What could those four places possibly have in common? Well, the photo is the clue.
Me.
I’ve been to all those places. I love them all. Because I know them and love being there, if only in my mind, I use them as settings in my books. You see, as a writer, I think that no amount of research can do justice to the actual experience. For example, you can research about the Grand Canyon all you would like, including watching YouTube videos, but nothing will top the actual experience. Ask anyone who has been there. And by the way, the I’m on th eBright Angel Trail in the photo above, photo taken in 2011.
Not every writer agrees with me, and that’s okay. I have to be true to myself, though, and I’d like to share some of my writing journey with you. Why I write what I do. Why I set my stories in the places I do.
Beginning today and going through Wednesday, I am going to blog about one or more of my books and give the story behind the story.
Today I’ll focus on my books for young girls.
When I was growing up, I devoured all the mysteries and horse books I could find. Nancy Drew, of course, was standard fare, but Trixie Belden books were my favorites. Trixie had it all. A rich friend, Honey, who lived on the estate next to her family’s small farm and had horses, servants, and resources that helped the girl sleuths solve mysteries.
Like most writers, I wrote my own stories and illustrated them. As a teen, I wrote silly love stories and poems, but in college and adulthood, life took over, and my fiction writing, along with my fanciful thoughts. disappeared.
But when I was fifty-eight, I finally wrote my first complete book. A book targeted to girls ages eight to twelve, it was a throwback to my Trixie Belden reading days. Trixie represented 1950s and 1960s America, and I decided my book would be reflective of modern times and problems while still having some elements of mystery.
Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley (do I really need to clarify that?), was once in a rural setting but now is surrounded by businesses and houses and fronted by a very busy road, Elvis Presley Boulevard. Once we drove around in the neighborhood immediately behind it, and that experience triggered my curiosity. Did the people that lived there hear the tourists on the other side of the tall, white fence? Did any of them work in the stores? Had those residents ever paid to visit the mansion?
I now had my location and the beginnings of a vague plot. But what about my characters?
I had heard of two women who were such devoted Elvis fans that they moved to that neighborhood when they retired. One was from Maryland. The other was from another state.
Wow. Who would do that? Who would move to a not-very-safe area of Memphis just so she could “breathe Elvis air” every day?
That question gave birth to my Aunt Trina character. And from there, the story flowed as the characters almost created themselves. (Yes, I am more of a panther which my writing friends will understand) than a plotter. I’m trying to do better with that.
The story?
Take twelve-year-old twins who love to read. Send them away from their home in San Diego to stay with a great-aunt they barely know in Memphis while their mother goes on an extended honeymoon with her new husband. Add in the hurt and resentment of being displaced, the thrill of being reunited with their military father, a stranger who seems to be spying on them, mysterious voices coming from behind the house at night, and a homeless teen-age boy who is trying to help his family however he can, and you have a story that almost any girl in that age group can identify with. And did I mention I even worked in some horses?
A year later, book two was published. The end of book one leads to the girls’ adventures in Nashville, where their father has been hired as security for a beautiful country music singer who is receiving death threats. The obvious interest the singer has in their father is upsetting to Mandi, the main character, and she discovers yet another mystery to be solved while coping with her twin’s sudden interest in makeup and boys. Mandi’s heroics with a shoplifter and her help in looking for a missing child add to the excitement of their short stay.
Book three is still a fuzzy idea going on in my mind. It will be set in the Great Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee, thereby completing the twins’ journey across the state.
Tomorrow I will blog about my first adult book, a historical set in 1895-1896. A love story but also…well, read my blog tomorrow to find out!
Note: All of my books are published by Mantle Rock Publishing and are considered to be clean fiction.
Life As I know it 