Please welcome back our lady of the hour, author Keli Gwyn. All week long we’ve dished about A Bride Opens Shop in El Dorado, California. On Monday, I reviewed Keli’s debut novel. Wednesday we “chatted” with mercantile owner Miles Rutledge. Today, Keli will be ending our week with a surprise guest post.
Take it away, Keli!
******
Finding the Balance Between Fact and Fiction
by Keli Gwyn
My début novel, A Bride Opens Shop in El Dorado, California, takes place in a Gold Rush-era town not far from where I live. Local friends who are reading the book love that I worked a number of real places into the story.
One friend from church asked some great questions. “How much of the story is real, and how much of it came from your imagination? Are all the characters based on actual people? Did all of the events really take place?”
Striking a pleasing balance between fact and fiction can be a bit of a challenge at times. I thought it might be fun to give readers a behind-the-scenes look at my choices in three key areas.
Setting
El Dorado is a small town only five miles from where I live, so I was able to visit and get a real picture of the place in my head. I visited a store that sells books written by local authors and found one that chronicles the rich history of this interesting community.
El Dorado historical plaque
The book included a map of the town from 1871—the year after my story takes place—along with the names of those who owned the various parcels. Talk about a find! Imagine my delight when I discovered that the building owned by James B. Wetherwax, the man my hero, Miles Rutledge, is modeled after, was actually located across the street from the one I used as a the model for the heroine’s shop, as is the case in my story. My one alteration was to increase the size of Miles’s mercantile a bit.
A number of local landmarks appear in the story in the very places they’re located today. The building some believed housed the Wells Fargo Office at one point still stands. It’s now Poor Red’s BBQ, a place famous for its ribs. The church and cemetery are on Church Street, right where they are in the story. Miles lives in a house on the corner behind his shop. In reality, there was a house there at the time, and it did belong to Mr. Wetherwax.
Church in El Dorado, CA
Characters
Because I wanted my characters to have certain traits and quirks, I chose to create my own characters in most cases. While Miles Rutledge is loosely based on the well-respected mercantile owner who had the largest, most impressive business in El Dorado, that’s where the similarities stop. The rest of Miles’s character is pure fiction.
I populated the town with a host of interesting imaginary people, endowing each with fun elements that helped them become memorable characters. However, I did slip in a couple of real people. Mr. and Mrs. Roussin, mentioned briefly in chapter 21, did own the Richwood House boardinghouse. I was careful to keep the references to the Roussins brief and attribute only positive actions to those characters.
Events
I took more liberty in this area. One actual event I mentioned was the annual Fourth of July celebration in my town of Placerville, but my characters ended up not going to it after all.
Making use of local history, I created the Mud Springs Musical Society. Placerville did have a Philharmonic Society at the time, and I used it as the model for the Musical Society. Placerville also had a brass band, so I knew musical groups abounded. That let me know the folk music group Miles belongs to was historically viable as well.
El Dorado Day is an event I created solely for the purpose of the story. It’s held to commemorate the building of El Dorado’s first two fireproof buildings, one of which was Miles’s shop. This is based on historical fact, because Mr. Wetherwax did build his store in the summer of 1856.
******
Can you think of some real-life characters you’ve enjoyed encountering in stories?
Tickled to be holding A Bride Opens Shop in El Dorado, California
Do you like finding out what part of a story is fact and what part is fiction? Why or why not?
******
A BIG “thank you” to Keli for her generosity in donating books for my giveaways and for spending the week with us. I can’t wait to see what Keli cooks up next, can you?
NOW…the winner of Wednesday’s giveaway is Loree H! Loree has won a copy of A Bride Opens Shop AND a $15 gift card to Panera. Congratulations! Loree, please contact me with your mailing info. 🙂
There’s more! You have until midnight tonight to leave a comment on today’s post for my third drawing this week. Today’s prize is for another copy of A Bride Opens Shop (generously donated by Keli) AND a $10 gift card to TJ Maxx! The winner will be announced on Monday’s post.
