people carrying losses they haven’t finished grieving. Opal’s mother left. Gloria Dump carries her past mistakes in the whiskey bottles hanging from the tree in her backyard, emptied before she got sober. Otis, who works at Gertrude’s Pets, has a complicated history with the law. Miss Franny Block, the librarian, has outlived almost everyone she ever loved.

DiCamillo uses Naomi’s specific locations as emotional containers, and this is where setting begins doing the work of a character. The library is where Opal finds knowledge and connection to history. The pet store is where she finds a kind of unconditional love, listening to Otis play his guitar for the animals after hours. Gloria Dump’s backyard—enclosed, private, full of the evidence of a life fully lived—is where she finds the comfort and wisdom she’s been missing since her mother left.

Each of these places does something the others can’t. They aren’t interchangeable locations within the town. Instead, they’re distinct spaces with distinct emotional functions, and Opal needs all three. DiCamillo also understands the setting’s larger function: Naomi is small enough that everyone knows everyone, which means every person Opal meets has a story connecting to every other story. The community is woven together by shared history and shared loss in a way a city couldn’t replicate.

The hot, humid Florida weather isn’t decorative either. Summer heat creates a languid, slightly suspended atmosphere in which the story’s slow healing can take place. Sudden thunderstorms pierce the somnolent tone revealing Winn-Dixie’s storm phobia, which becomes a pivotal plot point.

Transplant Opal to a suburb of Chicago and the story evaporates. The town itself is what makes the healing possible.

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The 7th Grade Revolution blends an actual classroom experience with history and plain-old made up fun. All my projects are special to me, but when I think of this one, I always think about the fun I had writing it. At the time, I needed a bit of a break from my normal, emotional-laden fare, and wanted something to have fun with. I found it.

I tend to hop around categories since I write from Children’s Chapter Books through Young Adult and have recently started working on my next foray into the Middle Grade arena with The Star Warriors and the Secret of the Red Key, so it was nice to have my head fully in Middle Grade mode when I received the message from my Lit Manager, Italia Gandolfo, that we needed to put a package together (most of which had already been put together long ago, but needs to be tailored to the request) complete with promo image. Thanks to the wonderful talents of Michael J. Canales of MJC imageworks we soon had a fantastic promo image and one I couldn’t be happier with. It captures the elements and flavors of the book in a way I would never have been able to explain. Even down to the images of the kids. This isn’t a final book cover, only a promo image, so things don’t need to be exact, but as soon as I saw the image, I knew exactly who those kids were in the context of the story. So my little author heart is content.

So we hurried up and got my baby all dressed up for the prom and sent it on its way, and now we wait. And while we wait, I turn my focus back to what I need to be working on … my current WIP … and occasionally think about possibilities and what they would be. Whether this particular prom works out for this project or not, I do hope to have good news soon concerning The 7th Grade Revolution I can actually share. Until then, I am HAPPY to share the promo image.

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Supa Christmas Sale!!

With the stress of the holidays nearly over, now is a great time to sit back, curl up in your favorite reading chair, and get lost in fabulous new worlds. To help you do just that, some authors have banded together and put all their titles on sale, right NOW!! Some of this season’s most popular e-books have been discounted to just $0.99!!! Don’t miss out!

For all of you who got new Kindles for Christmas, this is the perfect opportunity to start your new library!! Please spread the word and share this post with all your friends – they’ll thank you for it!

And we’ll start with my very own, Misfit McCabe, but don’t forget to scroll down to see the rest of the books (some freebies are at the end so keep on going)

