Continuing my weekly discussion about HARD AS NAILS, my July release (June 24th, actually)… HARD AS NAILS is an anthology of three related novellas. Two of the men appeared in my very first published novella in WHEN GOOD THINGS HAPPEN TO BAD BOYS - Cole and Adam. They each get a story in HARD AS NAILS, as does Ray. I, of course, adore all three of them.

The story revolves around the renovation of a fictional brownstone in the Dupont Circle area of Washington, D.C. My house, the situation and the characters all come from my imagination. Dupont Circle, however, is very real. Everything else is totally fictional. I lived in D.C. for a total of about 17 years (excluding three-year detour to law school in North Carolina). Loved D.C. Loved Dupont Circle. Loved the stunning old brownstones in Dupont Circle. So, when it was time to think about where this the fictional house in HARD AS NAILS would be, Dupont Circle was the obvious answer.

Problem was that I now live in San Diego. I couldn’t just hop in the car and drive around Dupont Circle to get an idea of what I wanted my fictional house to look like. To put the house and setting in my head - yeah, that’s what has to happen for me before I can write - I went on the internet and found a fabulous B&B near Dupont Circle and used that as my guide. Checking out this real B&B helped me to keep the setting center in my mind as I wrote.

The real house I used as a guide? Well, it’s the Aaron Shipman House. Look to the left for the photo from the outside - isn’t it adorable? [Photo is from the Aaron Shipman House website]

It’s a B&B. This place gives off a warm and inviting feeling. Great location, garden, porch, antiques - just lovely. It’s much nicer than anything I could conjure up in my imagination.

I’m thinking I need to visit this real B&B. Maybe check out that special apartment they have… Very tempting.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 11:39 am and is filed under About Me, About My Books, About Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.