“Story places” show up on my home page because characters all gotta be somewhere. My stories all start with place and the other characters derive from that, so the buzz around the idea that setting might be a character always baffles me. Who characters are in a story is where they are–and how they are in relationship to that place.
Stories for me, and setting to me, are also about more than people, and more than a scenic backdrop. Other-than-human characters express their agency, and demonstrate their connectedness. Despite assertions that fiction is about people, i’ve never felt limited to human people. So in my front page ‘”Story Places” section, you’ll see pikas and great blue herons as well as frozen Minnesota lakes and sculptured New Mexico badlands and even petroglyph characters.
Food for thought, i suppose. Pull up a chair–i’d love to hear your side of the discussion.
sid sibo 