Real and Imaginary Cities

[tim_pratt]

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).

Comments

[oneminutemonkey]

I'm still wrestling with that decision also. My Nick St. Claus stuff is primarily set in/around the mythical town of Holiday, Alaska. Having never been to Alaska, I have to at least do the minimum of research to make sure I don't make any huge blunders. On the bright side, I can dictate exactly what Holiday does and doesn't have. Some of my other, unpublished, works, are set in a mythical city located somewhere in, I suspect, Missouri. Again, it's nice to just make up the rules as I go along, especially since, in my opinion, I don't -know- any real cities well enough to write them with accuracy and tangibility. Though I'm tempted to try with my hometown of Roanoke one of these days.

For me, it just seems easier to make a city up from scratch, and draw from influences as needed, rather than worry too much about real placements. I think I may be more than a little influenced by the power Charles de Lint's Newford has always had for me, though.

So that's my 2 cents.

[jordansummers1]

I set my series in a post-apocalyptic world, so nothing really looks the same.

[lnhammer]

Made up, though sometimes they're thinly disguised versions of real locations -- or combinations of a couple real places. I'm used to having to keep track of everything anyway, since I started writing otherworld fantasy.

---L.

[oneminutemonkey]

Haha. That reminds me of my shameful time of playing on World of Darkness MUSHes. (text-based online games, for those scratching their heads...) And what got me were the number of games that tried to invent ficticious cities set in Maine, or in Washington State, and by golly, there's only so many places you can -put- cities of the sizes they were claiming...

I know I can get away with inventing a small(ish) town in Alaska, especially if it sort of spills over into other realms, because there's a lot of room for small(ish) towns as long as you're relatively logical about it. And I can even invent a medium-sized city in Missouri, because I'm from the East Coast and we don't believe anything exists between the East and West Coasts. :>

[buymeaclue]

>I'd buy a medium sized city in the midwest simply because there are lots of medium-sized cities in the midwest...

I was going to say, isn't there already at least one mid-sized city in Missouri? *g*

locations

[anonymous]

I like using real states as a geographic location, just to give the reader a sense of culture. I do however make up the cities or towns for convenience and to keep from having to do more research.