Character names are important when writing a story, but place names are also important. I've created fictional towns for many of my books. The first series I wrote was set in my fictional town of Pinecrest, Washington, a small town near Spokane. I picked the name because there are lots of pines in the area and hills and mountains.
I also have my Kellersburg series set in a small fictional town in southwest Ohio, not far from Cincinnati. I patterned it after a couple of small towns I lived in for several years after I got married. I picked the name because the town was settled by the Kellers.
My Christmas novellas are set in Hallburg, a small town in Maryland, not far from Baltimore. One of my daughters lives in Baltimore, so my characters find their way to Baltimore on occasion. I didn't have any particular reason for picking the name other than it wasn't a real place in Maryland.
I'm currently working on a book set in Arizona, and I needed a name for the ranch where most of the book will be set. I asked my Facebook friends to help me with the name for the ranch. They gave me a lot of suggestions. Many of them I couldn't use because they were actually real places. Two of the suggestions were for Crooked Saguaro Ranch and Bent Saguaro Ranch. That gave me the idea for Twisted Saguaro Ranch, but I used the Spanish translation for the name because the original owners of the ranch were of Hispanic origin. The name in Spanish is Rancho Saguaro Retorcido. Here is a photo of the a twisted saguaro, the inspiration for the name.
If you owned a ranch, what would you name it?
Merrillee
Whren is the winner of the 2003 Golden Heart Award presented by Romance
Writers of American. She is married to her own personal hero, her
husband of forty-plus years, and has two grown daughters. Connect with
her on her Facebook page and sign up for her newsletter.
No comments:
Post a Comment