Wednesday, July 6, 2005

Getting the details right

This afternoon I'm addressing some concerns DH had about I'll Be There For You (In the Mood has been returned to my editor). While I was at it, I figured out exactly where in downtown Norfolk (VA) my hero's condo is. I moved it from Ghent to Freemason Harbor, then Googled Freemason Street and tried to visualize the area (which I've driven through a gazillion times with my dad, who loves to drive around downtown Norfolk and look at all the construction). But I still couldn't figure out if the condo would be on the water or not. So I called Dad, who informed me that the condos on that particular street were a block away from the water (there are older houses on the last block). He also confirmed what I'd found on Google and thought I remembered-- there are cobblestones on the last two blocks of Freemason Street.

Am I being anal? Yes, but if you're going to set your stories in an actual place, you have to get every last detail right, or someone will notice. This is one reason I always used to use "Swift Creek" as a setting... imaginary towns don't require any research to speak of, and I'm basically a lazy person. But I do love Norfolk, so I want to set some stories there, too.

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