Also, don’t forget every time you SUBSCRIBE to my blog/leave a comment, you’ll be entered into my end-of-the-month blog giveaway. I’ll be drawing next week for a $15 Barnes & Noble gift card!
Here are the general RULES on my giveaways & (monthly) blog drawings:
- To win, you must be age 21 or over.
- Due to mailing restrictions, blog drawings/giveaways are limited to U.S. residents only.
- This drawing is void where prohibited.
- Each monthly winner is randomly selected and determined by the number of entries received AND by blog subscribers (as of June 2012) who remain subscribed to this blog.
(See complete RULES & info. here. Just scroll to the bottom of that post.)
Photo Credit of Keli: Sierra Springs Photography
Photo Credit of historical plaque & church: Keli Gwyn
Photo Credit of me: My darling daughter! 😉
Blessings Always,
Comments 16
Cynthia,
Thanks so much for showcasing my book this week. I’m honored. You are a cheerleader extraordinaire!
One of the reasons I love historical fiction is catching a glimpse of real life characters. Can’t wait to read this!
I just love learning about Keli! She is such a wonderful person and talented writer.
Wow, I won? Thank you! I have the book, but do have a friend at work that reads Christian fiction. I think she will love the book. I’m going to give that winning copy to her. And I’m going to keep the Panera gift card for me…haha! Great showcase week, Cynthia! You look so pretty in red…it’s definitely your color!
This was fascinating! I loved reading about Erica Vetsch’s characters in her Dodge City book. It was that duh moment when I realized, “So that’s where that saying comes from!” LOL
I also loved reading about the Biltmore and the Belmont thanks to Deeane Gist and Tamera Alexander!
I thought you did a great job, Keli! I loved the musical society scenes!
This book sounds absolutely delightful…I have loved Keli’s posts this week. Would love a chance to win a copy 🙂
Congratulations on your win, Loree. I hope your friend enjoys the story.
Red is definitely one of Cindy’s colors. She’s a classy lady. Loved meeting her in person at ACFW last year.
Jess, I’m glad you liked the Musical Society scenes. I had such fun writing them.
I think this was my favorite post of the week. I learning about how much of the real El Dorado and its people are presented in the book, and especially what you based those decisions on – I can’t wait to read the book!
Author
Thanks for visiting this week! Wasn’t it a fun week with Keli?!
Thank you, Keli, for sharing your time with us this week and for donating copies of your wonderful book for the giveaways.
Folks still have until midnight tonight to leave a comment (to be entered into today’s drawing.) I’ll announce the winner of today’s blog drawing on Monday. Ohhhh…the suspense! 🙂 Have a great weekend, everyone!
My laptop was down until few minutes ago so did not see Keli’s newsletter/post in time for giveaway but do want to read Keli’s book. Keli, I enjoyed reading how you use a real town yet changed the characters to your story. Thanks for this great post.
Connection lost–hope I’m not leaving a duplicate comment. It’s been a great week learning about Keli and her book. I like learning what is fact and what is fiction, usually after reading the book–but this info wasn’t a spoiler. Thanks for sharing!
Gina, if you like encountering historical figures in stories, you’ll have fun seeing which authors I mentioned in the story. I had fun incorporating a particular one in Elenora’s marketing strategies. The situation is purely fictional, but I had fun creating one that fit with the times and places mentioned.
Melissa, I’m glad you enjoyed learning about the story in my guest posts this week. I’m so grateful to Cindy for giving me this great opportunity.
Tonya, I’m glad you enjoyed this post. I welcomed the opportunity to separate fact from fiction.
Miss Kallie, I enjoyed bringing El Dorado to life. Using a real town requires a good deal of research, but since I can’t get enough of it, that just gives me a good excuse to spend time pouring over my reference books. =)
Patti, I wanted readers to know what is real and what is the results of my active imagination. I worked hard not to include spoilers. Don’t want to detract from anyone’s reading pleasure.