|
Susan Mallery | Turns Out Size Matters After All!
April 28, 2010
I grew up in Los Angeles, one of the largest, loudest cities in the world.
There’s a lot to love about living in a city. The sights, the sounds, the colors
are exciting and energizing. No matter what your interests, you can always find
classes and groups where you can meet like-minded people.
Then there are the events. Every day, a hundred ways to answer the question,
"What should we do today?" Art shows and museums. Live music and theater.
Baseball and basketball. (I’ll confess. My answer to the aforementioned question
would only be "Let’s go to the game" if there was a high-end luxury spa around
the corner named The Game.)
I’m big on luxury, and I enjoy instant gratification. I like that cities are on
the cutting edge of technology. I like thorough cell phone coverage. When smart
phones move to 5G, city people will be the first to be wowed by everything they
can do.
I love living in a cultural melting pot. I love walking down the street and not
understanding all the languages I hear. I love the cosmopolitan feeling that
comes from mingling with people from all over the world. Immigrants bring the
colors and fashions and attitudes and flavors from their home countries, and we
city dwellers get to benefit from the influx.
Speaking of flavors... great restaurants are right up there at the top of my
list of the joys of living in a city. What a great excuse to slip on a fabulous
pair of heels and my best jewelry. As a girl, I loved playing dress-up, and that
hasn’t changed.
But...
You knew a "but" was coming, didn’t you?
But there’s a lot to love about small towns, too, which is why I chose to set my
new series in Fool’s Gold, California, population 43,412. A small town, but not
tiny. The Fool’s Gold series is something new for me, a series with no
end in sight. The first book, Chasing Perfect, was
released yesterday. There
will be two more Fool’s Gold books later this year, three next year, and
I hope to continue after that.
The thing I love best about small towns, especially those towns that are not a
suburb of a large city, is the strong sense of community. When you see the same
people at the grocery store and the soccer field and the dentist’s office, you
get to know them a lot better.
Readers will enjoy the same feeling with the people of Fool’s Gold, I hope, as
they get to visit with some of the same characters from book to book. You can
meet some of the people of Fool’s Gold at www.foolsgoldca.com. Lots of fun freebies on the
website, too! I’d love to hear what you think of it.
In small towns, people introduce themselves to their new neighbors. Cities are
more transitory. People come, people go. It’s all part of the ebb and flow, the
pulse of the city. In small towns, people are more likely to settle in for a
good, long while. Often even for life.
I couldn’t make Fool’s Gold tiny, though. It needed to be large enough to
support at least a few great restaurants. That’s the one thing this city girl
can’t imagine living without.
Are you a city mouse or a country mouse? What’s the largest city you’ve lived
in? What’s the smallest town you’ve lived in? How many times in your life have
you moved? (I’m not sure I can count as high as the number of times I’ve moved!)
What do you think is the ideal sized town, and why?
Comments
33 comments posted.
Re: Susan Mallery | Turns Out Size Matters After All!
Good morning! FYI, you can read the first two chapters of CHASING PERFECT for free by joining the Members Only area at www.susanmallery.com.
(Susan Mallery 9:23am April 28, 2010)
I'm a city girl like you. However, a few years ago my husband by accident came upon a small town in Eastern Washington that was similar to Fools Gold. We stopped for breakfast and the owner of the cafe had mugs with the towns residents names on them, board games, etc. They all came in for coffee and to chat. They included us in their conversations and I felt "warm and fuzzy". We ended up staying for four hours, lots of fun!
(Marilyn Shoemaker 10:13am April 28, 2010)
I've only lived in 3 cities my entire life, but my favorite by far was San Antonio, TX. A very fun city. Always something going on, or just a walk on the Riverwalk was fun. Would love to go back.
(Pat Wilson 10:22am April 28, 2010)
That's so fun, Marilyn, coffee mugs with the residents' names on them! Don't you love it? And a hangout where you can play board games. Love it!
(Susan Mallery 11:21am April 28, 2010)
The Riverwalk is fabulous, Pat. San Antonio has such a fun vibe. I'd love to go back, too.
(Susan Mallery 11:22am April 28, 2010)
I am a country mouse myself and i have only lived in small towns.
(Gail Hurt 11:57am April 28, 2010)
I am a bit of both. I was born outside of LA then the parents moved to Compton. When we were getting into the school ages my parents moved back to Wisconsin to a smaller city. Now I live in a town of about 10,000. I find that each city, town or burg has wonderful things to offer.
