A lot of waiting advice revolves around staying busy or starting a new project. What if you can't or don't want to? What if the impatience soaks you, puddles at you feet and just keep you damp and drippy, sitting in front of the TV with a box of Junior Mints? (who, me?)

Literary agent Rachelle Gardner hit on this topic on her blog in September 2009, and was kind enough to allow us to share it again with you on STET! 

Is it better to make up a city or use a real one in a book?

Two of my favorite things are locations and setting. As many of you know, locations play a big part in my stories. In fact locations are basically characters for me. In THE CLEANER both Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and Berlin, Germany, play large parts. In THE DECEIVED it’s Washington, D.C., and Singapore. And in SHADOW OF BETRAYAL (THE UNWANTED in the UK) it’s Africa, Ireland, and California. But it doesn’t stop there. In my upcoming standalone, NO RETURN (out early 2011), the action all takes place near a navy base in the high desert of California, and in THE SILENCED (the next Quinn novel, title not necessarily final, and tentatively out later in 2011), London, Paris, and northern Minnesota play big parts.

I guess what I’m trying to establish here is my location cred. Hopefully I’ve done that. If not, ugh…but I’m moving on anyway.