The Setting is Personal by Danette Vigilante

It might come as no surprise that my two books, The Trouble with Half a Moon and Saving Baby Doe, take place in a public housing project since I grew up in one. It feels a tiny bit like cheating, but I had my reasons.

Sometimes growing up in public housing marks you as somehow being ā€œless thanā€ by society. Outside of my neighborhood, this plagued me, but at home, amongst my friends and neighbors, none of that existed. I was surrounded by a village made up of good, hard working people who cared not only for their own families, but for their neighbors as well.

Does this mean I lived in a perfect world? Not at all and when I began writing, I knew I needed to show what living in public housing is really like. The truth? Itā€™s absolutely no different than living in any other neighborhoodā€” including the ā€œbadā€ and the good.

Comments

  1. I completely agree with you that the setting IS personal! Beautiful post, Danielle.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Argh! I was typing without enough caffeine! Sorry Danette--I inadvertently typed "Danielle"!

      Delete

Post a Comment