My Favorite Scenes

What are your favorite vacation spots and do they ever show up in your books?

Rules:

1. Link your blog to this hop.

2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.

3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.

4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.

5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

<!– start InLinkz code –>

<div class=”inlinkz-widget” data-uuid=”cb227d1e559e4770b2b1baf8cb63a7da” style=”width:100%;margin:30px 0;background-color:#eceff1;border-radius:7px;text-align:center;font-size:16px;font-family:’Helvetica Neue’,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif”>

<div style=”padding:8px;”><p style=”margin-bottom:15px;”>You are invited to the <strong>Inlinkz</strong> link party!</p>

<a href=”https://fresh.inlinkz.com/p/cb227d1e559e4770b2b1baf8cb63a7da” target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow” style=”padding:5px 20px;background:#209cee;text-decoration:none;color:#efefef;border-radius:4px;”>Click here to enter</a></div></div>

<span style=”display: none;”>http://a%20href=</span>

<!– end InLinkz code –>

WordPress Shortcode

[fresh_inlinkz_code id=”cb227d1e559e4770b2b1baf8cb63a7da”]

Unique URL

https://fresh.inlinkz.com/p/cb227d1e559e4770b2b1baf8cb63a7da

Absolutely

Many of the scenes of places I’ve traveled to find a home in my books.

The featured town in Transformation Project is a town in Kansas where we stopped for gasoline and lunch many years ago. I changed the name and several details to avoid making that annoying error where you read a book set in your hometown and it takes liberties with your home. But I also include the Fairbanks Airport and locations in Columbus (which I’ve not been to) and Seattle, which I know pretty well.

In my romance that is nearing final draft, I set a lot of the action in Maui, which is my favorite island in Hawaii. Why not use what you know and enjoy. I also use the Denver Airport because I was once stuck there for several hours.

The town of Port Mallory in What If Wasn’t wasn’t a favorite vacation spot, but I did enjoy a lunch there with my husband’s uncle, so again, I used the town as a template but changed the name and details. The description of the downtown and harbor are my memories from about 20 years ago.

I set a short story about Alaska in the valley where our cabin build is located.

In my fantasy series Daermad Cycle, which you wouldn’t think would have a foot in the real world, I have scenes based on places I’ve visited. Janara and Donyl hike the Copper River “Highway” (actually an abandoned railroad bed) and cross the mighty Copper River (renamed the Dragon’s Milk), Padraig rides through a meadow we once found on a multi-day hike, and Ryanna is trapped in burned-over taiga in the Gatelands.

Why Not Just Start from Scratch?

Because there is so much that goes into building a world and sometimes, it is simply easier to base the build on the real world. Does Emmaus Kansas have national gas? What’s the weather like in November or April? How deep would the snow get if the streets weren’t plowed? Why make up a bunch of stuff when you can look it up? This helps readers to believe they’re really in Kansas and it doesn’t limit me to writing Alaskana.

By wrapping my fiction around kernels of truth, I hope I create a sense of authenticity that might not exist otherwise.

I wonder what my fellow blog-hoppers have to say on this subject.