Fiction set in real life

I read a piece in The Guardian about Project Bookmark Canada. Its mission is to “place permanent markers displaying text from stories and poems in the locations where they take place.”

What a novel idea (pardon the pun).

Though I am a fiction writer, my first two novels are set in the real world, with only minor geographic variances here and there for various reasons. For example, I invented several streets in Something Missing to avoid misidentifying any real homes in the area with the houses described in my book.

I wouldn’t want people to mistakenly assume that one of Martin’s clients lived in an actual home, though the houses used in the book were loosely based on the homes of friends and colleagues in the vicinity.

Both stories take place within the same geographic area. For a while, I toyed with the idea of Martin, the protagonist in Something Missing, running into Milo, the protagonist in Unexpectedly, Milo.

I didn’t think my wife or agent would like the idea, and they tend to be my litmus test for ideas.

Both stories are set near and around my home, in Newington and West Hartford, CT (though Milo takes a long and significant road trip at one point in the book). My new book is set in a fictional Vermont town. Still, I am drawing many elements of this town from my hometown of Blackstone, Massachusetts, and the Rockport, Massachusetts, waterfront district.

It’s just easier this way.

But if Project Bookmark Canada wanted to make an excursion south to the United States, it might be fun to imagine some of the markers that they might place in honor of my first two books.

Mill Pond Park in Newington, CT, a location of some significance in both books

West Hartford’s Town Hall

The Newington Public Library

West Hartford Center, specifically The Elbow Room and Max’s Oyster Bar, two local restaurants

Never mind. I guess my locations aren’t as glamorous as I had initially hoped.