The Space Within
Kristie Cook
Guest Post:
True story: When I first started writing The Space Between, Part One of The Book of Phoenix trilogy, I needed a place near the Georgia/Florida state line for the main character’s truck to break down. She was pulling a camper-trailer, so it had to be close to an RV park where she could set up her camper until her truck was fixed. So I made up a place with a truck stop close to the highway that included a mechanic shop, a convenience store, a diner, and a bar/grill, and an RV park across the street. That’s all I needed at the time, so the setting was no more than that – the truck stop and the RV park. No town or community or anything.
Fast forward to writing The Space Beyond, Part Two, when I needed a whole town at that same place. I debated whether to use a real town or create a fictional one, and since I hadn’t been up to that part of the state in years, I decided to make it fictional, which would give me more freedom to make stuff up. As the town of Lake Haven grew in my mind and on screen, I began to fall in love with it, its legends, lore, and secrets that all small towns have, and its people. There were background characters I wanted to get to know better. More secrets to uncover. I could already see that there could be more books centered on this town.
While on a road trip home from a book conference in Charleston, South Carolina, we had the opportunity to stop in a small Florida town near the state line, about where I imagined Lake Haven to be. I was about a third of the way through the first draft of The Space Beyond at the time. We came in through the back roads of southern Georgia and northern Florida, on our way to the interstate. I’d never been there before, had only driven through that part of the state on other road trips, but had stuck to the interstate. So I just wanted to drive around a bit off the highway to better ingrain in my mind an image of the area so I could describe it more accurately and with authentic details.
I wanted to see things like the types of trees that dominated the scenery, and whether the area seemed to be more high-dollar with Victorian homes and nice cars, or more downhome Southern country with trailer parks and beat-up pickup trucks (which is what I wanted). The latter is what we found, and it was a perfect model for Lake Haven, giving me some concrete images to use in my descriptions. We stopped for lunch and even met a woman who inspireda character in the book. Only a few miles from the interstate, it was perfectly located for what had already been described.
Here’s where things get really weird. Remember, I’d never been to this town before. I’d never even exited the interstate anywhere close to it. And as I just said, I thought of it as a bit of a model of Lake Haven – not the actual place. With the way I’d already set things up in The Space Between and what I’d written so far in The Space Beyond, I was sure there’d be nothing close to what I had in my mind for Lake Haven. For example, a small town that matched uncannily to the vision in my head would surely not have the same details as a truck stop across the street from an RV park near the highway.
But guess what? After lunch, as we’re headed out of town toward the interstate, an RV park shows up on our left, and about 100 yards down the road, a truck stop on our right and the ramps for the interstate just beyond it. The hairs on my arms stood up, and I kind of did a squeal/happy dance in my seat. What were the odds?!
Of course, they weren’t directly across the street from each other, but pretty dang close. The RV park looked like it hadn’t been used for years, although there were old campers sitting in it – that also looked like they hadn’t been used for years. It didn’t have an adjacent trailer park, like the one in my books does. And the truck stop didn’t have all the extras of a bar, mechanics shop, or even a real diner – just a fast food restaurant. But still. I’d envisioned a place in my head that was so very close to a place that actually existed – and I’d never been to before. Even the people were very much like the ones I’d created, including a realempath.
Writing can be like that, where our subconscious seems to know a lot more than our logical minds. And it’s so cool when things like this happen, one of my favorite parts of being a writer. So I thought I’d share that little story with you. Lake Haven sort of exists with a different name. I just wonder who has the more colorful stories – the real people or the ones in The Book of Phoenix.
