How Setting Shapes Story: Sydney, London, and Southern California in Ocean Child

Place has always mattered to me when I write. Not just as a backdrop, but as a force. A quiet presence shaping the characters as much as any person or event.

When I first began imagining Ocean Child, Sydney was always at the center. Not because of its postcard beauty, but because I lived there once, briefly, as a teenager. That time left a deep impression on me. Sure, the beaches and the blue, endless sky were impressive, but more awe-inspiring was the emotional dislocation of it all. Being so far from what was familiar, trying to make sense of who I was becoming in a place that was both breathtaking and deeply foreign.

That sense of displacement became Julia’s experience long before I even realized I was writing it. Sydney, for her, is both freedom and confinement. The ocean offers a horizon that seems endless, but the ties to her father’s control pull tighter with every decision she makes to claim her independence.

London, for Miriam, carries a different weight. It is the city that gave her a career and took something from her in return. The fog of public success and private grief in London mirrors the contradictions in Miriam’s life and a place of opportunity where she also feels invisible.

Southern California, for Catrina, represents ambition in its purest and most dangerous form. It is a place of innovation and reinvention, but also of relentless pressure and a place where appearances can matter more than truth if you are not careful.

Each setting in Ocean Child is more than a backdrop. It reflects the emotional landscapes of the women who move through it. The places they inhabit mirror the choices they make, the risks they take, and the futures they try to claim.

Writing these settings was not about capturing geography. It was about capturing emotion and how a place can seep into your skin, the way it can sharpen loneliness or offer a sliver of hope when you need it most.

Sydney gave me that first glimpse of what it feels like to be adrift between who you are and who you are trying to become. It felt right that Julia would begin her journey there too.