A Wondrous Land of Imagination

Creative Commons photo by Bill Selak

One of the greatest challenges when writing fiction is getting the location just right. I usually have my English students write a short story for me every year and they wrestle with setting, too. I tell them to set their stories in a place and, more often than not, the setting is pretty much the town our school is set in, if they describe it at all.

I don't blame them because describing a place that you don't know well isn't easy. For my Jim Mitchell novels, I created the fictional city of Emerald Valley. If you live near where I do, you'll be able to discern which real places inspired my fictional ones. But what I've done is piece together parts of several cities to make a metaphorical quilt suitable for my needs. The downtown is from one city, but the high school is from another. The burger joint in one from a nearby down placed in my fictional hamlet. 

The second novel, Undue Pressure, prominently featured a nearby college where I worked and I have friends still there. Walking the halls and smelling the roses (literally) helped me give the place an authentic feel because it is a real place, just with a different name. For the latest book, I walked all around my town's civic center to be able to write the opening scene with clarity. I like real details even if my town is made up.​

Besides, as long as Emerald Valley is real to my readers, that's good enough for me.

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