My first novel...

I think my first novel will take place in a small-town newspaper office.

I have been spending more hours there lately, as one of my co-workers has been out of the office, dealing with elderly parents' health issues.

I find the small town drama, good and bad, so human. It could be anywhere, anyone could see themselves in it. I get to take a step back from it and see it in a bigger picture because I am not from that area- I come from some towns over.
There is the micro-stuff- the small town stuff, and then the circle draws bigger, concentrically, until the big picture is national, or worldwide.
For example, the economy. I see it happening in the tiny town, and then the effects of and on the next bigger town, the region, state, etc...it is all tied together. What makes and/or breaks one tiny town? And then I can compare it to the next town over, that has some different variables.

When I talk about the ripple that extends from tiny town to national, I am thinking of this example. Yesterday a local tiny town cop came into the office.
He wanted to put an ad in the paper to buy a piano for the senior center (which is in the same building as his office.) I happen to know that there is a senior citizen (when I crashed the morning coffee party last week, they told me about him) who entertains the group with old favorite tunes. There is currently an old keyboard that he uses. I am sure it would be fun to hear him play on a real piano. I though it was sweet that the cop is looking for a piano for the center, on his own initiative.

Anyways, all that piano stuff was just a side note to my actual point (gives the story extra color.)

The cop started talking about radio systems and how the federal government is encouraging/making (not sure which) all police, sheriff's departments, etc., buy and use a new radio system. I have been hearing about it at the county meetings. It will be nationwide. And, at the federal level, government officials could decide to turn off one cop, one county, one state, etc., so they could no longer communicate.
Kind of scary isn't it?

To be clear, I have no idea if this is all true, or if the truth has been slanted to fit a conspiracy theory agenda. I would have to research it before I could call it true.

But, I sit in lots of low level government meetings, and I hear/see all the time, how we local/rural folks are affected by moves made in some other part of the nation, and that is what I mean about the small circles being affected, and vice versa, by the bigger circles.

As I do with most of my writing, I want to offer a caveat that I am not really sure this whole post makes any sense. But I won't say it (though I just did) because I am trying to let my words fall where they fall...and really, I have no current plans to write a novel. I just think I am gathering good fodder if I were to write one.