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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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Episode 265: A Chat with Karen Witemeyer
byChautona Havig

Nothing says fairy tale like a sweet western romance by an author like Karen Witemeyer… unless it’s a fairytale retelling set in Texas in the late 19th century, right?  Fairest of Heart takes the familiar “Snow White” and turns it on its head with retired cowboys, a self-absorbed actress, a Texas Ranger, and a sweet girl who knows the true Source of her beauty.  Listen in to see all the genius Easter eggs Witemeyer planted in this book.

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

Sometimes All a Girl Needs Is a True Change of Heart

I fell in love with the cover of Karen Witemeyer’s Head Over Heels a few years back (only to learn it’s much older than that, even), and meant to read that book.  I didn’t.  #BecauseIdiot. Well, that’ll be rectified just as soon as I’m done listening to her first book in a trilogy of fairytale retellings. I loaded it up on my Audible app tonight and wheeeeeeee. Here I go! So much for no new books until October. HA! 

Karen talks about her heart for young women today and how they’re taught by every bit of media blasting at them that they need to use their bodies to get what they need or want when the Lord has a better plan. And I can’t guarantee it, but I strongly suspect she does it without preaching. SQUEE!

Fairest of Heart by Karen Witemeyer

Once upon a time in Texas . . .

Beauty has been nothing but a curse to Penelope Snow. When she becomes a personal maid for a famous actress whose troupe is leaving Chicago to tour the West, she hides her figure beneath shapeless dresses and keeps her head down. But she still manages to attract the wrong attention, leaving her prospects in tatters–and her jealous mistress plotting her demise.

After his brother lost his life over a woman, Texas Ranger Titus Kingsley has learned to expect the worst from women and is rarely disappointed. So when a young lady found in suspicious circumstances takes up residence with the seven old drovers living at his grandfather’s ranch, Titus is determined to keep a close eye on her.

With a promotion hanging in the balance, Titus is assigned to investigate a robbery case tied to Penelope’s acting troupe, and all evidence points to Penelope’s guilt. But Titus might just be convinced that the fairest woman of all has a heart as pure as her last name . . . if only he can prove it.

You can learn more about Karen Witemeyer and her books on her WEBSITE. Don’t forget the book is 30% off on BakerBookHouse.com.  

Follow Karen on BookBub and GoodReads.

And don’t forget her Posse Group on Facebook.

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Episode 265: A Chat with Karen Witemeyer
Episode 265: A Chat with Karen Witemeyer
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