While
I’m not a native Southerner, I’ve called South Carolina home for decades, living
in the Lowcountry for 13 years and the Upstate for 15 years. It’s no surprise
that I’ve capitalized on these atmosphere-rich regions as settings for two of
my published novels. Two of my works in progress also feature these appealing locales. With Neighbors Like These, a third Marley Clark mystery, returns to Dear Island, while my new humorous mystery series is set on a cheese-goat farm near Clemson.
But
don’t bother consulting a map to pinpoint where my heroines and heroes hang
their hats. There is no Dear Island—the private barrier island terrorized by a
pun-loving murderer in Dear Killer.
Nor is there a town of Shelby, home to fictional Blue Ridge University, the
troubled campus threatened by home-grown terrorists in Dead Hunt. The private island and the college town are inventions.
Here’s why.
I
write mysteries, suspense and thrillers. Ergo bad things happen. People die. Killers
elude authorities. Developers are sometimes greedy. Public officials may lie or
cheat. Deputies are occasionally crooked. University administrators may be
clueless. Suffice it to say that unsavory, if not downright despicable,
antagonists flourish in my novels.
I
need a cast of smart, unscrupulous characters to weave my mysteries and
challenge my heroines and heroes. What I don’t need is a lawsuit. Also I don’t
want to irk residents of a real community. I’m loath to suggest there might be
bad apples among the law enforcement officers in an actual county. And I’m not
about to poke fun at administrators serving an accredited university. That’s
why I’ve given make-believe names to the institutions, companies, towns and
counties populated with such characters. 
Yet
I still try to faithfully capture each region’s beauty and majesty as well as
what can become frightening elements if my protagonists are alone, lost, or
being pursued by ruthless villains. I hope this balance works.
Using
fictional locations with the local region’s flavor also gives me handy latitude.
Since my fictional Dear Island is a composite of several barrier islands, I
could play with the geographic puzzle pieces—golf courses, canals, marinas,
marshland, and beaches—and anchor them anywhere I wished within the island’s
confines. That means they’re ideally situated to serve my plot. I did take
care, however, to offer readers a variety of touchstones—references to
neighboring Beaufort, Hilton Head and Parris Island—to ground them within the Lowcountry.
In
Dead Hunt my imaginary university’s
students reside in Leeds County, another invention. Yet I made certain the
campus was a comfortable drive from Greenville, Clemson University, and the
Jocassee Gorges mountain wilderness, which serves as an enchanting and scary backdrop
for my heroine and hero when terrorists are gunning for them in the dead of
night.
I
love to set my books in places where I can close my eyes and recall exact
moments in time. Paddling a kayak in the calm of an ocean inlet and hearing the
cries of seagulls and smelling the acrid aroma of the marsh. Hiking a mountain
trail and listening to the gurgle of a rushing stream and inhaling the scent of
crushed pine needles in the shadowy twilight of the dense forest.
While
my place names may be make believe, my South Carolina settings are as real as
my most vivid memories allow.
