Many of the Intrigue authors have just returned from the RT Conference in Columbus, Ohio, where we sat on two author panels, answering lots of questions from readers and aspiring authors about writing for Intrigue.  Let’s share some more tips and tricks about writing for Harlequin Intrigue—in particular, let’s talk setting.  What are some of your favorite settings to use in an Intrigue?  What are some techniques and motifs you use to help create the appropriate background atmosphere for your books?

B.J. Daniels:   I think a book's setting is very important. I hate to read books that could be set anywhere. To me my setting is like a character in my books. For my Whitehorse, Montana series, my part of Montana gives me a great canvas for my stories because of how wild and remote the area is as well its wonderful history.  Setting can also add conflict. In Montana we have wonderful storms that actually close roads and strand people for several days. We also have little cell phone service once you leave town. Add to that, dirt roads that become so muddy that they are impassible. It is easy to get lost in my part of Montana. So my setting lends itself to the type of books I write.  Also the setting, I think, says a lot about the characters who live in this part of Montana. In my May book, Hitched!, the setting plays a huge part. It is on a remote road in the middle of nowhere that my hero finds the heroine hitching, alone and obviously into some kind of serious trouble.

Delores Fossen: For me setting is Texas and all the things that go with it--cowboys, cattle ranches, horses, etc. Since Texas will always be home for me, I can tap into all the things that make me love it, and that includes the food, culture and people. For my latest series, The Texas Maternity Hostages, that launches this month, the setting is San Antonio and the surrounding Hill Country. The heroes are all Texans, most of them cowboy cops, and they bring the Texas way of doing things not only to their investigations but also to their relationships with the heroines.

Paula Graves:   Because I'm a born and bred Southern girl, I love Southern settings for my Intrigues.   In particular, I've set most of my Cooper Justice series books in the South--either the Coopers' hometown of Gossamer Ridge, Alabama--a town loosely based on the northeast Alabama towns of Guntersville and Fort Payne.  Both the August and the September Cooper Justice books, ONE TOUGH MARINE and BACHELOR SHERIFF, share the Gossamer Ridge setting for at least one portion of the stories.  Another Cooper Justice book, coming out in April of 2011, takes place in southern Mississippi, with a tornado as my inciting incidence.  Tornados are common around here, and I've always wanted to start a book with one.  The May 2011 Cooper Justice book is set in a small southern college town, with much of the action happening around the campus.  And finally, we're heading to south Alabama, to the fictional town of Terrebonne, for a little Gulf Coast flavor for the final Cooper Justice book in June 2011.  I love the rhythm of life here, the people, the climate, the history, the variety--in the south, you can set a story in the mountains or at the beach, in a swamp, on a farm, in a big city or a tiny town, surround them by forest land or set them down in the middle of a barrier island.  There's so much to pull from when you write about an area you know really well.

Elle James:  I like to use Texas as a setting. Usually the hill country outside of San Antonio as I'm very familiar with that area, having lived there for almost 15 years. I love the dry weather, the flash floods and cowboys! I've also written books in Alaska, North and South Dakota. You don't see a lot of Intrigues set there and I like these places because the weather can be so extreme and the people who live there are tough. Have to be to survive minus forty-five degrees!  As for atmosphere...any place can be Intrigue-worthy as long as you make the villain especially nasty. I've made the atmosphere even more oppressive by having gloomy or stormy weather to set the mood of the story.

Mallory Kane:  I absolutely love abandoned or rarely-used houses. In Her Bodyguard, May, 2010, my first book featuring the Delanceys of Chef Voleur, I used a fishing "shack" (actually a fairly luxurious cabin) for Lucas and Angela to escape to when Angela's life is threatened. It's isolated, hard to see from the only road leading up to it and very private--good for all sorts of scenes, from sexy to scary. I'm sure I'll be using that cabin in future Delancey Dynasty books.  The Delancey Dynasty is set on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, north of New Orleans. This gives me (and my characters) great access to the Big Easy, which is a wonderful setting for suspense.

Dana Marton:  I love exotic locations. I really enjoyed the desert settings of my sheik books. Now that I'm doing a royal mini-series, I'm having fun with that. Visiting the castles of Europe is definitely not the worst research job a writer could have :-) To research the setting for ROYAL CAPTIVE, my June book, we went to Cyprus. One of my favorite places there was a Greek Orthodox monastery. Of course, it ended up in the book.  I try to pick a setting for my books that will add interest to the story and will set the mood. It's fun to try different places and incorporate them in my stories.

Julie Miller:   Even though I moved around a lot growing up, I find I’m a Midwestern girl at heart.   And my favorite city in the Midwest is Kansas City, Missouri.  I’ve lived in different K.C. suburbs, my folks grew up there, I still have many relatives in the area and visit often.  When you hear the old adage “Write what you know,” I don’t think it necessarily means writing your own story—I mean, just how romantic can a middle school classroom be?   But by setting my Taylor Clan/Precinct stories in Kansas City, a place I’m so familiar with, I’m able to imbue my books with a sense of authenticity.  I can create fictional neighborhoods and police stations, museums and restaurants, etc., but by blending them with accurate descriptions of real buildings or highway systems or business centers or family homes, I can create a realistic backdrop for my characters.  Having my characters interact with the details of my setting gives them depth, authenticity and relatability, too, I believe.  And why Kansas City?  It’s a perfect blend of urban landscape and that laid-back feel of a small town Americana.  I can go to the city center or venture out a few miles to find a more rural setting.  I like to take what I know about a setting and let those details filter into my story so that it almost becomes a supporting character.  Need an air of danger?  Describe the “unique” characters and shadows and places a bad guy can lie in wait in a run-down urban neighborhood.  Want to create a sense of isolation?  Put a scene in an abandoned warehouse with broken glass and rusted hinges, with the relentless sounds of the Missouri River rushing past in the background.  Have a crazy, out-of-control chase scene in mind?  Try racing through one-way streets or a grid-locked highway during rush hour or a twisty country road.  Pounding rain and floods.  Slick, snow-packed streets.  Beastly humidity in the summer that wears a man down.  Those are all details I’ve experienced in Kansas City—details I can put into my setting to create a mood to suit my story, and an authenticity that makes it feel more real to my readers.

Angi Morgan:  I don't have a long list of settings yet so I'm sticking with the familiar: Texas.  I was born and raised here...can't imagine living anywhere else. But I also love to travel with my husband and hope to do the same with my characters. One of the hardest aspects of writing a suspense for me is sometimes keeping technology out of the story. Cell phones, flashing Amber alerts, satellite radio stations, free wifi at McDonalds -- they all conspire to keep my characters "in the know."

Rebecca York:  I've been known to set a tense scene in a grave yard during a thunder storm--to increase the intensity of the suspense and danger. In my up coming July Intrigue, GUARDING GRACE, the story starts in one of my favorite cities, Washington, D.C.  I was raised there, and I know the city well, so I like to use the setting.  When we first moved to D. C., we lived in an apartment on upper Connecticut Avenue.  It was all my parents could afford at the time, and some of my friends lived in the building next door, which was much nicer.  I always envied them their big apartments.  So guess where Brady Lockwood, my hero lives?  In the better building.  In a great big apartment.  Where he and the heroine are attacked by bad guys, of course.  Later, the scene shifts to the mountain area where Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia meet so that Brady and Grace can almost lose their lives in a run-away car.