Real or Fake? What's your take?

When I was a teenager, I loved to read. I hung my clothes (or threw them on the floor in my closest, but shh!) so I could organize my books in my dresser drawers. My books were my treasures. One of my favorite authors was V.C Andrews. I started reading her books when I was just 12 or so. She wrote fascinating scenes set in Louisiana. I wanted to visit the bayous she wrote about. I still haven’t been there but I will some day… all because I read about it so many times in her book.

It got me thinking about the places I write about. I prefer to use fictional towns. I get to use my imagination for the most part with sprinkles of facts here and there. What I want (or my characters!) goes where I say in my town. I get to choose most aspects about my town I make up from the small things like what type of businesses they have to the type of people there.

Here’s a sneak peak of Alban, Oregon from Jesse’s Brother:

“The pedestrians of Alban fanned themselves while darting into the comfort of air conditioning in the stores they visited. Children walked down the sidewalk holding adult hands on one side with dripping ice cream cones in the other. Melted ice cream left stains all over their faces and shirts. This is heaven, thought Samantha as she and Noah drove down Main Street. Alban is the perfect place to live.”

~Jesse’s Brother, Sept. 21st, 2009

But what’s good about setting the novels in real places? A lot. I love traveling and it gives me a good reason to visit new places. All in the name of research, right? By writing about real places I have lived or visited (or want to!), I get to revisit those places each time I read my novel. I lived in Portland, Oregon and missed it greatly while writing Jesse’s Brother. Guess where Samantha got to visit for the first time? You guessed it correctly if you said Portland. I got to revisit my favorite places as I wrote about her trip there.

So I ask you: has a writer ever inspired you to visit a place? Do you prefer real reading about real places or fictional towns?

A visit from Ms. Dater!

I’m so honored to be blogging at a romance author blog even though I’m not an author. Or a publisher really. Not even an agent. What I am is the BIGGEST romance novel fan! So why do I get to be a guest here? I’m single and looking for my own love story. You know~ one of those kinds these authors write about! I know my Mr. Forever is not going to drop from the sky so I’m out pounding the pavement to find him. Some day I’ll have my own romance like in a novel. But not last Friday. Oh no. First of all~ you should know I suck at dating. It’s not one of my talents.

So here’s my date:

I met my date outside of my favorite Mexican food restaurant. He looked great with his rumpled blond hair, freckles, and wrinkle free clothes. Yep. I even look at the clothes the guy wears. This one looked great.
“Mark, it’s so nice to meet you.” I shot him a great big smile.
He didn’t smile back so it got me wondering what heck his problem was. I learned soon enough.
“My name’s John.”
Oh, right! Mark was the other night. Damn. Strike one. I wondered how many I would get?

Since we started off the wrong foot it couldn’t get worse right? I’ll let you be the judge. We walk into the place and was taken right to a table. Our waiter was my date’s friend. I sat there quietly while he jabbered on and on to this waiter. My stomach was growling and I was getting antsy. Not a good combo.

I lean over to the waiter who was crouched down next to the table to introduce myself since my date wasn‘t. “I’m Mark’s date.” As soon as the name left my mouth I knew it was bad. “I mean John.” I sat back against the seat and knew I was in trouble.

But at least I was wearing what I call my cleavage shirt so maybe it would get me some brownie points with him and he’d forget about the silly name thing. It must have worked because he seemed to ease up a bit while we waited for our food.

All was going good until he was eating a nacho with a big dollop of sour cream. I don’t know how it had gotten smeared across his cheek but it looked like he had been having fun with someone other than me. The thought of that sent me into a giggled. I didn’t realize the waiter was coming with our food until it was to late.

The waiter laughed at my date as he set the food down on our table. Once he was gone, I told John about the sour cream.

I hit the three strike rule. He doesn’t want to go out with me again.

I guess that leaves me to read more of Sweet Talk by Susan Mallery. Such a beautiful story about estranged sisters and the male best friend. I think I’ll go ask my mom if she’s sure I don’t have some long lost sister somewhere so maybe I can hook up with her best friend like in the novel I’m reading!

If you’d like me to review your book, send it on over and these awesome authors will forward it to me! Who knows how it’ll tie into my next date!!

XoXo,
Ms. Dater