By Patricia Potter
When I started writing
“A Soldier’s Promise,” I knew I had a problem. All my other books
were set in an actual place: Atlanta that I knew well, Memphis that I knew
nearly as well, Boston that I had visited many times and the Georgia coast that
I had haunted for many years. Other locations were
intentionally vague: a Texas Ranger station, a ranch in Colorado, a trail
drive, etc. But now I was writing a book where a small town
is really a character in the book. I wanted it to be eccentric, and
quite obviously I couldn’t use a real one where everyone knows
everyone. The only solution was to build my own town.
“Promise” is the
story of a wounded vet returning to a life foreign to him after eighteen years
in the army. With him is Amos, a retired military dog with
PTSD. My vet, a loner without family, is seeking a quiet refuge
where the two can heal each other. That refuge is a cabin
left to him by his best friend who was killed in their last battle together.
But where to place that
town and what and who should be included? I knew I wanted him to go
to a small town in Colorado on the edge of the Rockies. The
first step was a giant Colorado map on which I circled every small
town. Then I googled each one. Most have web sites with
valuable details: population, industry if any, businesses, city
government. The latter was particularly helpful. It often
included the composition of city government and the size of its police
department, including the names of officers and dispatchers. The latter
was doubly valuable for providing names typical of the region. When
I thought additional information was needed, I would call the listed number
and, as always, people were always eager to answer any questions.
Armed with this
information, I then went to the State of Colorado web site as well as my own
encyclopedia for information on weather, flora and wildlife. I knew
the story would include a rattlesnake bite and a national
forest. After days of estimating distances and researching
towns, I decided to place my town of approximately 3,000 souls about a hundred
miles west of Pueblo.
I had the basics
now. At last, I could become a town
planner. I designed my l town, complete with street names,
businesses, town hall, elementary and high school, police station and a
community center. There’s a hardware store, of course, and a
sarcastic veterinarian who is also involved in search and rescue. There
is an elderly doctor, a grocery store, drug store, small bank branch, real
estate and insurance company, general store with some clothing, service station
and garage, Maude’s diner that makes the best steaks in Colorado and four
bars/saloons. There is a lake, public picnic area and community
center with ball fields. Everyone knows everyone, and when a
newcomer appears, there is mass community interest, the last thing my
protagonist wants.
A big problem was the
town’s name. My original name was Lake City until I discovered a
small town of similar size in the Colorado Mountains named Lake
City. I was halfway through the book then and couldn’t
believe I had missed it when researching small towns. But
just as a precaution, I googled Lake City and sure enough there was
one. Back to the drawing board. I ended up
with Covenant Falls and you have to read the book to find out
why. It has to do with a legend and Colorado history.
Once I had my town, the
population was easy. It’s decidedly elderly because young
people have to go elsewhere for jobs. The mayor is a widow with an
eight-year-old son and a motley crew of rescue dogs. She is
constantly at war with the president of the city council.
Covenant Falls is now as
real to me as my own Memphis and I expect it will be the location of other
books. After all, I did build
it.
________________________________________________________________________________
Patricia Potter is the
USA Today Bestselling Author of more than sixty books, including historical
romances, suspense and romance. Her complete list of her books can be found at Romance Wiki. She has been published by Bantam,
Berkley, Harper and Harlequin, and her books has been translated into
twelve languages. She is a past president of the 10,000-member Romance Writers of America, Georgia Romance Writers and River City Romance Writers. She is an avid advocate of animal rescue groups, including Pets for Vets, and is the proud adoptive mother of two rescue Australian Shepherd
mixes. You can connect with Patricia on her website and blog, She shares this site with five other best-selling authors, Story Broads. Her latest book,
No comments:
Post a Comment