It All Begins with the Place!

Marji Laine here. And I have to confess that I'm a sucker for a good setting. 

I can't tell you how many times my girls and I would be shopping or out and about, and I would point to something and say, "Wouldn't that be a great place to hide a body?!" 

Our conversations did scare their fair share of grocery clerks and waitstaff. But good mysteries, to me, start with creative settings. 

That brings me to my favorite fictional town of Heath’s Point, Texas. It has become so very real to me, housing two of my novels with at least one more on its way. So let me bring you to its roots. Well, in a way.

I went to college at East Texas A&M. At the time it was East Texas State University in lovely Commerce, Texas. The school had a bigger population than the town when I was there. That ratio has only grown with the support of the A&M system behind it.

But that place was this city gal’s first experience with a small town. I’ll never forget running to my big brother’s apartment (two doors down from the one I shared with his fiancé) on my first day of class.

Me: Some dirty old man just waved at me!
Bubba (yes, I call my brother Bubba, and my kids call him Uncle Bubba): What do you mean, he waved at you?
Me: Well, he was driving by in a rickety, old, white pickup. I’ve never seen him before.
Bubba (bursting into laughter): He was just waving. People are friendly like that here.

And they were. Total strangers would strike up conversations with me at church, at the local donut shop, even as I took out the trash. It was down right refreshing after living under strict rules in my big-city growing up years.

And it was contagious. I remember walking to classes and watching for people on the other side of the walkway to just look up at me, so I could smile and say, “Hi.” They probably thought I was a weirdo, since most of them were displaced from the big city, too. I heard all the complaints about the little town boredom when I moved into the dorms that fall, but it didn’t change my opinion.

I do not remember being bored at all. My brother's fiancé and I had a blast taking jaunts into the countryside. We’d grab a Sonic drink and get lost on the back roads. That was before the days of GPS, but we knew we’d come out on a highway at some point. One of my great thrills was to find a herd of goats near the road and baaah at them. They’d give the dirtiest looks; like I’d said something reprehensible. We organized our own version of laser tag (with water pistols and rubber bands) in places where we had unexpected access, part of the freedom in a small town. And I fell in love with my sweet hubby (a farm-boy) over fishing excursions and back road star watching.

Heath’s Point came straight out of my experiences in college. I think of the town itself as about twice the size of Commerce, maybe with a population nearing 25k. Still small enough that folks know one another and recognize newcomers, but big enough to need some full-time fire-fighters.

I could get into the nitty gritty of the place, what the buildings look like and details of the types of businesses there, but I won't flaunt my geeky side. Piecing together settings are so my thing. It’s like setting up a framework for the foundation of the story. Peopling it with unique characters – both good and bad – who have quirks and personalities that create memories. With the framework and the population, it’s easy to formulate the story. Most of the time, they just jump out at me.

Like the time I passed a clothing donation box next to the Piggly Wiggly. There was a pair of cowboy boots sticking out from the opening, and I could only see the soles. It didn’t take much imagination to wonder if there could be a body wearing those boots and hidden away in that donation box. Yes, I checked, and of course (thankfully) the boots were empty, but wouldn’t that be a great place for a murder mystery to begin?

I have two suspense stories set in Heath’s Point. Both of these have main characters who are shocked to learn they have targets on their backs. COUNTER POINT is book 1, and award-winning BREAKING POINT is book 2. They share characters, but the stories themselves are stand-alone.

My third is in the works, enduring its second edit at the moment. BOILING POINT’s main character is hair stylist and business owner, Donna Culver. She and her daughter Molly are returning side characters from COUNTER POINT. But there’s a new guy in town. It’s hard to say if he’s the nice kind or the not so nice kind, but suddenly Donna begins having “accidents” that don’t seem so very accidental. She’s lived in Heath’s Point all her life. Why would someone want to hurt her now?

I’d love to give you a copy of BOILING POINT, but it's still stewing. However, I do have an e-copy of COUNTER POINT for one commenter. Tell me the last little town you visited (or the first) and what made it special to you. Make sure you leave your email address. One of you will win my book.

Good luck, and I hope you LOVE it! ~Marji Laine