Real and Imaginary Cities
A few weeks ago I officially delivered Blood Engines, the first book in my series (which I guess for convenience I'm calling the "Marla Mason" series, after the protagonist). I also got a look at the cover art and copy (it's lovely, and I'll post it soon -- my editor asked me to hold off until she can send me high-res versions of the art). Yesterday I finished my final-as-I-can-manage draft of the second book in the series, Poison Sleep. I've been thinking about both books, and the series as a whole...
One difference between the two books is setting. My protagonist Marla is a sorceress, sort of a combination of a mob boss and superhero, protector of a medium-sized east coast city called Felport -- she protects the city from supernatural threats, and, in return, runs a few rackets to make a living. The first book, however, doesn't take place in the imaginary city of Felport -- it takes place in the real city of San Francisco, albeit a version of San Francisco that has a council of sorcerers secretly running things behind the scenes. Marla, who hates leaving her own city under any circumstances, has to travel to San Francisco to find a magical artifact. The book begins when she arrives in San Francisco and ends when she leaves. Now, I live in Oakland, and spend lots of time across the bay, so it was pretty easy to write the San Francisco setting convincingly, I think. In book two, however, Marla returns to Felport... which is a totally imaginary city. On the one hand, that's easier in some ways, because I can make the geography up to suit me, and the city is an appealing mix of dark alleys, waterfront warehouses, rusting iron bridges, garbage dumps, skyscrapers, a University, a big park, etc. etc. etc. On the other hand, I have to actually keep track of everything, especially since this is an open-ended series that could go on for years and years (assuming my editor wants to keep buying the books). I expect most of the books to be set in Felport and environs, so I'm in the odd position of having to draw maps (badly, since I have the spatial sense of a flatworm), keep track of distances, etc. Most of my fiction is contemporary fantasy, set in real places I know pretty well, and setting something in a made-up city is a new experience for me.
What are your preferences? Make up your own place so you can control all the locations, but with the drawback that you have to remember everything? Or use real places you can research, and risk getting stuff wrong and annoying locals, and being limited by the constraints of reality? (Of course, I take liberties with reality as necessary, too -- the version of Santa Cruz in my novel The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl has some differences from the real city, for the sake of the plot and convenience.)