Authors Helping Authors discussion

Hello,
Does anyone know if there are any restrictions on being able to use a real town in a fiction book? I've seen people use popular cities like New York or LA but I'm not sure about smaller towns. My first book is set in St. Joe Michigan but I'm not sure if I can state that.
Any thoughts?
Thank you!
D. Anne

Authors use real locations all of the time-such as Los Angeles, Bullhead City, Paris. The only restrictions are those that deal with actual places like restaurants or other places of business where you want to make sure action is not detrimental to the business itself. I always like to change up names of businesses (as I will with real people).

In my latest novel, I use a real place in Washington State but change up the names of people I know and businesses there.

D. Anne wrote: "Hello,
Does anyone know if there are any restrictions on being able to use a real town in a fiction book? I've seen people use popular cities like New York or LA but I'm not sure about smaller town..."

My Hearts of Owyhee series is set in Owyhee County. The towns--Dickshooter, Oreana, Grasmere, Silver City, Dewy, Flint, and Henderson Flats--are all real. I did have to put more people in them that ever lived there, but the places are real.

Also, I have permission to use the Idaho Hotel (in Silver City) in my books. Also the newspaper, which is still in business, The Owyhee Avalanche.

But using the place is one thing, but letting the residents show pride in their hometowns is another ball of wax--use it for your marketing!

Jacquie

Readers love to see their own city in a book or story and you create a natural following by using places familiar to them. I often use actual locations in my work, but include a mash up of real and fictitious place names for a variety of reasons. In general, I use the actual names of major streets, bridges, museums, shopping centers, large department stores, etc., but make up names for small streets, coffee shops, etc.

I started off using the actual name of a local university in my current novel, but changed it to a fictitious name when the story started to involve hiring practices and intrigue within one of the departments. No reason to go looking for a law suit.

Pat

Yes, use real places as much as possible. I agree with those above -- the only reason to make up a place (or a business/institution within a real town/city) is if you're going to write about fictional events that would reflect badly on a real organization.

In one of my novels, I set all the action in a real, quite recognizable small town near here, but changed the name of the town. The towns around it all have the same names as they do in real life, and anyone who knows the area (or reads my Afterword, where I explained this) can tell that the fictional town of Missing Point is located right on top of the real town of Coley's Point. I changed the name because I wanted a few things to happen in Missing Point that the residents of Coley's Point might object to and say, "nothing like that ever happened in the history of our quiet little town!" So it's a fictional place mapped onto a pretty recognizable real place.

Thank you everyone for your comments!
Some of my characters have had bad things happen in and outside of the town but it's because they are world famous stars and I think these things could have happened in any town that they are in.
I love St. Joe so I didn't want the residents there running after me with pitch forks! :-)

Don't think there are any set rules on featuring towns in Fiction, so long as it is obviously fiction. My books are all set in and around Manchester UK. I often feature venues also, Art gallery and so on. I haven't been sued yet, but the Trevor Burton is a pseudonym.

I've got a series called Power Places, and they take place in specific locations like the ancient sites in Egypt and in contemporary Glastonbury and imagined ancient Avalon. No problems there. Glastonbury residents are used to stuff being made up about them. Then my last one was set in three specific towns--Winston-Salem, NC, Prague, and Washington, DC. Winston-Salem is a small town and I wrote about a very small Protestant group. Lets just say I got a few raised eyebrows and some anger. I also got a lot of people enjoying it. No law suits.

When I've done writing, I've created fictional towns where my main action takes place. These are based on real cities (one is based on the city I grew up in, the other is in the location of a real town but is much larger.) I can "play with" the setting a little bit easier when I do that.

On the other hand, I do also use real places; I have a scene set in a National Recreation Area, mention a state park, and have a fictional hospital in Las Vegas.

The real Santa Fe, New Mexico is the main setting for my historical novel, The Sandoval Sisters' Secret of Old Blood. Santa Fe, a city laden with history, is juxtaposed with a small town, the fictional Pollard's Corner. I grew up in both New Mexico and Texas, but wanted the freedom to describe the people in a slave-holding town w/o having to deal with specific people. The experience Alma has in Texas is basically my mother's story of her marriage to my dad, but set 100 years in the past. Setting plays a supporting role to what is happening with your characters. www.sramosobriant.com

Hi Tina, I enjoyed your post because I write about conversos (Jews forced to convert). Does your novel touch on this topic?My next novel takes place in the Southwest Territories during the 1650-`1700s outside Santa Fe. Your book sounds great!
Marcia

What a fun topic. My career romance, Home of the Heart, is set mostly in Oregon and So Cal. I'm a native Oregonian, and the hero of the story is also a gung-ho Oregonian. The most romantic scene is set in a log cabin on Mount Hood on a snowy evening besides a crackling fire. It's a fun read, especially since the POV is from both Meg and Matt. It's a eBook for Kindle. (Not sure why it's not showing up when I try to add the book and my name above this box.)

In my debut novel, The Dark End of the Rainbow, I created a fictional town that lies geographically between two real towns in my area. Sites are familiar, but the story itself doesn't threaten actual businesses or institutions. Looks like many of us have chosen that route. :)

I live in Arizona and I set my novels in real cities. I sometimes use a real location, but if I do it's well known and open to the public, such as a major hotel or a government building. I do make a note in my disclaimer that the work is fiction, and that any and all real locations have been used fictitiously, and that any resemblance to any real persons associated with that location is unintentional.

Small mom and pop businesses, and hospitals, are all fictitious, and for those I'll do a Google search just to be sure there is no real business in that city by that name.

I like to use a number of places in my hometown of Chicago, but also take from locations that I have been. In some cases, I will ask for approval from a business owner to use their location. My recent novel has a scene in NYC across from the Masonic temple, but a hotel was not proximate. I had no trouble playing with realism and inserting a new hotel across the street to make it work.