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Chautona Havig

Chautona Havig

Using story to connect YOU to the Master Storyteller

Why and How I Developed Rockland/Fairbury

by Chautona Havig · 4 Comments

This is a repost of one from February 13, 2012 for those just beginning the Rockland Chronicles.

 

Rockland first appeared in Noble Pursuits.  I set Grace in an established neighborhood– the one she’d grown up in as a child–in the smaller suburb of Brunswick.  Rockland developed as the story did.  I needed a city–a metropolis really–and yet I don’t know any midwesterny cities.  I know LA.  That’s fine and dandy, but the book wasn’t set in California and I didn’t want it to be set there.

Another problem with any city I did know (I’m a little familiar with Lubbock, Texas) is that things change so swiftly in cities.  I knew that unless I was a frequent visitor to any place, I’d get things wrong.  I’d put streets where there were no longer streets or not have a street where there should be.  Parks, malls, stores… it’d all end up a jumbled mess, and how annoying would that be for people who were currently familiar?  Not an option.

So, I created my own city.  I don’t even say what state it’s in.  It’s just about a 4-6 hour drive to Chicago.  That’s all anyone needs to know.  The only reason I put that much information about the city in the book was to settle it within driving distance of the mid-west and to help dictate the “flavor” of the area I wanted.

Grace and Nolan spent little time there– just enough to make it “real” in my mind.

Around that time, I settled Aggie’s sister in Rockland, but I moved Aggie away from there rather quickly.  I wanted more country life for her, so I put her near Brunswick and Grace but in a little rural town.  The cities and towns around the loop began to emerge.  I’d mentioned the loop, an idea I stole from Lubbock (yes I know other cities have them but I am familiar with Lubbock’s!), and so I began situating towns around it as I had need to.

Another series, the Hartfield Mysteries, created not only my favorite character of all time, but also my favorite town around the Rockland loop– Fairbury.  Alexa Hartfield writes mysteries that border on horror.  She writes the gritty novels that explore the worst of mankind and satisfies that part of us, created in our Creator’s image, that craves justice.  Oh, and she does it while wearing period clothing from almost any era.  For the record, she’s not a big fan of the late eighteenth century (before the Grecian inspiration of the Regency) styles.  She might walk to the store wearing a 1930’s walking suit, come home and put on jeans and a newsboy cap to rake the yard, and then two days later, half-recline on her sofa with her laptop while wearing something that looked designed for an Austen adaptation.

I fell in love with Fairbury.  I love its quiet lifestyle– how it clings desperately to the feeling of innocence we associate with small towns of the mid-twentieth century.  The funny thing is, I’d never live within the town/city limits.  For it to exist as it does, it’d have to be a planned community with lots of regulations about what you can do and how and where.  All the things I’d never choose to live with.  It’s hilarious.

Hope refused to live in any of the established towns.  She created Marshfield and with it, a whole new realm of interestingness.  Even though she didn’t spend much time in Rockland, I did manage to get a good feel for the area simply because of her.  From there Lane jumped on the scene.  I couldn’t keep her long in Montana.  All I knew of it was from one trip through and the stories that a friend told me of living there.  I did so much research for that book.  It probably took as much time to research it as it did to write it.  In that book, I became intimately acquainted with Rockland.  I learned about its “inner city” and its “fine arts” areas.  Restaurants and stores emerged.  Little blocks of things that you might find in an old established city like “mine.”

Westbury, Ferndale, New Cheltenham, Marshfield, Brant’s Corners, Fairbury, Brunswick, Hillsdale… they are all a nice little piece of my imaginary world.

I’ve had people ask how “real” Rockland is to me, and it’s a difficult question to answer.  I mean, sometimes people say that and mean, “Can you see it in your mind?  Do you know what is on what street etc.?”  The answer is absolutely.  I could come upon a full scale model of the area and get to wherever I wanted to go.  I know where the subway stations are in Rockland and which line they go to.  I can tell you where to find Boutique Row and the Bridal Aisle.  I have a straight shot to the Towers and I know exactly which apartment belongs to Curtis and which is Matt’s.  I know where to find the road to Fairbury and how to circumvent the town or go through it.  I know Alexa’s old house and her new one.  I know every inch of Willow’s farm, Brant’s Corners, New Cheltenham, and how to get there.

