{"id":2127,"date":"2015-03-20T11:12:05","date_gmt":"2015-03-20T16:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cecilesune.com\/?p=2127"},"modified":"2018-12-09T21:22:29","modified_gmt":"2018-12-10T02:22:29","slug":"from-venetian-canals-to-arizona-desert-locales-play-critical-role-in-mysteries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cecilesune.com\/from-venetian-canals-to-arizona-desert-locales-play-critical-role-in-mysteries\/","title":{"rendered":"From Venetian canals to Arizona desert, locales play critical role in mysteries"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Death<\/a>
Death in Nostalgia City by Mark Bacon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The following is a guest post by Mark Bacon,\u00a0author of \u00a0Death in Nostalgia City<\/strong>. If you would like to write a guest post on my blog, please send me an e-mail at contact@cecilesune.com.<\/em><\/p>\n

Agatha Christie\u2019s Jane Marple belongs in an English drawing room in St. Mary Mead or perhaps somewhere in Cornwall.\u00a0 Author Raymond Chandler often stuck Philip Marlow in some dark alley in LA.\u00a0 Robert B. Parker\u2019s Spenser inhabited the mean streets of Boston.<\/p>\n

Mystery novelists frequently use locales to establish a mood or theme or to provide an intriguing background for their detectives, so when I started my debut thriller, I considered the locale carefully.\u00a0 In fact, Death in Nostalgia City<\/em>, contains a locale within a locale.<\/p>\n

The setting of a novel can provide vivid mental pictures to help you become involved in the story.\u00a0 It can even influence the course of events.\u00a0 Venice, Italy, is the setting for American author Donna Leon\u2019s Commissario Guido Brunetti mysteries.\u00a0 The canals, apartments and restaurants of this water-logged city almost become another character in the book as a result of Leon\u2019s evocative prose.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve ever read one of James Lee Burke\u2019s mysteries featuring Dave Robicheaux, you know that the bayous of Louisiana often form a foreboding backdrop to the action.<\/p>\n

Of course some mystery writers create their own fictional settings.\u00a0 Kinsey Millhone, PI creation of Sue Grafton, does her sleuthing in Santa Teresa, a fictional California coastal town.\u00a0 The name comes from the Santa Teresa (also fictional) in mystery novels by Ross Macdonald.\u00a0 The late mystery writer Lilian Jackson Braun set her \u201cThe Cat Who\u2026\u201d mystery series in Moose County \u201c400 miles north of everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Death in Nostalgia City<\/em> is set in a fictional, retro theme park in northern Arizona.\u00a0 I came up with the park first, then decided to put it in Arizona.\u00a0 Early in my career I was an advertising copywriter for Knott\u2019s Berry Farm, a large southern California theme park.\u00a0 Seeing a theme park from the inside gives you an appreciation for its complex infrastructure. It\u2019s also interesting to see how spooky a theme park can be after hours when the rides are shut down and everything is quiet and shrouded in shadow.\u00a0 I thought it would be the perfect setting for a mystery\/thriller.<\/p>\n

\"Mark<\/a>
Mark Bacon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nostalgia City is a different kind of theme park.\u00a0 It\u2019s a meticulous re-creation of an entire small town as it would have looked in the late 1960s through early 1970s.\u00a0 The park is complete with period cars, shops, clothes, hairstyles, music, restaurants, fads, food and movie theaters.\u00a0 The park covers several square miles and includes an amusement area with rides, many of which are inspired by 60s-70s movies and TV shows.<\/p>\n

Selecting northern Arizona for the location of the theme park was easy.\u00a0 First, since Nostalgia City covers several square miles, I had to pick somewhere with lots of open, inexpensive land.\u00a0 I also needed a city of some size relatively nearby so that people could get air transportation to and from.\u00a0 Flagstaff serves that purpose and Phoenix, about two hours away, offers even more transportation options.<\/p>\n

The second reason for choosing the high desert of northern Arizona was Route 66.\u00a0\u00a0 Remnants of the \u201cMother Road,\u201d made famous in a popular song and a 1960s TV series, stretch across northern Arizona and tie in beautifully with Nostalgia City\u2019s retro theme.\u00a0\u00a0 My main characters are suited to the setting.\u00a0 Lyle Deming, from Phoenix, and Kate Sorensen, from Las Vegas, are both comfortable in the hot desert environment.\u00a0 And Lyle, a late baby boomer, revels in retro reminiscences, quoting lines from old songs and movies that sometimes mystify his younger partner.<\/p>\n

So as Sam Spade had San Francisco and Sherlock Holmes, London, Lyle Deming has Nostalgia City.<\/p>\n

About the author\u00a0and his work: Mark Bacon’s Website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following is a guest post by Mark Bacon,\u00a0author of \u00a0Death in Nostalgia City. If you would like to write a guest post on my blog, please send me an e-mail at contact@cecilesune.com. Agatha Christie\u2019s Jane Marple belongs in an English drawing room in St. Mary Mead or perhaps somewhere in Cornwall.\u00a0 Author Raymond Chandler… Read More »From Venetian canals to Arizona desert, locales play critical role in mysteries<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":2128,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[365,1174],"tags":[1162,1177,1184,1178,104,1179,1187,1189,1195,1190,1193,1180,1175,1185,1181,1176,1196,1182,1183,1192,1197,1188,1191,1186,1194,62],"yoast_head":"\nFrom Venetian canals to Arizona desert, locales play critical role in mysteries - C\u00e9cile Sune<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mark Bacon explains how locales play a critical role in mysteries\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cecilesune.com\/from-venetian-canals-to-arizona-desert-locales-play-critical-role-in-mysteries\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From Venetian canals to Arizona desert, locales play critical role in mysteries - 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