Tabitha Vohn asked Carol Goodman:

One of the things that I love so much about your novels is the lush physical description of the various settings (the fairy tale gazebos in Seduction of Water, the underwater statuary in The Drowning Tree, etc.) Do you imagine these settings entirely or are some based on actual locations you've visited?

Carol Goodman Thank you, Tabitha. I'm glad you enjoy my "places." Setting is really important to me, in what I read, and how I imagine a book. The fictional settings are often inspired by real places that I then embroider and change to fit the book. For instance, the gazebos in THE SEDUCTION OF WATER were inspired by the gazebo and summer houses at Mohonk Mountain House in upstate New York, but the specific designs I describe are ones that I imagined. The sunken garden in THE DROWNING TREE had a number of inspirations. One was an overgrown 1920s swimming pool I once happened upon in Long Island, and another were the gardens at Kykuit near Tarrytown, NY. I'm always looking for new places that stir my imagination--one of the things about being a writer I love the most!

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