Today I have a special guest post from sister Broad Universe member Gail Z. Martin as part of her Days of the Dead tour. If you've ever read a story set in a real city, you may have wondered how authors research the setting, especially if they don't live there. Gail offers some tips on getting it right. Take it away, Gail!
When it comes to science fiction and fantasy,
sometimes there’s no place like home.
Over the years, we’ve read a lot of stories set in
fascinating places that don’t exist. Babylon 5, Westeros, the Shire and so many
other space colonies and fictional kingdoms fill our imaginations, our
bookshelves and our media libraries. Urban fantasy, however, told us that the
real world could be just as full of wonder, horror, magic and monsters as any
made-up place. All of a sudden, we started looking at familiar locations in a
whole new light.
To be fair, there are some cities that have always
straddled the line between real world and shared fictional universe: London and
New York City, in particular. We have read so many books and seen so many
movies or TV shows set in those cities that if we haven’t been there ourselves,
it can be difficult to remember that they’re real places.
And yet … urban fantasy has been steadily moving out
of New York and London for a while now. Laurell K Hamilton’s Anita Blake series
put vampires in St. Louis, MO. Sookie Stackhouse and her menagerie of vampires,
werewolves, witches and were-panthers all called small-town Bon Temps, LA home.
Harry Dresden fights all kinds of monsters—and the mob—in Chicago. My urban
fantasy series, Deadly Curiosities, is set in Charleston, SC. And it’s not just
urban fantasy. Iron & Blood, the steampunk series co-authored with my
husband, Larry N. Martin, takes place in an alternative history Pittsburgh, PA
where the city is an essential part of the plot. Just like Stephen King showed
us that small towns weren’t as ‘normal’ as we remembered them, urban fantasy
clued us in to the monsters among us.
What are the rules for using a real city as the
setting for your fiction? How do you avoid getting sued if you allege that
vampires are actually running City Council? Can you use a city for your setting
if you haven’t lived there (or even visited)?
Here are my Top 10 rules for setting your monster mash in a real place.
1. Pick
a city or small town that has a distinctive personality or regional flavor. The
city can become a character in the story, imparting a sense that the characters
and the circumstances could only happen in that place. This is where learning
about a city and region’s history really pays off, as does a visit (at least
one, maybe more) helps you immerse yourself—and therefore the reader—in the
location.
2. Do
your best to get the details right. Maybe you don’t live in the city you want
to use as your setting, or you haven’t lived there in years, or you can’t
physically visit. That’s okay—there are other ways to do your homework. Google
Earth is your best friend. Go down to AAA and get the city tour information as
if you were going on vacation. Buy travel books for that city and region, get
maps, watch travelogues and food shows set in the location you want to use.
Talk to people who visit there frequently or have lived there to get a sense of
local color and how things are done. You want your book to ring true to people
who do have first-hand experience with the city, so you’ve got to do your
homework.
3. Read
other fiction series—even if they’re outside your genre—that have been set in
your chosen city to see how other authors evoke a sense of place. Unless you’re
choosing a very small town, odds are you can find a mystery series or a Western
or a romance set in that city. If you can’t find that city exactly, find
something in its region. Then pay attention to the details mentioned in the
other books set in that area—regional phrases, foods, etc. Validate, but see
what tips you can pick up.
4. Weave
local history, geography and landmarks into your plot. You don’t need to give
your readers a lecture or a tour, but by dropping in just the right amount of
detail, you can make your city setting tangible.
5. When
it comes to dodging lawsuits (and I’m an author, not a lawyer), best practice
is not to say anything unflattering of someone who is alive or recently
dead—unless they’re really famous. This is how ‘Abraham Lincoln—Vampire Hunter’
gets away without a libel ruling. If you’re going to make a local politician a
crook, pick a dead politician who has actually been convicted (not just
indicted or the subject of scandal). Google your villain’s name with the city
and see if you get hits on real people. If so, you might want to change the
name so there’s no possibility of confusion.
