One of the many reasons I like in-person book events, other than being an extrovert, is the discussions I have with readers or those I’m hoping to convince to read my work.They ask thought-provoking questions, ones that make you stop and think before you answer.

I’ve blogged in the past few months about other questions I’ve been asked, but here’s a new one.

“If you could write anywhere in the world, where would it be?”

The answer to that isn’t simple. It really depended on what stage of my life I was in at the time.

For example, in high school after reading all those English lit novels, I wanted a cottage at the edge of the moors or overlooking the North Sea or on the cliffs in Cornwall or in a flat in London or Edinburgh. I wanted to walk in the same places, breathe the same air (more or less) as Dickens, Eliot, Doyle, the Brontes, Austen, and Hardy. I didn’t get to England or Scotland until I was 30-ish, and of course, things were not the same as the scenes described by 19th century writers. I still felt as if the country inspired me, though. That was probably when I decided one of my main characters would be English.

In college, I discovered Russian Literature. Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy (Yes, I read War and Peace in its entirety.), Chekov, Pasternak (Doctor Zhivago, book and movie, were my favorites for years.), Nabokov (unfortunately), and Solzhenitsyn. Much like England, I wanted to go to Russia and be inspired by these authors; however, international relations being what they were in the 1970s precluded that, and now, I don’t think an ocean and a continent are far enough away. However, mid-20th century Russia inspired my other main character from Ukraine. Once I formed this character, I read some Ukrainian novelist, playwrights, and poets.

In the U.S., I could see how Walden Pond inspired Thoreau, how the Mississippi River sparked Mark Twain, how the South gave us Faulkner, Wolfe, and Conroy. Here is where our Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution were written by forward-thinking though flawed men who had a rigorous understanding for and reliance on European Enlightenment philosophies. Indeed, all of my writing has been done here whether in the south, the mid-Atlantic, New England, or the mid-west. I’m sure I scribbled stories on the west coast as well.

However, if someone offered me accommodations in Ireland, I’d be there in record time. Once I began exploring the Irish aspect of my ancestry, there was Yeats, Joyce, Beckett, Shaw, Heaney, Swift, Stoker, O’Brien, Wilde, Binchy, and French. If there are two places in the world I’ve ever been “called” to, it’s Scotland and Ireland. I spent two glorious weeks in Scotland. When I stepped from the airplane onto the tarmac there, I felt at home. I suspect it will feel the same way in Ireland, so much so I may not return.

In reality, though, I’ll write anywhere I feel comfortable and secure, whether it’s my office in my home, a coffee shop anywhere, or a writing retreat in the mountains or by the ocean.

I could write anywhere. Ah, there’s the simple answer.