Bridging Fact and Fiction

Over the ten years I've been publishing, I've developed several methods to improve my writing. One of the most effective is using a real town in the same general location as my fictitious town for research. That way, if I want to know how many churches might have existed, I can look up the real town. This approach gives me more creative license, reduces the heavy research required when using an actual setting, and still makes the book feel authentic. 

For example, the new series I just started is set in Nevada in 1882. I'm using the mining town of Austin, located in the high desert, as the counterpart to Summit Reach. I lived in Roswell, New Mexico, for two years, and it's also in a high desert, so that experience helps as well. But it is convenient to google Austin's history when I have a question about Summit Reach. I could just invent the details, but then I risk getting important facts about the region wrong. Accuracy matters to me, and I strive to be as historically precise as possible.

Ultimately, blending fact and fiction is what makes novel writing both challenging and rewarding. By grounding my stories in real places, using my background in history, doing extra research, and allowing logic to fill in the other details, I create worlds that feel believable without being bound by strict documentation. This balance keeps the research manageable, the creativity flowing, and the reader immersed in a setting that feels alive. For me, that’s the heart of storytelling—building a bridge between history and imagination that readers can walk across with confidence.

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