I’ve moved around a lot in my life and have experienced
small towns, midsize towns, and large cities.
When I start a new book, one of the first things I do is
decide what kind of town or city I will use in the book.
If I haven’t visited the town or city, if it is possible, I
will plan a trip there to get a feel for the area.
I rarely use the actual name, substituting the names such as
Basin, Montana to Mason, Montana, Philipsburg, Montana to Frankenburg, Montana.
The reason I change town/city names is due to changes I have to make in the
story. For example, I love the town of Phillipsburg, Montana, but in visiting
and investigating the town, they have one sheriff and his son is a deputy. I
needed a larger sheriff department, so not to misrepresent Philipsburg, I changed
the name to Frankenburg.
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| Basin Street, Basin, Montana |
Recently I made a trip to Dunlap and Pikesville, Tennessee
to see if the towns have changed since I was there in the 1990s. Boy was I glad
I did, the towns were totally changed and a highway bypass was built.
Pikesville was still a nice town, very quaint, downtown area, but it would have
changed the dynamics of the story that I’m currently working on, so, based on
my memory of the town before all the changes, I’m creating a town in Tennessee
where my heroine lives.
Towns and cities are important to the story. Description of
a small town can help readers get a feel for the kind of town and people that
live in the town. But, for me, the towns need to be as realistic as possible. A
small town in Montana is very different than a small town in Alabama. A
mid-size town in New Mexico is different from a mid-size town in New York.
In my latest release, Love, A Second Time Around, a small
town in South Dakota is different than a small town in North Dakota. As you will discover when reading the book.
As of this
date, my publisher still has my book priced at 99 cents for the new release
special. So you’ll want to go over and get your copy as soon as possible.
Here’s the Amazon buy link:
https://www.amazon.com/Love-Second-Around-Constance-Bretes-ebook/dp/B07WZ2X5R5/
Love, A Second Time Around by Constance Bretes
They stole five years of his life. Now it’s time to settle
the score.
Released from prison after serving five years for a crime he
didn’t commit, Dr. Jon Stephenson is left with the task of rebuilding his
veterinarian business, finding his son, and bringing those who wronged him to
justice.
Not only had the love of Cat Morgan’s life been sent to
prison, but prior to his arrest he had broken her heart. Needing a new start,
she left town with Jon’s young son. Unknown to Jon, she was pregnant at the
time. Now she’s a single mom to two young boys.
She never expected to see Jon again, and now that he’s shown
up, demanding the opportunity to provide the father figure his sons need, she
finds herself falling for him all over again. Actually, to be honest, she never
stopped loving him. But will she ever be able to forgive his past
indiscretions, and can they learn to trust each other again?
Don't forget to enter into our rafflecopter, Back to School, Back to you!
Interesting post Constance! I like to fictionalize real place too. Unless I know them really well.
ReplyDeleteI love learning how other authors create their settings and characters. Working on some "place" now for my new series, which mingles fictional with real. Great fun! Congratulations and best of luck with your new release!
ReplyDeleteI like when real places are fictionalized, too. I read a book recently where I was able to pick out the "real" town in the story. That was fun.
ReplyDeleteI do the same thing with places especially if they are small towns. My new series Storms of New England, the Storm family comes from Squamscott Falls, NH. Essentially it's modeled after Exeter, NH, but I needed to change some things in the town so created a new one. Although Squamscott Falls is the ORIGINAL name of Exeter, so anyone that knows their history will figure it out.
ReplyDeleteI, too usually fictionalize and adapt places I like the feel of for my stories.
ReplyDeleteI fictionalize real places, too. I like to change the town to suit my story and don't want people saying "that street doesn't go there" or "there's no business like that here". Good luck with the new release.
ReplyDeleteI wrote my first book in an actual town, but took liberties with it. In retrospect, I wish I had set it in a fictionalized town based on a real town. It would give me a lot more room to wiggle.
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
I create towns and even counties. I may model part of the town after towns I visited, but they are so fictionalized that no one could recognize them. For towns I create completely from my imagination, I draw up a map of the town, complete with landmarks.
ReplyDeleteI based my town off of a real place too and changed the name. It just made me feel better because I would get so worried that I wouldn't represent the city in the right way. Small towns are my favorite because they feel intimate.
ReplyDelete