WILDWOOD: THE PLACE
My debut novel WILDWOOD takes place in the fictional town of Newfield, Vermont. This tiny, northern state is the perfect backdrop for a story, particularly a gothic thriller. Vermont is replete with history, with old cemeteries and homes that go back to the founding of the country. Vermont is also a state that boasts six seasons: winter, spring, summer, and fall, plus stick season and mud season. Stick season, the time of year after the leaves have fallen, the trees are bare, and one could imagine the Headless Horseman charging down the dirt roads, is one of my favorite seasons. I think of freshly stacked wood, the scent of the first fires of the season, the moodiness of grey skies and bare trees. But all seasons in Vermont are special in their own rite, and I loved being able to play with the seasons to enhance the story. As the character's journey darkens, so too does the environment around her.
The house pictured below(definitely NOT my actual house) is a historic home in Orford New Hampshire and is how I imagined WILDWOOD to look. This house also contains an actual Rufus Porter mural. Rufus Porter was an itinerant painter who traveled around New England, painting murals in wealthy homes. When I saw a picture of the mural in the Orford house, I knew I wanted to incorporate a mural into my story. In WILDWOOD, there is a mural in the bedroom of a forest, though due to age, the colors are muted, therefore the painting looks eerie and the trees skeletal. Elinor refers to it as The Forest of the Dead.
It would be silly to pretend that Newfield was not heavily influenced by the Vermont town I actually live in. And like the protagonist Elinor, I also live in an old farmhouse. Because of this, it was easy for the town of Newfield to feel real in my mind. I knew what it felt like to leave town on a winding country road, to watch as the landscape transitioned from pastoral beauty to deep, dark woods. I also knew what it felt like to wonder, say, when the lights flickered or the floors creaked, if something supernatural was at play. I'm so thankful to live where I do. I love my town beyond measure, and I know that had my family not moved here, had not moved into this very house, that I would never have been inspired enough to write WILDWOOD.
So what's the "so what" in all of this? I think it's this: write what you know. Certainly some talented writers can write brilliantly about a place they've never been, create a world from nothing. But for me, cutting my writing "teeth" by writing a story that felt like me, that allowed me to pull from my surroundings and experiences, was absolutely the right move. I hope you love living in the world of WILDWOOD as much as I do.
