I’ve been fascinated watching the tiny house movement from the sidelines. Let me be frank: I need space. I lived in studio apartments when I first moved to Chicago, which is fine for one person. The minute I moved into a two-bedroom condo, however, I started shutting the door just because I could.

I like the privacy to be found in rooms with doors. I’m also anti-open floor plan. But I digress…

I’ve often been struck by the reasons why a person or family chooses a tiny house. Wanting to move off the grid, seeking a way to make homeownership a reality, or re-grouping after a devastating loss are a few of the stories I’ve seen and read. The idea of living with less also resonates with me. All that is to say that despite the anti tiny-house stance in my second Golden Shores story, Coastal Erosion, I’m pro tiny house (if it’s the right fit). I joke with my husband that I’m going to need a tiny house/she shed once our little boys become big.

Coastal Erosion is anti-development, more than anything else. Watching as every spare field near my home in the Midwest is sold and developed, I worry what the point of all this urban sprawl is. Do we really need another large-scale shopping center when other retail buildings within a three-mile radius are vacant? Can’t we figure out a way to re-work pre-existing buildings without having to break new ground?

On St. Simons, the very real island featured in my Golden Shores books, they are also facing development and stressing the infrastructure. I’m grateful for the work of my county at preserving as much land as they can and similarly, such work is happening in St. Simons too. I hope your hometown is working to save your land too.

So, tiny houses? Yay. Overdevelopment? Nay.