Surprisingly, contemporary novels often chronicle historical and local geographical development. Today I was reminded how details in my novels do this. My debut novel, Nardi Point, is set in a growing North Raleigh, North Carolina new subdivision; specifically an IT professional couple take on the construction of their first home and creation of a family. Well, increased development in this region’s corridor has increased exponentially and the model subdivison for this story, Tadlock Plantation, is completely sold out and even expanded into adjacent, The Registry, where once a sleepy dairy farm existed.

Closely followed by book two, A Path through the Garden, the heroine lives in the Youngsville area. That town’s Main street, where “founding fathers would not have trouble recongizing it today as it remained unchanged newly two hundred years later,” is now quite changed. New shops, antique havens, coffee and coffee shops, family farm visit experiences, new architectural improvements, increased foot traffic, have updated the growing town and region.

Writing is such an adventure. Writing in the present and reflecting on those words several years after, provides quite the opportunity to consider our busy lives and places in our world. If you keep a journal of sorts, dip back into its pages for references to your setting, where your world unfolds, and muse over the changes that have occurred. These changes can mirror those in our thoughts about our inner selves as well. Change is indeed the only constant.

Happy reading♥