(Cindy Olp 12:21pm April 28, 2010)
Thanks for stopping by, Gail! So when you read, do you grativate toward small town settings in books, or do you like to read books set in large cities?
(Susan Mallery 12:35pm April 28, 2010)
Hi, Cindy! I think you're right, and that's the optimist's way of looking at things. There are always positives to every place you live.
(Susan Mallery 12:35pm April 28, 2010)
I'm a city girl, but like taking walks at the nature center. My growing up town I thought was small, because it had the neighborly effect. But it had 13,000 people.
(Alyson Widen 12:48pm April 28, 2010)
I grew up in a small town (200 counting the cows and dogs) but went to school in a rather large school district. Everyone knew me a home and no one knew me at school!
(Karin Tillotson 12:55pm April 28, 2010)
Well the current town I live in has about 1500 ppl and to me this is way to big. I grew up in a town that had about 200 ppl in it and that's being generous.. The largest would be when I lived in CA and I would say atleast 50,000 way to big... I'll stick to my small towns in the midwest...
(Brandy Blake 1:29pm April 28, 2010)
I'm a country mouse as I grew up on in a farming community in West Texas. However, I moved to the DFW are in the 70s to a small town of about 2,000 and suddenly growth hit and today it's over 100,000, so watching it change has been fun and was great with all the restaurants that came with the growth!
(Shirley Bowman 2:50pm April 28, 2010)
I think 13,000 people is small, too! But I bet that Karin doesn't feel the same way. Everything is relative!
(Susan Mallery 3:40pm April 28, 2010)
Brandy, Wow, 1500 is too big for you? That's amazing. I will tell you, I've been at conferences that had 1500 to 2000 people, and that can seem like way too many people at times. LOL But I do like the services that come with living in a town with a few more people than that.
(Susan Mallery 3:42pm April 28, 2010)
Shirley, What incredible growth, to go from 2,000 people to over 100,000!!! I bet you can't even recognize the place from the pictures. It is fun to live someplace that's growing, though, isn't it, to get those new businesses and restaurants coming to town? Less fun when they don't turn out to be fabulous, but a true joyous discovery when they do!
(Susan Mallery 3:44pm April 28, 2010)
Congrats on the new release, Susan. I'm a city mouse. I grew up in NY. I like living in the city where there's so many choices for food and entertainment.
(Jane Cheung 3:59pm April 28, 2010)
Thanks, Jane! I'm already hearing from readers who bought Chasing Perfect yesterday, finished it already, and loved it. That's so fun! I love hearing from readers.
(Susan Mallery 4:06pm April 28, 2010)
I was born and still live in Houston, but I love small towns. I attended college in both Abilene and Huntsville. The bad thing about big cities is the lack of really knowing people. Abilene has three different colleges and the residents benefited so much from those schools that they truly appreciated the students. When you walked down the main street (Pecan Street)in Abilene the folks you met said, "Hello." This doesn't happen in Houston. The folks in Abilene might resent being called a small town, for it is truly growing, but I truly enjoyed my years there. Huntsville was a little too close to Houston and I came home almost every weekend and didn't get to enjoy that town as much.
(Gladys Paradowski 4:33pm April 28, 2010)
I have lived all over: large cities, small towns & countryside. ALL great experiences.
(Mary Preston 4:46pm April 28, 2010)
Gladys, And when a small town is close to a big city, you often have a lot of residents who commute to work in the city every day, so they're less likely to know as many people in town. There's something really special about walking down the street and knowing people by name. Every outing is a homecoming.
Mary, I like you already! I'm an optimist, too. There are great experiences to be had everywhere.
(Susan Mallery 5:12pm April 28, 2010)
Definitely a country mouse and
I love it. We live in the
foothills of NC, only about an
hour to the mountains and 5 to
the coast. We're only about an
hour from a big city and
that's plenty close enough. I
love being able to walk in our
woods and I can't imagine
living in an apartment
building full of people and no
yard to piddle in. That would
be hell for me.
(Lisa Richards 5:58pm April 28, 2010)
I guess I'm an in-between-er. I live in a mid-size city that really is a cross between big city and small town. I have only moved twice. I started on the west side of the town and now I live on the east side.
(Rosemary Krejsa 7:56pm April 28, 2010)
Thank you for your post, Susan.
