#Church History Books Online

[jadenvargen]

free online james baldwin stories, essays, videos, and other resources

**edit

James baldwin online archive with his articles and photo archives.

---NOVELS---

Giovanni's room"When David meets the sensual Giovanni in a bohemian bar, he is swept into a passionate love affair. But his girlfriend's return to Paris destroys everything. Unable to admit to the truth, David pretends the liaison never happened - while Giovanni's life descends into tragedy. This book introduces love's fascinating possibilities and extremities."

Go Tell It On The Mountain"(...)Baldwin's first major work, a semi-autobiographical novel that has established itself as an American classic. With lyrical precision, psychological directness, resonating symbolic power, and a rage that is at once unrelenting and compassionate, Baldwin chronicles a fourteen-year-old boy's discovery of the terms of his identity as the stepson of the minister of a storefront Pentecostal church in Harlem one Saturday in March of 1935. Baldwin's rendering of his protagonist's spiritual, sexual, and moral struggle of self-invention opened new possibilities in the American language and in the way Americans understand themselves."

+bonus: film adaptation on youtube. (if you’re a giancarlo esposito fan, you’ll be delighted to see him in an early preacher role)

Another Country and Going to Meet the Man Another country: "James Baldwin's masterly story of desire, hatred and violence opens with the unforgettable character of Rufus Scott, a scavenging Harlem jazz musician adrift in New York. Self-destructive, bad and brilliant, he draws us into a Bohemian underworld pulsing with heat, music and sex, where desperate and dangerous characters betray, love and test each other to the limit." Going to meet the Man: " collection of eight short stories by American writer James Baldwin. The book, dedicated "for Beauford Delaney", covers many topics related to anti-Black racism in American society, as well as African-American–Jewish relations, childhood, the creative process, criminal justice, drug addiction, family relationships, jazz, lynching, sexuality, and white supremacy."

Just Above My Head"Here, in a monumental saga of love and rage, Baldwin goes back to Harlem, to the church of his groundbreaking novel Go Tell It on the Mountain, to the homosexual passion of Giovanni's Room, and to the political fire that enflames his nonfiction work. Here, too, the story of gospel singer Arthur Hall and his family becomes both a journey into another country of the soul and senses--and a living contemporary history of black struggle in this land."

If Beale Street Could Talk"Told through the eyes of Tish, a nineteen-year-old girl, in love with Fonny, a young sculptor who is the father of her child, Baldwin's story mixes the sweet and the sad. Tish and Fonny have pledged to get married, but Fonny is falsely accused of a terrible crime and imprisoned. Their families set out to clear his name, and as they face an uncertain future, the young lovers experience a kaleidoscope of emotions-affection, despair, and hope. In a love story that evokes the blues, where passion and sadness are inevitably intertwined, Baldwin has created two characters so alive and profoundly realized that they are unforgettably ingrained in the American psyche."

also has a film adaptation by moonlight's barry jenkins

Tell Me How Long the Train's been gone At the height of his theatrical career, the actor Leo Proudhammer is nearly felled by a heart attack. As he hovers between life and death, Baldwin shows the choices that have made him enviably famous and terrifyingly vulnerable. For between Leo's childhood on the streets of Harlem and his arrival into the intoxicating world of the theater lies a wilderness of desire and loss, shame and rage. An adored older brother vanishes into prison. There are love affairs with a white woman and a younger black man, each of whom will make irresistible claims on Leo's loyalty. 

---ESSAYS---

Baldwin essay collection. Including most famously: notes of a native son, nobody knows my name, the fire next time, no name in the street, the devil finds work- baldwin on film

--DOCUMENTARIES--

Take this hammer, a tour of san Francisco.

Meeting the man

--DEBATES:--

Debate with Malcolm x, 1963 ( on integration, the nation of islam, and other topics. )

Debate with William Buckley, 1965. ( historic debate in america. )

Heavily moderated debate with Malcolm x, Charles Eric Lincoln, and Samuel Schyle 1961. (Primarily Malcolm X's debate on behalf of the nation of islam, with Baldwin giving occassional inputs.)

