Every dozen Octobers, Halloween in Colorado delivers a serious snowstorm. We had an enormous blizzard in 93 (or was it 94?), 60 mph winds, single-digit temperatures and three feet of snow blown to 8 foot drifts. Deadly to man and beast. This 7 November, we had another storm, minus the winds and the super chilly temps, but most of the snow. I live in Black Forest, Palmer Ridge, at 7450 ft elevation, all of which spells serious snow. 30 inches. 25 across the roof. (Lots of shoveling) And power outages. Six hours, at night. I have a solar system, the TV was off and the thermostat was turned down to minimize power use. I wrote.
Having the TV off gives one time to write –> That’s A Hint.
No jokes about my clothes. I’m a writer and I’m sensitive.
I worked on a scene from my building novel, a noir-ish murder mystery set in 1963 Los Angeles. Another Hint -> LA in 1963 is Not LA of today. Roads changed names, cities were invented in areas that were barren in 1963. Neighborhood names evolved. In my main character’s neighborhood, the main city road changed names compared to 1963, a prominent Synagog was relocated, and the ethic mix is Very different now. Where he worked as a male emergency nurse no longer exists. Even the terms “emergency medicine” and “emergency room” had Not been invented yet. The ER concept came out of the Viet Nam War, perhaps the only good thing that did. A male nurse, vice an orderly, was rare in 63.
Conan Doyle said his popular fiction was fantasy. The stories didn’t have to be 100% correct as long as they made sense. Like Dan Brown’s novels. Don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story. But, if your setting is a real place, you can’t make Big errors like street names. Readers will be jolted out of the story and you might not get them back.
A few years ago, I spent two fun days running thru areas of LA where my story takes place, taking hundreds of photos. And I got lost, because streets had changed names since 1963! It hit my head – gotta make sure about principal details. So, I bought a map.
Not just any map, but a street map you once could buy at something called a service station. On eBay, I found a Chevron map of LA from 1964, copyrighted in 1963. Close enough. It is part of my checklist for my 63LA stories now.
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