I needed a special setting for my latest novel Light Bringer. It needed to be part of the world but isolated, a place where people were free to be themselves without ridicule, where UFOs sightings could have had a major impact, where a secret government-sanctioned project could be hidden. Luckily, I had to look no further than out my living room window.
At the time, I was living in the shadow of the Grand Mesa, in ranching country, and much of that terrain formed the backdrop of my story. Chalcedony is the name of a fictional county sandwiched between Mesa County and Delta County. It is a beautiful place with mountains and valleys, wide-open spaces, cattle and horses, new buildings and old.
But beneath the mountains in this peaceful fictional world, unpeaceful things are happening.
Light Bringer: Becka Johnson had been abandoned on the doorstep of a remote cabin in Chalcedony, Colorado when she was a baby. Now, thirty-seven years later, she has returned to Chalcedony to discover her identity, but she only finds more questions. Who has been looking for her all those years? Why are those same people interested in fellow newcomer Philip Hansen? Who is Philip, and why does her body sing in harmony with his? And what do either of them have to do with a shadow corporation that once operated a secret underground installation in the area?Click here to read the first chapter of: Light Bringer
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Pat Bertram is the author of the suspense novels Light Bringer, More Deaths Than One, A Spark of Heavenly Fire, and Daughter Am I. Bertram is also the author of Grief: The Great Yearning, “an exquisite book, wrenching to read, and at the same time full of profound truths.” Connect with Pat on Google+. Like Pat on Facebook.
September 18, 2013 at 5:48 pm
Yes. It is always a wise decision to base a fictional town on places you know. In my own writing I have made up fake towns. If it is in an area of my state or a part of the world I am not 100 percent familiar with I’ll google search the name to make absolutely sure it can’t be associated with a real town. A while back I was surprised to discover that a town I’d made up was too similar in name to the real McCoy and so I had to change it to be on the safe side.
September 18, 2013 at 6:00 pm
I love reading novels with a strong sense of place. Stunning views. How do you get any work done?
September 18, 2013 at 8:34 pm
My office window didn’t face any of those views. A neighbor put his haystack right in my view, so it was easy to keep my eyes on my work. (I don’t live there any more.)
September 19, 2013 at 4:44 am
Loved this book!
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September 22, 2013 at 2:03 pm
Susan, how wonderful to hear that!