----

apart from themes obvious in the book's descriptions, a general heads up for themes of incest and sexual assault throughout his works.

[lady-phasma]

Martyrdom

The Vampire Armand x gn!reader

Warnings: not that many really, tragically over-dramatic comfort, implied canon trauma if you know a little about Armand’s history (book or series)

Summary: 1k words of 🥺 and comforting our beautiful monster.

a/n: so yeah, I had to work out some stuff between 2.07 and 2.08 because Armand needs some comfort. This is the most melodramatic thing I have ever written. This was going to be fem!reader but then it really wasn’t important to the comfort so it became gn!reader.

Armand didn’t stir as you walked in. His head was bowed, iPad balanced in one hand, tapping at the screen with the other. His dark curls framed his face. You knew he heard you, of course he did, but whatever was happening on his tablet was engrossing. You walked behind the sofa and rested your head on his shoulder. A glance at the screen showed you an online art auction. You smiled as you leaned down to kiss his neck, ear, and cheek. His singular focus wasn’t unusual but when you looked back at his iPad you saw the thumbnail and item description.

The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian - Marius de Romanus

You straightened up and let your hand linger on his shoulder for a moment. He wouldn’t move from that spot until he owned the painting.

When the bidding was closed he found you in the bedroom on your own iPad. You looked up as he walked in. The blank expression he wore was a familiar sight. He didn’t look sad or dejected as others might. Sometimes he simply didn’t emote. But his eyes would betray him. He didn’t make eye contact with you right away. However, he wouldn’t have come to you if he wanted to be alone.

He thought often, spoke less, about broken things, people he had loved. He rarely spoke of those who had broken him. Sometimes you caught a glimpse of him when he felt unobserved and the vacancy in his eyes would be filled with regret and remorse.

“You own a new painting?” You asked with no inflection. You closed the iPad’s cover and set it on the night stand as he sat on his side of the bed. His back was to you, shoulders stiff.

“Yes.”

“When will it arrive?” You didn’t really need to know, but wanted him to know you understood the significance.

“Approximately 4-6 weeks,” his tone was flat. “Possibly sooner.”

“When was the last time you saw it?”

“500 years ago, give or take.”

“‘Give or take?’” He couldn’t see your raised brows.

“492, I believe.” His shoulders slumped slightly.

“What’s the provenance?” You didn’t expect him to answer.

“Venice, Milan, Prague, a few years unaccounted for, then Berlin,” his tone had changed. Rather, there was now tone to his words. The mildest hint of pain colored the city names. It had changed so many hands. It wasn’t rare for a painting to have been sold before the fire. It was the nature of the painting and who you could assume may have commissioned it, that concerned you. Possibly it was for the Church, but more likely for a private patron. Even so, had it been in a church, a museum? Hundreds of eyes moved by the martyrdom of a real boy who they would never think about. Did they even think of the model for Sebastian at all or only of the saint and his ecstasy? If Armand had wanted you to know that a public institution had once held it he would have said. You didn’t press.

You watched him as he slipped off his shoes and turned to sit more comfortably. His long fingers toyed with the crease of his pant leg. He stared off, looking at nothing, for a moment. Then he turned to you. Your heart ached for him. It did from time to time when he would casually mention something from his past, but this was different. You had only seen an expression like this a couple times before. You looked at him, unsmiling, but with a soft gaze, no judgement. For a moment he looked as if he would speak then he closed his mouth, his lips forming a tight line.

Armand wanted to tell you about the nausea he felt, a peculiar feeling, increasingly rare at his age, when the alert had appeared on his phone. He wanted to tell you that he even had an alert for Marius’s name, but he couldn’t. He had never told you everything, there was far too much to tell. But he had told you the broad strokes. He felt he might never tell anyone all of the details, those he could remember, except in the rare moments of weakness when he was jealous of Louis’s and Lestat’s ability to reveal everything.

