Setting the Scene by Timothy Hallinan
Marilyn asked that we write about setting, which is lucky for me because it's something I think about incessantly. I want to open with a generalization: The same setting is different to different people. That's one of the most wonderful things about it Specifically, I'm fortunate in that I write two series, both of which have rich settings. The Poke Rafferty mysteries, the most recent of which is THE QUEEN OF PATPONG , center on an American “rough travel” writer who's settled in Bangkok and is trying to build a family with the former bar worker he married and the little girl he and his wife have adopted off the streets. Bangkok is one of God's gifts to a writer looking for a setting, one of the most energetic, contradictory, exotic (and sometimes surprisingly ordinary) places on earth. My other hero, Junior Bender, on the other hand, lives in the San Fernando Valley, which, at first sight doesn't seem as promising as Bangkok; I doubt that few p...