The Power of Hometown

I was born and raised in Bonners Ferry, Idaho. Hence, you can figure out why I love writing hometown romances.  Recently, I was reminded just how beautiful Bonners Ferry is.  A friend of mine shared a gorgeous Christmas Card-esque picture of downtown Bonners Ferry with me recently, which I can't post here because it's copyrighted, but take a look at the picture above and try to imagine how the town looks if that's the view.  But I looked at this town picture and realized the truth of my Dad's favorite saying - "This place is truly God's country."  I know.  Lots of you out there would claim your hometowns are the same and isn't that really the best thing to have in this chaotic world we live in?



I have tried to bring this quality to all the fictitious hometowns I've developed.  Echo Falls and Parson Corners are purely figments.  Copper Canyon is a real place, but I used my author license to add details.  But the details are not only in the setting, but the people.  I have a lot of people ideas gathered in my head from traveling and living places like Bonners Ferry, and Cheney, Washington and Tusculoosa, Alabama and Arlington, Texas.  Still that isn't the only source for my book ideas.



So here's a little known fact - and I say little known, because I think only my daughters and a couple writing partners know this.  When I was starting the Copper Canyon series, I wanted to add a quirky challenge to the formation of the story.  I asked my daughters to give me a list of country songs and I'd pick three for each story.  The plot had to revolve around one of them and the other two had to be mentioned in some way in the story.  These were my rules, but my daughters delivered a complex, diverse range of songs to get me started.  I'm not going to share all of them, because well...I've only published two books in the series so far and I want to keep you guessing.  Here's the big reveal for the first two books and a look at the short story on my desk.









Song #1 - Crazy Girl - Eli Young Band



Plot Song #2 - Come Back Song - Darius Rucker



Song #3 - I've Got Friends in Low Places - Garth Brooks*



*This song actually solidified the six men in my imagination and was the inspiration for The Low Down Saloon and Restaurant







Song #1 - Shameless - Garth Brooks



Song #2  She's Everything - Brad Pailsey



Plot Song #3  Find Out Who Your Friends Are - Tracy Lawrence











The next story is a short one titled Cowboy's Kiss.  It's going to use a mix of Kenny Roger's The Gambler and Andy Grigg's If Heaven. These short stories weren't part of the original eighteen songs my daughters picked, so I've sorted through my country favorites playlist and pulled a few to help for inspiration to produce these.



Do you have any songs that remind you of how your grew up?  Please share in the comments.