Keeping Track Of My Town...

Hi!  Winnie Griggs here.  Today I thought I'd give you a little peek at some of the behind the scenes things we writers do (or at least THIS writer) to keep things straight when we're writing connected stories.

This month, the third book in my Texas Grooms series, A Family For Christmas, hit the shelves.   This series will eventually contain four books, all set  in the fictional town of Turnabout, Texas.  It follows the lives of four men who left Pennsylvania together to travel to Texas and build new lives for themselves.  They are four VERY different men and I’m having a whole lot of fun telling their stories.  I’ve already turned in the fourth and final book, which will release next June under the title Lone Star Heiress.

Early on in my work with this series I realized how important it was going to be for me to keep up with the details from book to book.  One thing I've done, which I do for just about every book I write, is set up a file to document the myriad secondary characters who pop up in any of the books, no matter how minor a role they play.  You just never know when one of these characters will need to make a return appearance and it sure saves having to go back and find out who runs the mercantile, what the preacher’s wife is called, who is the telegrapher, etc. 

However, this time around I realized I’d need reminders of a different sort.  I found myself losing track of where the different residences and businesses were in relation to each other.  So I finally bit the bullet and drew up a town map.  I had to dig into the first two books to get things laid out properly, and I found one or two inconsistencies that I had to take care of in the copy edit stage of the second book, but for the last two books I had it down on paper as a handy-dandy reference to guide me.  It’s not fancy and it’s by no means drawn to scale, but it helps me keep the relative positions of everything straight.

Here is a small version of what the map looks like.

If you’re interested in taking a peek at a larger copy, you can find it at this link:  http://www.winniegriggs.com/Turnabout.html

So, as a reader, do you pay attention to these kinds of details, do you notice if buildings in a town, rooms in a house, etc aren't consistently placed?  Or is that just minor background detail that you don't even notice?

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And in celebration of this being release month, I'm going to give one person who comments on today's post a copy of A Family For Christmas

An Unexpected Gift 

Eve Pickering knows what it's like to be judged for your past. So she's not about to leave the orphaned boy she's befriended alone in this unfamiliar Texas town. Since Chance Dawson's offer of shelter is the only way to look after Leo, Eve is determined they'll have a warm, welcoming home for the holidays.

Chance came from the big city to make it on his own despite a painful secret. But Eve's strength is giving him a confidence he never expected—and a new direction for his dream. With a little Christmas blessing, he'll dare to win her heart—and make their family one for a lifetime.