Lizabeth asked Kate Morton:

One of your writing strengths that I've noticed is your ability to completely transport the reader to a new locale or time period. Is this something you consciously worked at or did you hone that ability through reading favorite authors that do the same?

Kate Morton Thanks for your lovely comment, Lizabeth! There are so many vital elements in a good story (plot... character... setting...!), but I think one of most important is sense of place. At least, it is for me. When I was a very young child and had just started reading for myself, I used to lose myself completely in the world of my book. I still chase that feeling when I'm reading and when I'm writing.

At the very beginning of a project, when I'm working with my notebooks, scribbling down ideas, researching, and letting the story come to life in my imagination, one of the aspects I'm keenest to discover is the world in which the action takes place. The setting is part of it, but it’s more than that, too: it’s a texture, a flavour, an atmosphere. I need the world to feel vivid and real and dense—the sort of place in which you and I can both become lost.

I can’t actually begin writing until I reach this point. It’s a matter of truth, I suppose. If the book feels flimsy or pretend, I lose faith in it very quickly. I have an idea, too, that unless the book feels real for me, I won’t be able to convey the sense of being transported to you, which is my greatest aim as a writer! Once I finally get there, though, the drive to start writing is so strong I can’t resist it. (This period of dreaming and imagining is one of my favourite parts of being a writer, by the way -- it's a bit like being a child. Free and unbounded play!)

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