To Amityville or Not to Amityville...

Yes, that is the question—as it pertains to my Portraits trilogy. I set the opening book, Portrait of a Girl Running, in fictional Milleville, Long Island, New York. This setting has no bearing on the next two stories, Portrait of a Protégé and the work in progress Portrait of a Girl Adrift, but when I publish Adrift, I plan to release a second edition of Girl Running*. As I work through edits, I’m wondering…since all the other settings in the series are factual places, although used fictitiously, how important is continuity of settings?

The geography of Milleville, where the majority of Girl Running takes place, is based upon my hometown, Amityville. (I wrote about this in an earlier post.) Geography aside, there is only one other detail very loosely based on reality—I had a math teacher, Mr. Miles, who had a reputation for being cantankerous but loved by many students during his long career that spanned generations at Amityville Memorial High School. After his death, shortly after I graduated, the middle school was named after him. As far as I’m aware, he never married, and I don’t know that he has any surviving family.

Aside from the fact that I suck at math and Mr. Edmund W. Miles was very displeased with my performance, there are no other similarities to my character Mr. Clarence Myles—nor are there any similarities between any of my other characters and the teachers or staff in the Amityville school district.

As I talked about earlier, the reason I didn’t use Amityville as the setting has to do with the notorious horror flick and not wanting that stigma attached to my story. But now I’m wondering if that is so much of an issue. How many readers even recall the movies, especially on the worldwide market? Editing-wise, it would be a cinch to change Milleville to Amityville. And no, it’s not a huge issue for the story—just an issue of tidiness and continuity (yes, I obsess over such things!). Before I hit Find>Replace, I’m curious if anyone has any thoughts on the subject.

*I’m adding back in a few deleted scenes—nothing major, but information that rounds out supporting characters that show up in the third book.

Portrait of a Girl Adrift — Waylaid by Research

I’m happy to say that I am nearly done with the first draft of Portrait of a Girl Adrift, the continuing saga of Leila at large, aka the Portraits series. In this novel, she’s on a quest to find out about her deceased mother who abandoned her when Leila was three years old. Lots of psychological stuff as usual—fun to research. Those parts of the story write up fairly quickly. And then there’s the settings…

Generally, I write about places where I’ve spent considerable time, places like New Hampshire, Maine and Long Island, so it’s all second nature. But the settings in Portrait of a Girl Adrift are a bit beyond my proverbial backyard. Places like New Orleans, the Gulf of Mexico via a 47’ sailboat, Cuba, and Grand Cayman Island. So, the writing has been slow. And just because I’m about 10% away from finishing the first draft—I should say very rough first draft—does not mean I’m anywhere near done. I won’t even try to project when it might be ready for publication.

Speaking of settings, New Orleans being one of them, I did have an opportunity to do some firsthand research over the winter. A couple of scenes take place at the Lafayette Cemetery No.1. Fortunately, not much has changed at the cemetery since the mid 1980s, unlike the rest of the city since Katrina in 2005. More on that later...

Writing about sailing across the Gulf of Mexico in a 47' sailboat has probably taken the most time, and that part of the research is still not complete. And then there's Grand Cayman Island...

The trick is finding information—aside from offshore banking articles—about Grand Cayman in 1984. I also visited Grand Cayman very briefly in January, but the island now is much different than it was thirty years ago. So, the research is taking a little longer than I expected. Nevertheless, I think it would be fun to blog about some of the information I’ve come across over the course of writing Adrift. At any rate, it will help me to blog a little more regularly than twice annually!

Meanwhile, here’s a pretty picture of 7-Mile Beach on Grand Cayman Island

Stay tuned…