The Work of Creating Believable Fictional Places

The action in Lies Agreed Upon plays out against both fictional and real settings, and I tried to make the fictional environments as descriptively believable as the actual backdrop of historic New Orleans. In fact, it requires more research to successfully describe imaginary places as it does to describe real locations. To create a fictional place, I first look for historical models in my research reading. I also browse the Internet for tourist descriptions, local memoirs and news stories of similar places. I study photographs of sites that fit with the age, style, scenery and location. I look to my own experiences where appropriate. For example, in Lies Agreed Upon, the Lost Lady Restaurant does not exist. So I drew on dining experiences in the converted buildings of other old farms, plantations and inns, and I found descriptions of real-life Louisiana restaurants housed in old plantation outbuildings to use as models. Right now, I am researching for my next mystery set in Northern Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C. I must create a believable neighborhood, with look, history and demographics that fit with both local reality and the grimmer turns of my plot. I spent my teen years in this area and still visit my father there, so I can draw on memory and recent observations, but the final environment will be a composite of lots of research, imagination and a few experiences -- including some surprisingly dark ones for sunny suburbia!