LK Griffie
Misfit McCabe
Amazon

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Book Sets

RaShelle Workman Blood and Snow Volumes 1-4 Amazon

Single Titles

Heather Hildenbrand Across the Galaxy Amazon | B&N	Michelle Muto Don’t Fear The Reaper Amazon | B&N	Stacey Wallace Benefiel Zellie Wells Trilogy Amazon | B&N
Christie Rich Dark Matter Amazon | B&N	Laura A.H. Elliot Transfer Student Amazon | B&N	Karen Amanda Hooper Grasping At Eternity Amazon | B&N
David James Light Of The Moon Amazon | B&N	Leigh Talbert Moore Rouge Amazon	Helen Boswell Mythology Amazon
V. J. Chambers Trembling Amazon	V.J. Chambers Tortured Amazon	Elizabeth Sharp Natural Selection Amazon | B&N
Leigh Talbert Moore The Truth About Faking Amazon | B&N	Taryn Browning Dark Seeker Amazon | B&N	Heather Self The One Amazon | B&N
L.P. Dover Forever Fae Amazon	Nancy Straight Blood Debt Amazon	Chelsea Fine Anew Amazon | B&N
Raine Thomas Becoming Amazon | B&N	Alyssa Rose Ivy Flight Amazon | B&N	Magan Vernon How To Date An Alien Amazon | B&N
Janine Caldwell Rematch Amazon | B&N	Courtney Cole Soul Kissed Amazon | B&N	Karli Rush Crescent Bound Amazon
Jennifer Snyder Marked Amazon | B&N	Shelly Crane Significance Amazon | B&N	Bethany Lopez xoxoxo Amazon | B&N
Jill Cooper The Dream Slayer Amazon	Jill Cooper Demon Royale Amazon	A.M. Hargrove Determinant Amazon | B&N
Bonnie R. Paulson Barely Alive Amazon | B&N	Bonnie R. Paulson Falling Apart Amazon | B&N	Bonnie R. Paulson Mostly Dead Amazon | B&N
Addison Moore Ephemeral Amazon | B&N	C.A. Kunz The Modified Amazon | B&N	Addison Moore Ethereal Amazon | B&N
Addison Moore Tremble Amazon | B&N	Sarah M Ross Echo Of An Earth Angel Amazon | B&N	Sarah M Ross Awaken Amazon | B&N
Amy Maurer Jones Soul Quest Amazon | B&N	Amy Maurer Jones Wildflower Amazon | B&N	Thomas Amo Forever ME Amazon
Amy Harmon Slow Dance In Purgatory Amazon	Cheri Lasota Artemis Rising Amazon | B&N	G.P. Ching The Soulkeepers Amazon | B&N
G.P. Ching Grounded Amazon | B&N	Mina J. Moore A Vampire’s Touch Amazon	M.R. Polish Wolf Spell Amazon | B&N

Free Books

Christie Rich Five Amazon

V. J. Chambers Breathless Amazon

Nancy Straight Meeting Destiny (Free) Amazon | B&N

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These prices are available on Amazon only.

For a listing of books offered and to enter to win, click here!!

And make sure you check out Misfit McCabe on the Young Adult / New Adult page while you’re there.

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Photo of Tim: © Alptraum | Dreamstime.com
Creek Photo: © David Coleman | Dreamstime.com

In a Read it before you can buy it measure, I’ve decided to post a few snippets from the companion book to the Misfit McCabe series I have been working on. The title of the eventual book is Diary of a Misfit and will be available in ebook only (or at least that’s the plan for now). I am concurrently working on the companion book and One Way Ticket Home which will be the fourth book in the series.

Anyway, while working on the stories, which will be parts of Katie McCabe’s diary, giving a little of the background which doesn’t actually make it into the novels, Katie’s thoughts on some of the things that happen in the books, as well as her thoughts on current events.

Tim’s Shiner is a glimpse into the past with Katie and her best friend, Tim Lawrence and gives some insight on Tim’s family situation. I’m going to post the first couple paragraphs here, and then provide a link to the full story (which is 3,100 words, so short and quickly read).

When her best friend Tim shows up on her doorstep with a black eye, Katie McCabe teases him for being a klutz, until she learns the horrifying truth.

Tim’s Shiner

I ran into my room and dove on the bed. How could I be such a horrible friend? My eyes traced the whorls in the ceiling support beam as tears welled. I hammered my fist against the mattress. Frustration and rage made me want to scream, but if I did, Timmy might hear me. And that would make things worse.
     Closing my eyes, I inhaled deeply. As I forced the air out of my lungs, I grabbed my diary from the nightstand and sat up. Maybe writing everything out would help.
     Today started off like any other day. But it might have ended as the worst day in all my twelve years….

* * * * *

“Katie, hurry up!”
     Most people knocked on the door, but not Timmy. When we had plans, he’d stand on the grass outside my room and yell.
     “The fish’ll be takin’ a nap if you wait much longer.” He held both our fishing poles and the can for worms.
     I poked my head out the window. “Keep your pants on, why doncha? I just hafta get my shoes on.” Scrambling to the closet, I shoved my feet into sneakers, and headed out the door, laces flopping with each step. I yanked the front door open and a blast of heat barreled in. Another scorcher, but summer would be over too soon, the weather would cool, and we’d be stuck inside.

Link to the Complete Story: Tim’s Shiner – Absolutely Free!

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****Drumroll Please****

I’m very pleased to announce that Tattered, the third book in the award-winning Misfit McCabe series, will be free through Amazon.com for Kindle Thursday, August 23rd and Friday, August 24th. So pick up your copy and enjoy the read. And once you’ve finished it, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

The post Tattered Free for Kindle appeared first on Be the Cat.

Stuck in bed with a broken ankle and reeling from the loss of her father, her home, and life as she knew it, Katie McCabe must deal with her anger toward the town bully and a world that’s fallen apart. Being cooped up in the house with Uncle Charley and three overprotective cousins isn’t helping. Despite her new family’s good intentions, Katie feels like a lonely outsider. Will she ever be happy again?

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Thanks so much to Ellie for bringing the best bright spot possible to my day.