I'm an anywhere mouse. I've moved 13 times in my life, mostly when I was a child. My father was a pipeline construction engineer; we had to move to wherever he had a project going.
The largest city I've ever lived in is Caracas, Venezuela. The smallest town was probably Wassenar, a suburb of The Hague, The Netherlands.
However, I've lived for thirty years now in Russellville, Arkansas---a town half the size of your fictional Fool's Gold, California. And in my state a municipality of 43,000-plus residents would be considered a city, not a town.
I don't think there's such a thing as an ideal-sized town or city. Major metropolises have their functions; small towns have theirs; everything in between has theirs.
Your new book sounds interesting. Keep up the good work!
(Mary Anne Landers 2:44am April 29, 2010)
I was born in Denver and lived in Golden CO till I was 7 that is probably the biggest place I have lived in we then moved to Cortez Co which is a small town and Dolores Co which is way smaller the population in 2000 was 857 my sister and I rode our bikes everywhere from one end of town to the next we spent all day out and about. My parents then moved us to Scappoose OR this is where I lived from 6th grade till the time I graduated the population was 3000ish we got our first fast food restraunt my freshman year 1991 a Dairy Queen the next one didn't come and till I had long moved away. After I graduated cosmetology school I moved to Bremerton WA it was bigger then scappoose but smaller then Seattle. I lived there from 95-2006 then we moved to Florida where we currently live a medium size town. If you want to know how many houses I lived in around 15 my parents always rented untill I was in high school it seemed we were constantly moving.
(Michele Benard 7:34am April 29, 2010)
Lisa, North Carolina is beautiful country! And it sounds like you have a lot of options within easy driving distance - the mountains, the coast. That's one of the things I love best about California, as well, and one of the reasons I chose to set the Fool's Gold series there.
(Susan Mallery 12:06pm April 29, 2010)
Rosemary, That sounds so homey to me, that you've lived your whole life in one town. Sigh!
Mary Anne, Thank you! I think that size, 43,000, is a city, too... but it's a small enough city that it can and does still feel like a town. You get some of the benefits of size - services, a university campus - but you still get that warm, friendly, welcoming feeling of a small town, where people know each other.
(Susan Mallery 12:10pm April 29, 2010)
Michele, Sounds like you've moved almost as many times as I have! Most of my moves were in adulthood, though, as we traveled for my husband's work.
Oops! I have to sign off. I'm in Indianapolis today on tour, and I'm about to go on air! Wish me luck!
(Susan Mallery 12:11pm April 29, 2010)
If you think I got here by mistake, you are absolutely right, but I can't resist the "small town" discussion. I retired recently and always thought I would love (again) to live in a small town. My childhood foreign town was so small it didn't have motor vehicles (2500!) I've lived in San Francisco at its population peak (735,000,) a suburb of SF (50,000) and the San Joaquin Valley (CA 240,000) I would LOVE to live in a small town at least 200 miles from either coast. The positives have been already covered. The negatives? Among those not yet mentioned, mMore often than not, you will be an "outsider" forever; needed medical facilities may be hours away; food diversity will be a forgotten dream. I know in a chick romance novel site that's irrelevant but in the real world all are sobering foods for thought. Have you heard of a single straight male who has read any of your books? Best regards, and good luck.
(Anthony Fornos 4:34pm April 29, 2010)
I live in a mid-sized city (Madison, WI), with easy access to country areas and small towns nearby. I've moved 8 times in my life, all within the last 4 years (3 in one summer!).
Personally, I'm a bit more of a city girl than a small town girl, but I appreciate the differences between the two, and have sometimes found that small towns have amenities that cities lack.
Later,
Lynn
(Lynn Rettig 5:47pm April 29, 2010)
I should have added that all my moves were within Madison. (See previous message.)
Later,
Lynn
(Lynn Rettig 5:49pm April 29, 2010)
Anthony, mistake or not, you're very welcome! And yes, I have heard from single, straight men who have read and enjoyed my books. Many are surprised that romance novels have a lot more depth than they ever assumed. Give it a try, and then email me via my website, www.susanmallery.com, to let me know what you thought!
(Susan Mallery 8:32am April 30, 2010)
Lynn, Wow, eight moves all in the same town. That's impressive! And that means that you probably know the town better than most. You know all the secret spots!
(Susan Mallery 8:34am April 30, 2010)
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
| 
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy