By LynDee Walker
I love Richmond.
Sure, the Texas girl in
me still gets a little choked up at the sight of an old gray barn across a sea
of bluebonnets, but Virginia has become home for my family in the last seven
years.
Folks have asked me why
I “decided” to set a mystery series here. I’m not sure I did. It just was. The
first time Nichelle popped into my head, she was locked in a car trunk down in
Shockoe Bottom. Her story grew from there, and Richmond was always as much a
part of it as her Manolos.
Writing about the city
where I live is a lot of fun. The bonuses are that I don’t have to keep track
of fictional streets and businesses (I have very talented author friends who
make detailed maps and spreadsheets for this, so if you go the
entirely-made-up-town route, there’s a tip for you). The hard part is that I
skate a fine line between make believe and reality.
For instance, before
anyone comes to town looking to tour the Telegraph newsroom or go to a Generals
game, I have fictionalized some things about Richmond. You won’t find Grant
Parker (sorry, ladies) at the local newspaper office, and while the Diamond is a
beautiful ballpark, it will never see major-league cleats. Our baseball team is
a AAA Giants affiliate called the Richmond Flying Squirrels (you can’t make
this stuff up, y’all).
Many of the places in
Nichelle’s Richmond are real, though. I avoid using names when I can, because
things change and restaurants and shops close, but I can’t go back and edit a
published novel. Bonus: a lot of fun has been had with that at book club
meetings around town this year. People like to guess the place Nichelle frequents.
It makes me happy when they get it right, because I know I described it well.
Writing about Richmond
makes for some interesting family outings, too. My husband came in from a run
along the James River last summer, and the first words out of his mouth were “I
know where your next body’s going to turn up.”
A few weeks later, we
took a family hike around Belle Isle to investigate. He was so right. I found
enough places for people to dump or hide corpses down there to last thirty
books. My kids got really into helping, too. At one point, on a sunny September
Sunday with dozens of people around, my son (he’s 5) shouted “Mommy! Look, you
could put a dead body up there!”
People turned to stare,
but no one called the cops. I still can’t decide if I’m relived or disturbed by
that. I mean, I don’t think I look like a serial killer, but Ted Bundy didn’t,
either.
Sans police
intervention, my son won the day—Nichelle will get called to a body recovery in
the location he picked in the fourth Headlines in High Heels novel, DEVIL IN
THE DEADLINE. I’m writing it now, and it’s been such fun to describe that bit
of Richmond. It’s super-creepy, and it’ll be fun to see if people can guess it
when I’m through.
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LynDee
Walker’s award-winning journalistic work has appeared in newspapers and
magazines across the nation. After nearly a decade covering crime, courts, and
local politics, she left full-time reporting for motherhood with a side of
freelancing and fiction writing. LynDee’s debut novel, FRONT PAGE FATALITY, is
an amazon and Barnes and Noble #1 bestseller, and an Agatha Award nominee for
Best First Novel. SMALL TOWN SPIN (Henery Press, April 2014) is the third in
her Headlines in High Heels Mystery series. The fourth arrives January 2015.LynDee
adores her family, her readers, and enchiladas. She works out tricky plot
points while walking off the enchiladas. She lives in Richmond, Virginia, where
she is either playing with her children or working on her next novel—but
probably not cleaning her house. You can find her online at www.lyndeewalker.com Twitter: @LynDeeWalker
Facebook: LynDee Walker
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