Published! My Research Trip to Los Angeles

Maya Bairey
1 min readJun 29, 2023

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Published! My Research Trip to Los Angeles

Women Writers, Women(’s) Books has published my story about traveling to LA to visit Celia, León, and the rest of the crew.

Here’s an except from “Setting Research: When You Didn’t Write What You Know” published on April 29, 2023.

A woman floats peacefully in a swimming pool at night, a spangled view of the city behind her.

The image wouldn’t leave my head, and over time turned into a central scene in my debut romance novel, PAINTING CELIA.

Naturally, my character needed a house with a pool and a view. We don’t have those where I live in the Pacific Northwest, so I decided she would live in Los Angeles.

After my first draft, I realized I was making up an awful lot about LA. My armchair research in Google Street View might not be enough. A recent promotion had left me feeling rich. What if I went to LA and just looked around?

To read the rest, head over to the WWWB site.

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Maya Bairey

Maya Bairey pens tales of relatable, stuck characters who find solutions within, aided by real relationships. Discover her book, Painting Celia, at bairey.com.