However, some people mean, “Do you live there in your imagination and is it just as real to you as that little hamlet in the middle of the desert?”  The answer is no.  It’s not that real to me.  The desert has not scrambled and then fried my brains on the sidewalks of my imagination.  Yet.

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Comments

  1. Claudia says

    October 1, 2012 at 6:39 am

    Wow! For some reason I thought these were real places. I was even planning a trip there some day 😉
    I love your books.

    Reply
  2. Kamely says

    September 27, 2012 at 9:16 pm

    I am glad you clarified that because I was wondering. So thank you very much. I can almost see what you are seeing and I am so there when I read your books.
    When I write I do sometimes write of real places, but at other times I make up places.

    Reply
  3. Rebekah says

    February 21, 2012 at 5:35 pm

    I was just thinking recently, how much I would like to see a map of the Rockland area!

    Did I mention that I really like how often you’ve been posting on here lately? I don’t get around to commenting fast enough, but I do enjoy reading it! 😀

    To the KING be all the glory!
    Rebekah

    Reply
  4. Barbara says

    February 13, 2012 at 9:14 am

    Is this where I admit that I spend lots of time in “Lakeville”? 😉

    Reply

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The Because Fiction Podcast

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Taking the pulse of Christian fiction

Episode 231: A Chat with RomCom author, Shannon Sue Dunlap
byChautona Havig

Shannon Sue Dunlap isn’t new to rom-coms, and her first book in the Sweetheart Series promises to be a literary riot, and it lives up to that promise. I’m only halfway through it and am thinking mean, ugly thoughts of everything keeping me from being able to escape into the crazy small-town politics and quirky characters. So far the com far outweighs the rom, which makes me thrilled to bits. Listen in to discover what makes Lone Star Sweetheart so much fun.

Note: links may be affiliate links that provide me with a small commission at no extra expense to you.

Why Did This Author Write a Rom-Com about a Loveable Shrew?

Well, I think we can safely blame Shakespeare for that. Shannon Sue Dunlap has taken inspiration from Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew in her Katherine, but unlike Katerina, Dunlap’s character is actually trying to learn to tame the tongue. Maybe someone should send her over to the book of James. There’s that whole bit about not being able to tame it, being an “unruly evil, full of deadly poison.”

Kate’s isn’t that bad, but not for lack of trying. Or something.

Shannon Sue Dunlap isn’t joking when she says that her Katherine is a “loveable” shrew. Seriously, I love this character. She’s forthright, no-nonsense, and “what you see is what you get” in her approach to life. I respect that. Add to that her boss who has shaken up the town of Sweetheart, Texas, and you’ve got the makings of a great story. I’m loving Lone Star Sweetheart.

But this isn’t all Dunlap has written.

Under the pseudonym, Shannon Kent, you can find her sweet and clean romances (including one Christian romance) inspired by Korean dramas. If you said I’d be not only chomping to read a sweet and clean romance about Korean tour guides and all that entails but also ready to watch a Korean drama on Netflix… Okay, I might not have laughed in your face, but I’d’ve been laughing on the inside.

Best part… one of them ties into her Sweetheart Series

Lone Star Sweetheart by Shannon Sue Dunlap

Katherine Bruno’s passionate, unfiltered temper makes her the shrew of small-town Sweetheart, Texas. When she’s drafted to help the mayor’s wife run against her own husband, Katherine meets opposing big city political consultant Ryan Park. The good-looking, flirtatious campaign manager gets under her skin, but fraternizing with the enemy is off-limits.

Katherine must battle her lack of experience, campaign sabotage, and her growing feelings for Ryan as she strives to succeed. His unprejudiced acceptance of her strong-willed character beckons her heart, but his jaded rejection of God is an insurmountable barrier. Will Ryan return to his faith and stay with her in Sweetheart or leave when the election ends?

You can find out more about Shannon Sue Dunlap AND get that first novella in the Korean Crush series free on her WEBSITE.

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