What I Love Most about Writing…in Wisconsin
I’m a writer, yes, but I’m a writer in Wisconsin. That matters because place and setting are often an important aspect that makes all the difference in a story. Even if you haven’t been to Wisconsin, you can still picture something when you hear the word, right?
Cheese…cheeseheads, Green Bay, Ice Age stuff, wild rice, cranberries, Friday fish frys, Lake Superior, Mississippi River, Lake Michigan, Door County, Milwaukee…cows, trees, fishing and hunting, motorcycles…
Those are things anyone can identify with at any time, whether it’s a fond or not-so-fond memory, you feel something, smell something, taste something, hear the waves crashing and gulls squawking, smell the campfires and, yes…our Dairy Air. That’s what writers want the most—to invoke your senses, to bond with you.
What I love most about writing is conjuring those ties, connecting my words with you, sharing my characters’ passions and dreams, triumphs and failures with you; in a small way, baring my soul to yours. Good story involves a desire that’s thwarted. In Everything Noel, Shelly and Danny have each made sacrifices for each other, desiring to make their new marriage perfect. Shelly has moved from the glamour of Hollywood to rural Wisconsin. Danny has traded his privacy and much of his midwestern sensibilities to help his family. Each is a product of the environment in which they were raised. Each assumes the other understands or, worse yet, can’t understand the other.
And that’s where the challenges lie in drawing you into Danny and Shelly’s lives, making you part of their conflict, cheering or booing the bad choices, the miscommunication, the woe and the joy. It’s Christmas, one like no other, unique as each year and each place. Celebrate with a California girl and a Wisconsin boy who are deeply in love and learning how to grow old together. For a couple of hours, get away from your environment, and immerse yourself in mine. Join us in Wisconsin.
Lisa Lickel
