by Joanne DeMaio 2012

  

As writers, we’re familiar with the phrase to write what we know. The experiences we’ve lived, a part of our heart and soul, show up on the page in our words.

As I wrote my novel Whole Latte Life, I found that something else made its way to the page. A sense of place did, too. And very strongly. This occurrence had a way of showing me, the writer, just how much a few certain places really mean to me.

I live one hundred miles from Manhattan and have visited there enough to be familiar with the city. Familiar enough to know that New York City’s energy holds the perfect intensity for my story’s opening, helping to mirror the characters’ nerve and panic. And so I opened my story there.

But there’s no place like home, and so my characters’ home lives are a blend of mine. Whole Latte Life’s Addison is a familiar old New England town. Familiar to me because it is a mixture of the two towns I consider my hometowns … Using a blueprint of the stone wishing well from one, the Center Green of another, the historic homes of both and voila … a fictional town is designed.

And then there’s Anchor Beach, a reflection of the little beach I’ve spent time at every summer of my life. Point O’ Woods beach is a seaside treasure that has wound its way into my heart and story. I believe that my characters find tranquility at Anchor Beach as a result of the tranquility I’ve found in the real-life version, revealing itself in my words.

So yes, as a writer I write what I know, including place. And that place reaches deeper than physical qualities on the page. It’s a feeling, an essence, evoked by a setting. My hope is that when readers open the cover of my book, they will find that same comforting feeling, one of going home again.