Guest Post: Faerl Marie

As promised, I have a lovely guest post from author Faerl Marie, author of  The Golden Apple as part of the CLP Blog Tour. My review went up yesterday, in case you missed it. I wanted to know how much importance the setting of this novel had in the story. New York City can sometimes become a character itself in books and movies and I wondered if Faerl had any thoughts on that. Enjoy!

It was important to set the novel in New York City because Poppy needed to move somewhere completely separate from her life with Josh, somewhere with a lot of contrast to the small, southern town she was used to. New York City is big and glamorous and it's a chameleon. It can be anything you need or want it to be and Poppy needed contrast, a place to hide, when she first arrived. Later in the novel she needed more familiarity and comfort and it became that.

The city did become its own character of sorts. It became a friend to Poppy. When she first arrived, New York was an acquaintance, sort of like Austin--a place she had visited a few times but had no real history or intimacy with. She starts out in Vivienne's neighborhood and the city is a friend of a friend. As she moves forward, away from her life with Josh and towards one with Austin she gets to know the city for herself, choosing a neighborhood (one that is close to Austin) and creating familiar feelings and "friendliness" with that part of the city. Once she doesn't need it to be an escape it becomes her home. 

Author Bio:
Faerl Marie is a graduate of the University of New Mexico with a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and minors in English and Social Welfare. She has worked as a style consultant, personal shopper and wardrobe curator, among other things. Faerl Marie spends her days writing, dreaming about new stories and characters, walking her dog and adoring her husband. She lives in the idyllic mountains near Santa Fe, New Mexico. "The Golden Apple" is her first novel.

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