You sat up straighter and moved toward him. You gently touched his face. He leaned into your hand as you cupped his cheek. His brow furrowed slightly and he closed his eyes. You stroked his cheek with your thumb. You let your hand slide down to his neck. He sighed quietly and when he opened his eyes to look at you, he became every bit the ancient creature trapped in a young man’s body. Every wrong done, every hurt inflicted, every lie told, by him and to him, turbulent beneath his ageless façade. Over 500 years of mistakes, violence, atonement, none of it truly forgotten.

Your fingers gently caressed the back of his neck as you held his gaze. You couldn’t conceal the expression on your face, the compassion and disconsolation. Slowly you moved your hand to his shoulder and guided him toward you. Armand gave in. He rested his head in your lap, his body folded up alongside your outstretched legs. You leaned back against the pillows and headboard. One hand automatically began stroking his hair, smoothing it back from his face. The other lay against his back, making small circles with your fingers against his shoulder blade.

He felt his shoulders relax first, then the tightness in his chest began to fade. He hadn’t realized tears had started to well in his eyes until he closed them. None came, but he was unsure how long they would stay away this time. He sighed heavily and let himself soften against you. Your steady, consistent movements were a balm to the raging of conflicting emotions inside him. He would think of them another day, perhaps when the painting arrived. Now, in this moment, he could rest.

Note about the painting: The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian, Marco Basaiti (active 1496-1530 in Venice), located in Santa Maria della Salute, Venice

Masterlist

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Announcing the Picks and Shovels book tour

This week only, Barnes and Noble is offering 25% off pre-orders of my forthcoming novel Picks and Shovels.

My next novel, Picks and Shovels, is officially out in the US and Canada on Feb 17, and I'm about to leave on a 20+ city book-tour, which means there's a nonzero chance I'll be in a city near you between now and the end of the spring!

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865908/picksandshovels

Picks and Shovels is a standalone novel starring Martin Hench – my hard-charging, two-fisted, high-tech forensic accountant – in his very first adventure, in the early 1980s. It's a story about the Weird PC era, when no one was really certain what shape PCs should be, who should make them, who should buy them, and what they're for. It features a commercial war between two very different PC companies.

The first one, Fidelity Computing, is a predatory multi-level marketing faith scam, run by a Mormon bishop, a Catholic priest, and an orthodox rabbi. Fidelity recruits people to exploit members of their faith communities by selling them third-rate PCs that are designed as rip-off lock-ins, forcing you to buy special floppies for their drives, special paper for their printers, and to use software that is incompatible with everything else in the world.

The second PC company is Computing Freedom, a rebel alliance of three former Fidelity Computing sales-managers: an orthodox woman who's been rejected by her family after coming out as queer; a Mormon woman who's rejected the Church over its opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment, and a nun who's quit her order to join the Liberation Theology movement in the struggle for human rights in America's dirty wars.

In the middle of it all is Martin Hench, coming of age in San Francisco during the PC bubble, going to Dead Kennedys shows, getting radicalized by ACT UP!, and falling in love – all while serving as CFO and consigliere to Computing Freedom, as a trade war turns into a shooting war, and they have to flee for their lives.

The book's had fantastic early reviews, with endorsements from computer historians like Steven Levy (Hackers), Claire Evans (Broad-Band), John Markoff (What the Doormouse Said) and Dan'l Lewin (CEO of the Computer History Museum). Stephen Fry raved that he "hugely enjoyed" the "note perfect," "superb" story.

And I'm about to leave on tour! I have nineteen confirmed dates, and two nearly confirmed dates, and there's more to come! I hope you'll consider joining me at one of these events. I've got a bunch of fantastic conversation partners joining me onstage and online, and the bookstores that are hosting me are some of my favorite indie booksellers in the world.

