Oh you're very sweet, thank you :) To be honest Jacob Payne doesn't sell nearly as well as my other series, so I probably won't add to it. I've thought about writing spin-off series about some of the other characters in those books, but that would be a few years from now if it happens.
This is such an interesting craft question — I landed on the opposite end of the spectrum from you and it's fascinating to see how different the considerations are.
My Moonshiner Mysteries are set in a fictionalized version of Pony, Montana — a real former gold-mining town in the Tobacco Root Mountains that peaked at about 5,000 people before the mines shut down in the early 1920s. By the time my books take place (1927), the town is already fading. I renamed it Pony Gulch, which gave me room to invent businesses, place buildings where I needed them, and create a community that serves the story — but the bones are real. The mountains, the isolation, the feel of a place that was once booming and is now holding on.
What I found is that starting with a real place gave me things I never would have invented — the stamp mill ruins, the way the town sits in the shadow of Hollowtop Mountain, the fact that it's miles from anywhere. Those details ground the fiction in a way that feels earned. But the fictionalization freed me from worrying about whether the general store was on the right side of the street.
What I didn't expect was how the real place would reach back. The local historical society found my books and started sending me ephemera — old photographs, local histories, details I never could have found on my own. We've done Zoom calls where they've walked me through the town's history. And residents and former residents have shown up in the comments on my blog posts about Pony, adding their own memories and corrections and family stories. The fictional town created a conversation with the real one.
Your Eden Valley sounds like it benefits from the opposite freedom — you're building something from the foundation up, which mirrors what your characters are doing. The setting strategy matches the story perfectly.
Dear AT,
I dearly love all of your books! I have been to Sandy OR. It is still pretty wild there as I remember. In the shadow of the gorgeous Mt Hood. Perfect!
Thank you!!!! Have a wonderful holiday!
Kay Mills
Thank you so much! Happy new year :)
Pretty cool to talk to one of my favorite authors! I loved your Jacob Payne series, too!! Any plans for more?
Oh you're very sweet, thank you :) To be honest Jacob Payne doesn't sell nearly as well as my other series, so I probably won't add to it. I've thought about writing spin-off series about some of the other characters in those books, but that would be a few years from now if it happens.
This is such an interesting craft question — I landed on the opposite end of the spectrum from you and it's fascinating to see how different the considerations are.
My Moonshiner Mysteries are set in a fictionalized version of Pony, Montana — a real former gold-mining town in the Tobacco Root Mountains that peaked at about 5,000 people before the mines shut down in the early 1920s. By the time my books take place (1927), the town is already fading. I renamed it Pony Gulch, which gave me room to invent businesses, place buildings where I needed them, and create a community that serves the story — but the bones are real. The mountains, the isolation, the feel of a place that was once booming and is now holding on.
What I found is that starting with a real place gave me things I never would have invented — the stamp mill ruins, the way the town sits in the shadow of Hollowtop Mountain, the fact that it's miles from anywhere. Those details ground the fiction in a way that feels earned. But the fictionalization freed me from worrying about whether the general store was on the right side of the street.
What I didn't expect was how the real place would reach back. The local historical society found my books and started sending me ephemera — old photographs, local histories, details I never could have found on my own. We've done Zoom calls where they've walked me through the town's history. And residents and former residents have shown up in the comments on my blog posts about Pony, adding their own memories and corrections and family stories. The fictional town created a conversation with the real one.
Your Eden Valley sounds like it benefits from the opposite freedom — you're building something from the foundation up, which mirrors what your characters are doing. The setting strategy matches the story perfectly.