Comments on: Not quite my backyard

By: Brenda Bradshaw

Brenda Bradshaw — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 18:40:46 +0000

I had this happen reading a book about a closed adoption from the 60s set in Texas. I’m from Texas, adopted in a closed adoption and have been through every type of search experience there is (to my joy – since I found my birth mother.) Granted, this is a really, really focused type of “setting”, but since I knew it so well, reading something in a novel was SO off-based, the author lost that “credibity” for me. And the research wouldn’t have been hard, I don’t think, because of the TONS of sites out there that specifically target Texas adoptions and all the redtape it entails. However, I didn’t write her to tell her. I did finish the book. But the “this could really happen” aspect was shot.

By: Julie

Julie — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 23:48:46 +0000

When I read a book set in my home state (Montana), I tend to notice mistakes. For example, I once read a book that described the characters driving past “rolling wheat fields” in area which is actually far, far away from anything wheat. Usually mistakes like that pull me out of the story pretty quickly.

Allison B, if you ever do a book signing in Montana, I’ll try to make it–assuming, of course, that I see the announcement and that it’s somewhere near where I live, which is the western half of the state.

By: Jennifer R

Jennifer R — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 19:38:50 +0000

Er… that should probably be “belayer”, not “spotter.” I’m so swift on terminology

By: Jennifer R

Jennifer R — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 19:37:30 +0000

Well, the town I’m from is definitely not one to show up in fiction. As for the town I currently live in, the only book I ever found set there was “The Jane Austen Book Club” (yes, the author lives here, or so I hear), and for whatever strange reason, she never actually mentions the name of the town. I believe “River City” shows up as a reference once.

It amused me to be able to figure out the approximate location of one of the characters’s houses, though. Though I also was quite surprised when she mentioned the local rock-climbing gym, where one character falls off the wall because she didn’t bother to wait for her spotter to show up. Having climbed there myself (and I’m somehow doubting KF has?), I couldn’t help but think, “Um, last I checked they did NOT let you just climb up the wall without a spotter!” I’m surprised the owner(s?) have never complained about it publicly as giving them a bad rep. Maybe none of them read it?

By: MasterPuppeteer

MasterPuppeteer — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 15:18:33 +0000

Sheesh, I thought we’d be a lot more forgiving of author geographic boo-boos since we’re writers ourselves. At least, I am. I don’t give a hoot about geographic inaccuracies, or about the fact that you can’t pump your own gas in NJ. If it advances the plot and it makes the story more exciting, bring on the fiction! It is fiction after all, isn’t it?

By: BeeJay

BeeJay — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 08:50:30 +0000

I live in San Francisco, and I see so many books set in this area, written by people who not only have never been here but, apparently, are incapable of reading a map.

I can’t count the number of times someone drove half an hour from SF to Carmel for lunch. If you can do it in two hours, baby, you’re flying low and there is NO traffic. Likewise, people take an hour to get from Marin to SF, when it’s only a few miles. Even in horrendous commute traffic, I don’t think I’ve ever taken more than half an hour for that, and we’re talking hanging on Waldo Grade in first gear and park the whole way – maybe three miles???

It’s so common that I just ignore it, but maybe I shouldn’t. It bugs me that they would be so cavalier as to fail to do any research, especially about such a well-known area but, then, I probably would never read them again, anyway.:wink:

By: Hedvig

Hedvig — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 08:27:33 +0000

I absolutely would let the author know. It’s the Golden Rule AFAIC. If it were my book, I’d want to know so I didn’t make the same mistake again. Not telling the author would mean I wasn’t interested enough to ever read another of her (or his) books, and, sadly, this is most often the case.

Sure, there are lots of readers who’s comments are accompanied by a nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah. That goes with the territory. But wouldn’t you rather know you’d booboo’d than look like an idiot by doing it again in another book. That was a generic *you*, BTW.

By: Daria

Daria — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 07:02:50 +0000

As a reader, I don’t care. it’s fiction. If I wanted hard facts, I would have gone and bought an encyclopaedia.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 02:22:32 +0000

Read Isabel Sharpe’s newest Blaze in the Hush Hotel series this month. Great sense of place in NYC, including public transportation, rather than the Fake New York in which a lot of books seem to take place..

By: Emily

Emily — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 00:49:17 +0000

I’m a chuckler. And I may point out some glaring irregularity on my blog but I can’t imagine ever writing to an author about a mistake.

I mean, there’s so many other people involved! Shouldn’t someone involved in the filming of The Prince & Me pointed out that in November it’s COLD in Wisconson (or at least commented about the unseasonally warm temps).

Having said that, my Nov. release is set and Seattle (where I used to live) and I know that I kind of glossed over things like where they were driving to and from, etc.