Several weeks ago, I asked you to send any questions about the books or my writing via the comment section of the blog (or you can email me). I really appreciate those, and this blog is in response to one of those.
“Why didn’t I use the real name of my hometown which the reader probably recognizes in some ways? Why is it referred to as Townsend in Keeping Faith?”
As you probably noticed at the end of the book, there is a disclaimer that says any resemblance to any locale is purely coincidental because this is a work of fiction. But to stop there would not be fair to Peggy who asked the question.
As she knows I grew up in Kilgore, Texas, which is very much like Townsend, but not quite. I took some liberties with the area and its surrounding to fit my needs. I did the same with characters. They are all made up so they don’t fit in Kilgore—never were supposed to—so I didn’t want anyone trying to figure out who I was trying to portray because I simply didn’t have anyone in mind. As I said in the blog discussing Faith, she is no one person. I have known hundreds like her, but no particular person. They and many of the settings are simply a part of my imagination.
I know East Texas like the back of my hand. Or at least I did 30 years ago so it is easy to incorporate in my books. When I write about it, the images I describe are a part of me, easy to pull out, to feel and know. I can still smell the oily back roads when I think about them, and I can still see the little town squares dotted with Mom and Pop shops. I am sure some of that has changed.
I didn’t try to write about the East Texas of today, only of yesterday when I knew it. If I were guessing, however, not a lot has truly changed. It just doesn’t happen like that in some parts of the world. East Texas is a wonderfully, beautiful place so I hope it has kept those attributes which have always made it special in my mind. It was a safe and fun place in which to become a young adult. People helped each other; and your neighbor told your parents if she saw you misbehave, which unfortunately was a frequent occurrence.
It is not that I am not proud of my hometown, but where you grow up is a little like your name—something about which you have no choice; therefore, some things you like about it, but some you just as soon change.
So, Townsend is a composite; therefore, to be factual, I didn’t choose to call it any certain place. You notice I took the same liberties with Patrick’s home in Maine and Carmella’s home in Italy because they too are a combination of little towns and their surroundings.
In opposition to that, many cities like Boston, Rome, Vienna, etc. remain unchanged. That is because I took no writer’s liberties and actually tried really hard to be accurate in my descriptions and accounts. Why? Well, basically because it worked for the novel. And although I wrote from my experiences of having been to these places, they were just that, places that I have visited, that left lasting memories which I have taken with me, but not where I left a part of me.