0 How Not To Set A Story In Your Hometown

Today on My Pet Blog, we're pleased to be playing host to author Annalisa Crawford as she prepares to release her latest book.

Take it away, Annalisa...


Thanks to MJ for letting me loose on her blog today. I'm Annalisa Crawford, and my new book - Our Beautiful Child - is due out tomorrow. It's a collection of three novellas that were all, at one point, set in my home town.

Our Celtic Cross,
gateway to Cornwall

How not to set a story in your home town ...

... in 7 easy steps

1. Realise that no one has ever set a story in your home town and vow to do it

2. Write the story and add in lots of local interest detail - such as the Celtic Cross and the Royal Albert Bridge.

Royal Albert Bridge, known as the Brunel Bridge locally.

Me and Ann Glanville, chilling

3. Decide that maybe some of the detail is too quirky and remove it - ie. we have a full-size model of Ann Glanville, a champion rower who died in 1880. If you press the button in the centre of her chest, she tells you all about her life!

4. Take the 12^{th century castle on the edge of town, move it slightly and change it into a hotel because it makes for a better opening paragraph.}

5. Take the bridge that forms a huge part of the plot, move it a lot, and give it a name.

6. Decide that because you've made these minor changes, it’s not really your town  and remove references to the major landmark - the Brunel Bridge, which would just confuse people now.

7. And finally, decide you need a town square, which your town doesn't actually have, and ‘borrow’ one from a nearby town.

Thanks for reading - I hope you've learned the best way not to set your story in your home town.

“The Boathouse collects misfits. Strange solitary creatures that yearn for contact with the outside world, but not too much. They sit, glass in hand, either staring at the table in front of them, or at some distant point on the horizon.” 

… so says the narrator of Our Beautiful Child. And he’s been around long enough to know.

People end up in this town almost by accident. Ella is running away from her nightmares, Sally is running away from the memories of previous boyfriends and Rona is running away from university. Each of them seek sanctuary in the 18th century pub, The Boathouse; but in fact, that’s where their troubles begin.

Ella finds love, a moment too late; Rona discovers a beautiful ability which needs refining before she gets hurt; and Sally meets the captivating Murray, who threatens to ruin everything.

Three women. Three stories. One pub.

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