I love the Brits, but the Brits don't love me
So, I'm kind of in love with England. What isn't to love with a country who gave us Austen and the Brontes and Thomas Hardy and Shakespeare, Oxford and Cambridge, and the Beatles. I absolutely love England. If I could go back in time and rewind to the day of my birth, I might just (if I had had the option) chosen to be a Brit.
My favorite designer Joe Browns is a Brit. My favorite shows: Dr. Who and Orphan Black? British.
My editor, RJ Locksley is a Brit.
Why do I tell you all of these things? Profess my undying love for all things England? Because apparently even though I LOVE Britain, the British do not love me.
My sister-in-law celebrated her birthday over Thanksgiving. As I was looking for a gift for her, the lovely Big Brother that is Facebook served me an ad for a Dr. Who coloring book (she too loves all things British... or science-y) . I follow teh link to purchase said coloring book and it takes me to Amazon. I assume it was Amazon.com but in fact it was Amazon.uk I didn't even know that each separate country has its own Amazon and its own review portals. So, curious me pulls up my two novels only to discover that I am not well received in England.
I mean Im not sobbing over it, believe me. Some people like chocolate some people don't. Some people think Fifty Shades of Gray was well written and others, well... don't.
But, I noticed that one of the reviewers had said something along the lines of 'perhaps I would have enjoyed it more if I was a Chicago-dwelling twenty something and not a foty something Brit."
Perhaps she's right. But, I did want to address one thing. I live in the Midwest. Chicago, to be exact. Back in college I had taken a class on Midwestern Writers, and as part of our final research project we had to come up with the one thing that made Midwestern Writers distinct. From Mark Twain to Louise Erdrich, Morrison, Oates, Richard Wright, Upton Sinclair. Their backgrounds are as varied as the stories that they penned, but the challenge was to find something that defined them as distinctly Midwest. Something that by picking up their novels you would know that they were born in the Midwest and not merely including it as the setting of their story.
For me, and apparently a load of scholars out there-- one of the distinctions of a Midwest writer is that their setting (ie the Midwest) is not simply a setting but a charater in and of itself.
I hadn't really set out intending to do this in my own novel. I mean, I write Romantic Comedy/New Adult Fiction. I simply love Chicago. I love it as much as I love England. I love it so much I couldn't picture leaving it, despite how much I gripe about the weather, politics, and the traffic... Chicago is unparalled.
So much so, that Chicago takes a front seat as a character itself. From the beauty of Christmas, to the craziness of the El train, and the indiosyncracies of the people who live here. Chicago lives and breathes like a person itself, so of course that woudl find its way in to my stories.
I guess if you haven't lived here, or haven't experienced it yourself, my descriptions might be a bit superfluous. You might not care that there are distinct lines drawn between sports towns based on where you grew up (Cubs), or that there is an apparent Jets vs Sharks mentality when it comes to popcorn (Nuts on Clark), or that things that we identify as belonging to this city (Marshall Fields) are reacted to as a personal affront when big corporate giants from the East Coast sweep in and wipe them off the history books (I'm looking at you Macy's).
I also have never lived in Wessex, Oxfordshire, Cornwall, Yorkshire, or Bath --but that doesn't make me like the Brits any less. It makes me pine for the day when I can finally soend a month or two in England and travel to all of the destinations I've only pictured in my head.
And, I am in NO way comparing mnyself to any of the classical authors or their talents.