6. The
more implausible the accusation, the less likely you (probably) are to get in
trouble. (Then again, there are those people who thought the Harry Potter books
taught real witchcraft….) So claiming
that a dead senator was a vampire is less likely to be believed than claiming
he was involved in taking bribes, child molestation, etc. If you want to use a
historic figure, try to pick one who’s been dead long enough (like Abraham
Lincoln) that descendants won’t get up in arms.
7. Make
up names for characters who are villains or who behave in unflattering ways
rather than using real people. Don’t base anything so closely as to be
recognizable on local scandals or court cases unless it’s long enough ago that
everyone involved is dead and the situation was well documented (newspaper,
books) at the time. It’s easier to avoid legal problems than to get out of
them.
8. Tie
your city setting in to your book launch, giveaway choices, room parties, and
other promotions. I’ve been to book launches and room parties that featured
regional foods from the setting of the novel—especially great if your city is a
foodie haven like New Orleans or Memphis. Purchase souvenirs (online or during
a research visit) to use as giveaways and prizes. Have fun with it—you can
expand beyond food and souvenirs to stuff from the local sports teams, local
cocktails, trivia contests, etc.
9. Reach
out to bloggers and reviewers from that city or region as well as local news
stations—they might want to feature your book if they aren’t the kind of place
that has already been used as a setting by many other authors.
10. Share
the extra history, lore, urban legends, historic scandals and other information
you researched but didn’t use in the book on your blog along with your photos
from the research trip to help your readers really get into the setting.
Finding a real life setting for your fiction can be
a fantastic way to add sensory details and make the story real for readers.
Along the way, you might just discover a whole new favorite home away from
home!
My
Days of the Dead blog tour runs through October 31 with never-before-seen cover
art, brand new excerpts from upcoming books and recent short stories,
interviews, guest blog posts, giveaways and more! Plus, I’ll be including extra
excerpt links for my stories and for books by author friends of mine. You’ve
got to visit the participating sites to get the goodies, just like Trick or
Treat! Details here: www.AscendantKingdoms.com
Book swag is the new Trick-or-Treat! Grab
your envelope of book swag awesomeness from me & 10 authors http://on.fb.me/1h4rIIe before 11/1!
Trick or Treat! Excerpt
from my new urban fantasy novel Vendetta set in my Deadly Curiosities world
here http://bit.ly/1ZXCPVS
Launches Dec. 29
About the Author
Gail Z. Martin is the author of the upcoming novel Vendetta: A Deadly Curiosities Novel in her urban fantasy series set in
Charleston, SC (Dec. 2015, Solaris Books) as well as the epic fantasy novel Shadow and Flame (March, 2016 Orbit
Books) which is the fourth and final book in the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga. Shadowed Path, an anthology of Jonmarc
Vahanian short stories set in the world of The
Summoner, debuts from Solaris books in June, 2016.
Other books include The Jake Desmet Adventures a new Steampunk series (Solaris Books)
co-authored with Larry N. Martin as well as Ice
Forged, Reign of Ash and War of
Shadows in The Ascendant Kingdoms Saga, The Chronicles of The Necromancer
series (The Summoner, The Blood King,
Dark Haven, Dark Lady’s Chosen) from Solaris Books and The Fallen Kings
Cycle (The Sworn, The Dread) from Orbit Books and the
urban fantasy novel Deadly Curiosities
from Solaris Books.
Gail writes four series of ebook short stories: The Jonmarc Vahanian Adventures, The Deadly Curiosities Adventures, The
King’s Convicts series, and together with Larry N. Martin, The Storm and Fury Adventures. Her work
has appeared in over 20 US/UK anthologies. Newest anthologies include: The Big Bad 2, Athena’s Daughters, Realms of
Imagination, Heroes, With Great Power, and (co-authored with Larry N. Martin)
Space, Contact Light, The Weird Wild West, The Side of Good/The Side of Evil,
Alien Artifacts, Clockwork Universe: Steampunk vs. Aliens.
About The
Author