BOSTON (Feb 14): Boskone, 4PM, Westin Boston Seaport District

BOSTON (Feb 14): Brookline Booksmith with KEN LIU, 7PM, 279 Harvard Street, Brookline

VIRTUAL (Feb 15): YANIS VAROUFAKIS, sponsored by Jacobin and hosted by David Moscrop, 10AM Pacific, 1PM Eastern, 6PM UK, 7PM CET

MENLO PARK (Feb 17): Kepler’s Books with CHARLIE JANE ANDERS, 7PM, 1010 El Camino Real

LOS ANGELES (Feb 18): Diesel Bookstore with WIL WHEATON, 630PM, 225 26th Street, Santa Monica

SEATTLE (Feb 19): Third Place Books with DAN SAVAGE, 7PM, 17171 Bothell Way NW Lake Forest Park

TORONTO (Feb 23): Another Story, 630PM, 315 Roncesvalles Ave

NYC (Feb 26): The Strand with JOHN HODGMAN, 7PM, 828 Broadway

PENN STATE (Feb 27): Kern Auditorium, 7PM, 112 Kern Building

DOYLESTOWN (Mar 1): Doylestown Bookshop, 12PM, 16 S Main St

BALTIMORE (Mar 2): Red Emma’s, 2PM, 630PM, 3128 Greenmount Ave

DC (Mar 4): Cleveland Park Library with MATT STOLLER, 630PM, 3310 Connecticut Ave NW

RICHMOND (Mar 5): Fountain Bookstore with LEE VINSEL, 6PM, 1312 E Cary St

AUSTIN (Mar 10): First Light Books, 7PM, 4300 Speedway/43rd

BURBANK (Mar 13): Dark Delicacies, 6PM, 822 N. Hollywood Way

SAN DIEGO (Mar 24): Mysterious Galaxy, 7PM, 3555 Rosecrans

BELFAST (Mar 24) (remote): Imagine! Festival with ALAN MEBAN, 7PM UK

CHICAGO, Apr 2: Exile in Bookville with PETER SAGAL, 7PM, 410 S Michigan Ave, 2nd floor

BLOOMINGTON, Apr 4: Morgenstern Books, 6PM, 642 N Madison St

PDX, Jun 20 (TBC): Powell’s Books (date and time to be confirmed)

I'm also finalizing plans for one or two dates in NEW ZEALAND at the end of April, as well as a ATLANTA date, likely on March 26.

I really hope you'll come out and say hello. I know these are tough times. Hanging out with nice people who care about the same stuff as you is a genuine tonic.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/06/picks-and-shovels-tour/#19-cities-plus-plus

[llendrinall]

Smoke and mirrors. On a predator’s social manipulation

I have been following Neil Gaiman’s case from a distance these past few months while also thinking a lot about manipulation of public’s perception. You can read my thoughts about smear campaigns in this post.

I see people going back over his published works looking for “clues” of his abhorrent behavior, but considering that Gaiman preyed on fans, I think it’s more useful to think about his public engagement with fans. Gaiman crafted a kind and compassionate public persona that allowed him to get closer to his victims and to enjoy an aura of credibility as an advocate and ally. Let’s see how he did it. .

1.) False advertising

I first followed Gaiman’s tumblr account because it meant having access to a professional writer and I like reading and writing. For intellectual property reasons, writers can’t engage too much with fans about future projects, but they can talk about their craft: how to revise a manuscript, how to decide on a title, etc.

But that’s not what you get following his blog. It dawned on me when the first allegations came and he stopped updating the blog. I didn’t notice his absence; I didn’t miss the content... because I was skipping over it.

I distinctly remember him giving writing advice and encouragement at some point. But slowly, over the las few years, he pivoted on to giving life advice. He had the perfect excuse, too. He received many asks, so many that he couldn't and didn’t sort through them and we know that tumblr works in clunky ways. If the posts about writing and creating dried up and were substituted by “Please, Papa Gaiman, tell me everything will be all right” posts… Well, that wasn’t on him, was it? It was the fans who massively sent those asks.

