Why I Keep Going Back ...

New Orleans has always been a city close to my heart. It’s the city where I went to grad school and turned twenty-one. It’s the city I first got drunk in,the city where I met my husband, the city where I became a mom. And it’s the city that pops up in my writing again and again.

I’m in the process of writing my third novel of erotic suspense, called Tease Me, and like the two that have come before it—Full Exposure (available now) and Tie Me Down (available in September) it takes place in the sultry heat of southern Louisiana.

Why do I keep going back to this city? I’m not exactly sure, except for the fact that it inspires me like few other places ever have. I came to adulthood in this city, wandering its dark, mystical and often smelly streets in the middle of the night as I soaked up the ambiance of the Garden District and French Quarter. I drank hurricanes at Pat O’Briens, drank everything else at Jean Lafitte’s old blacksmith shop—one of the oldest buildings in New Orleans—often near Anne Rice, who was known to write there during my five years in the Big Easy. I toured the centuries-old cemetaries, haunted the houses and hang-outs of some of the most talented writers in American history and generally had a blast. So when it came time to write my first novel, how could I not set in the Crescent City?

Now, as I write Tease Me, I’ve done a lot of research into the changing face of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. And as I researched, I found out some really interesting things about the new New Orleans. Things that the N’Awlins of old would probably never have considered.

For example, there are plans to restore huge sections of Louisiana wetlands that have been destroyed by recent hurricanes and oil drilling. The areas around New Olreans—and New Orleans itself-- have substantially increased urban organic farming. Solar paneled homes make up part of the lower ninth ward now, homes that would never have been considered before Katrina flooded about 80% of New Orleans. Things have changed so much here—and New Orleans has gone so green—that last year, the Energy Department dubbed The Crescent City a Solar American City. Since then, New Orleans has received numerous grants to help it rebuild in the greenest, most energy efficient way—including a $500,000 one that will help it establish solar programs.
It amazes, and thrills me, that the city of my youth—this city that is so rich in history and tradition—is leaping into the twenty-first century with such a bang. And inspires me to go just a little more green in my own life.

So, what is your favorite city? Is it the place you live now or one that you remember from your own youth?