O.C. Writers

By Kristy Tate // 

Keeping your story strictly fictional might be the easiest thing to do. Your streets are imaginary. No one is going to wonder about the haunted house at the end of the lane, or if the villain really has a bazooka in his cellar. People aren’t going to get tripped up by whether or not there’s a train that runs through your town. I had a negative review because in one of my books where I fictionalized my hometown, I called a garage sale a tag sale. (Garage sales are common in the Pacific Northwest, tag sales happen in Connecticut—where I also once lived.) Also, another reader didn’t like that my character took a ferry to the San Juan Islands at a time when the ferry doesn’t run. (Didn’t seem to matter to them that the island was completely fictional, I should get the schedule right.) 

But if you know your location quite well, there are huge advantages of setting your book in a place that’s near and dear to peoples’ hearts. Here are a few ways to make the most of your non-fictional setting. 

1. If the community has social media pages, join them. I belong to both the Rancho Santa Margarita Facebook page (where I live) and the Lake Arrowhead Facebook page, where my Blue Jay Bay books are set.  
   Because my in-laws lived in Lake Arrowhead for about twenty years, I’m pretty familiar with the area. Still, if I have a question, I can reach out on social media. For example, my book has a warehouse and I wasn’t sure where such a building would belong on the mountain so I asked the group for suggestions (and got great responses.)  
2. Every community has its own unique events and ways they celebrate major holidays. Both Rancho and Lake Arrowhead have a summer concert series. Rancho has a tree-lighting ceremony on the lake. In Lake Arrowhead, Santa arrives in the village on a fire engine. Both communities have a Fourth of July fireworks display. Know how the community celebrates and use the celebrations in your books. 
3. Tie in local lore. If famous people once lived there, reference them. If a major calamity once happened, mention it. For example, in my book, my characters talk about when the fire department intentionally burned the village to the ground in the 1970s. They also mention the bootlegging in the twenties and thirties and the celebrities and mobsters who once lived there. 
4. If possible, highlight local businesses in your story (in favorable ways, of course.) If it’s a shop that might be interested in carrying your book, all the better. 
5. Most community social media pages have a day of the week where local businesses are able to promote. Know what that day is, and promote your book. When I did that on the Lake Arrowhead page, I had more than 75 like my post. I’m sure there were some who checked out the book just out of curiosity. (I watched The Terminal List—something that would typically not be on my must-watch list—just because it was filmed in Lake Arrowhead and it was fun to catch sight of places I knew.) 

What about you? Do you like to keep everything fictional? Or do you use actual locations? Have you found advantages to keeping things real? 

KRISTY TATE is the Social Media Director for O.C. Writers and a USA Today bestselling author. To date, her newsletter subscriber list is edging toward 15,000. www.KristyTate.com.