The last few years people have been in desperate need of reassurance, so it’s likely that he didn’t have to go out of his way to choose the asks that allowed him to build his compassionate persona. Still, it’s interesting in retrospect how he was less of a writer/creator and more of an online therapist.

2.) Oh, but I come from a long line of plucky little heroes.

Have you heard the story of Neil Gaiman’s Jewish grand cousin Helen? The Jewish woman who survived the Warsaw ghetto? The plucky Jewish young woman who would read books aloud to her fellow persecuted Jewish folk? It’s a great story, masterfully told.

Gaiman has openly stated that he is not a practicing Jew. I think he may have even said he does not consider himself Jewish, something like “Judaism is my family’s religion”. He would often talk about his heritage, though, about the persecution Jewish people have faced, about discrimination. Now, this is perfectly all right and understandable. Talking about your ancestors while not belonging 100 % to that group is fine. Nothing to see here. Each one deals with their family’s history as they see fit.

But it turns into a completely different color when you learn that the Gaiman family (parents, sisters and first wive) all belong to the Church of Scientology.

The relatively frequent mentions of the heroic Jewish cousin against the almost zero mention of his active-in-a-cult close family does arise the suspicion that he was commodifying his family history. By being and not being Jewish, Gaiman belonged to a persecuted group when convenient. He could inspire and request sympathy and he could position himself as someone who naturally understands discrimination, something that specially resonates with a LGTBI fanbase.

I want to make this very clear, talking about your family history and finding pride in your roots is not a red flag. It’s the contrast, it's reaching far back in the famlity tree and bringign to the light small pieces while keeping in the dark something very big.

3.) A prince among the common folk

This is about class division. The rich and famous sit at the top and us common folk crawl at the bottom, with little to no contact among the groups. Common folk look up in admiration and privileged folk look down and occasionally wave.

But not Gaiman. Remember the memes during the last Tumblr Sell? “This is the cringe website, the autistic website, the weirdo website. Oh, there is also Neil Gaiman, don’t mind him, he lives here”. Gaiman jumped the class barrier and hung out in the common folk spaces, like one of us.

However, his posts are designed to remind us that he is not, in fact, one of us. Like a royal boon, he bestowed attention and interaction (that he could sever at any moment if the fans displeased him. The control was always firmly clutched in his fist). He relied on the starstruck effect for his predation, which meant his presence had to be extraordinary, special; his engagement laden with worth. he had to keep his privileged status while also playing coy.

He did this through name dropping. Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adam, Salman Rushdie, Michael Sheen, David Tennant, (especially Tennant because he is more popular than Sheen), Tori Amos.

One way or another, we would know he had access to these famous people, that he got to see them in a different, private, light and that he chose to interact with us instead of with them.

I can’t think of a better way to make someone feel special.

4.) Others

There are other little clues that point at dishonesty and deliberate misdirection:

His assertion that he wrote 50 % of Good Omens and that it’s impossible to tell who wrote what, when anyone familiar with both his and Pratchett’s writing can tell that 80% of the book is Terry Pratchett’s work.

His general insistence that the TV show, especially the second season, was his way of completing T. Pratchett’s unfinished business. Good Omens was published in 1990 and Prachett’s last book came out in 2015. I think if Sir Terry had wanted a sequel of Good Omens out, he would have got it out.

Declaring himself autistic only to use it as an excuse for his behavior just a few months later. What a great way to casually prop a shield in advance.

Conclusion

Neil Gaiman’s public behavior and interactions built the image of a very sympathetic character with multiple built-in defenses against allegations (he is so nice, of course you attack the Jewish man, all these famous people vouch of him, he is just autistic!). This strategy also helped him encourage and exploit parasocial relationships by positioning himself as a special companion. 

Hoepfully, seeing this laid out can help us be more aware of manipulation tactics from regular and famous people both.

Note: I am including cscreenshots rather than links because I want to anonymize the fans. Also, in case his tumblr is deleted.

