Where things happen

I'm always talking about how my work is character-oriented, and I love dialogue, and my early drafts are thin on description, all of which might lead a reasonable person to conclude that setting is something I stick into a story just so my characters aren't floating in space. And yet, when I look at my work I find that's not true at all--setting is integral.

I've answered questions about where I got the idea for The Secret Year, and when I say that I started with the main character and his voi...