Equally with real estate, the phrase can be applied to
story. Every story needs a location in which to take place and, in some
instances, it can be is as important as characters or plot.
One can choose an actual place as setting for a story,
thought the writer runs the risk of being called out for errors by others more
familiar with the location. A reader can be jarred out of a story should your
character drive the wrong way on a one-way street or dine at a restaurant not on
the block where you place it.
I've written stories set in actual locations and--so
far--have not had the unpleasant experience of being challenged on my
descriptions of the setting.
But I think it's much more fun and challenging to
create your own little slice of the world.
I created the town of Arahpot in Jordan County (both
are fictional) and set them down in my neck of Pennsylvania as the location for
the novels in the Sheriff Sylvester Tilghman series. Some readers in my region
may recognize aspects of the place. Yet they won't find the town or county on
any maps.
Actually, I'd created Arahpot for an earlier book
(Watch The Hour). The town happened to have a lawman named Tilghman, so it was
convenient to borrow the place and have Syl be that man's son.
Arahpot sits on an elevated terrace between two forks
of a creek of the same name. It's a rural community, the economy equally
dependent on agricultural and coal mining. I've become quite familiar with the
place as I name its streets, create its business places and the home of the
principal characters. Occasionally my characters will journey to Shannon, the
county seat, or Masonville, a neighboring village (both as fictional as
Arahpot).
There are now three novels in the series: Fallen
From Grace, Sooner Than Gold and The Bartered Body.
Here's a blurb for The Bartered Body: Why would thieves steal the body of a dead woman?
That’s the most challenging question yet to be faced
by Sylvester Tilghman, the third of his family to serve as sheriff of Arahpot,
Jordan County, Pennsylvania, in the waning days of the 19th century.
And it’s not just any body but that of Mrs. Arbuckle,
Nathan Zimmerman’s late mother-in-law. Zimmerman is burgess of Arahpot and
Tilghman’s boss, which puts more than a little pressure on the sheriff to solve
the crime in a hurry.
Syl’s investigation is complicated by the arrival in
town of a former flame who threatens his relationship with his sweetheart Lydia
Longlow; clashes with his old enemy, former burgess McLean Ruppenthal; a string
of armed robberies, and a record snowstorm that shuts down train traffic, cuts
off telegraph service and freezes cattle in the fields.
It will take all of Syl’s skills and the help of his
deputy and friends to untangle the various threads and bring the criminals to
justice.
