First, I normally read Persuasion in the autumn. That's the seasonal setting of the novel anyway, and the story and atmosphere are suited to that time of year. However, I've felt a strong pull toward it right now, in the spring. I've no idea why. The only thing I can think of is that I read The Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman recently, so perhaps I've thrown off my literary thermometer. I may be reading Persuasion either too early in the year, or too late from last year. The rainy, cold weekend may have something to do with it as well.
Second, the novel prep I'm doing is coming out sounding very strongly like a children's book. Part of me feels resistant to this. Although I love reading Harry Potter and Artemis Fowl and the classics - Wind in the Willows and Beatrix Potter and C.S. Lewis and all that, I've never thought to attempt to write for children. Another part of me embraces it and is curious to see what I make of it.
I keep coming across clear images of my sister and me at my grandparents' house in the summer. That seems to want to be the setting. Long-forgotten details of the place are surfacing at an alarming rate. The property backed onto woods, and I think that's where the antagonist is.
A lot of my reading lately has been very atmospheric - The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, Lyra's Oxford by Phillip Pullman, and Jane just gave me an Anne Perry book set in Victorian London. Interesting. Am I becoming an atmospheric writer?
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