[queersatanic]

“A History of Nazi-Satanism” with Spencer Sunshine

Friday, Jan. 17, 2025 at 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Left Bank Books, Seattle

Nazi-Satanists aren’t just an outlandish headline, they’re a real thing—and increasingly intertwined with neo-Nazi terrorist networks.

This talk will give a short history of Nazi-Satanism and show how its influence has ranged from Anton LaVey’s Church of Satan to the neo-Nazi terrorist Atomwaffen Division to the online child abuse cult 764.

Join Left Bank Books Collective for this Queer Satanic benefit event as historian + activist Spencer Sunshine exposes the truth behind Nazi-Satanism.

7 p.m. to 9 p.m., Friday, Jan. 17, 2025 Left Bank Books 92 Pike St., Seattle, WA 98101 Google Calendar event

This event is free.

Masks required and provided. Air purifiers will be running throughout the event.

The front of the space where the talk will be is wheelchair accessible but the rest of the store is not.

[joyinliving]

Shit to Do So You Don't Freak The Fuck Out

are you feeling hopeless? lost? scared out of your fucking mind? there's a lot of self care stuff out there- drink tea, take a bath, meditate, etc etc. those can be nice i guess, but sometimes, when shit sucks, the only way to make it through without collapsing is to do whatever you can do to help people. to prove that you do, actually, have some control. that you can have a real impact on the world around you.

i am compiling a list of things that can be done RIGHT NOW at no (or very low) cost to yourself that have a direct and real impact on the state of the world around us. i am taking submissions as well- just send an ask or say something in the tags and i'll add it.

list under the cut (it is very long and continues to grow)

Report price-gouging in California: go onto zillow (or some other rental site), set the location to any of the affected areas in CA, sort to your choosing, and go through the price history for rentals. if it has increased by over 10% during the state of emergency time period, report for price gouging.

Drive someone for free (to vote, to get groceries, to the library, etc.)

Visit a library: that space is for you to use! loitering is okay too- you will only be asked to leave if you are disrupting the functions of the library for other visitors. while you are there...

Get a library card: libraries rely on community engagement for funding and to know what people want. check out books, movies, and games! participate in events! request more books! look into the resources your library offers! i promise there are more than you know!

Speak with a librarian: ask what resources they know about. ask what you can do to benefit your community. ask what can be done to help the library.

Get food from a food bank: they rely on numbers of participants to prove the programs are effective, plus you won't be financially supporting grocery store chains!

Volunteer: volunteer with an animal shelter, a homeless shelter, a kitchen, a community garden, park cleanup, political action (like canvasing, encouraging voters), a hospital, a church, or any other work that your area needs help with

Petition, vote, and submit testimonies for local elections: action in your city, county, or state can have massive impact!

Make art: make posters, zines, patches, bracelets, street art! make a visible mark on the world

Make art (cont): write poetry, music, fiction, non-fiction. make your voice heard

Make information accessible: share paywalled articles and academic sources for free, provide alternative text for photos online, share notes from class, post information that isn't easily available

Ride the bus: much like the library and food banks, use proves usefulness! riding the bus can encourage more funding and maintenance for them. it's also cheaper and more environmentally friendly than personal vehicles

Wear a mask: especially around vulnerable populations

Resist gentrification: keep property costs down with graffiti, protest the introduction of gentrifying businesses, support locals

Study self improvement: Read The Power of Practice By Ng’ethe Maina and Staci K. Haines, study conflict resolution, think about the ways you can improve your relationship with yourself through your relationship with others and vice versa, practice patience

Call/email your representatives: tell them what they need to do. there should be templates available. if something is happening, let them know how the people feel about it

Write a list of all the ways you can make an impact here and now.

[writingquestionsanswered]

I’ve been reading some craft books and online posts about the world building because my story is an urban fantasy set in present day US, in a fictional town, and theres not a secondary world where the fantasy happens, it’s all in the real world, except the magic is a secret that only certain people know about, but all of the resources I find about world building only talk about fantastical worlds that exist by themselves and not the kind of more subtle world building that I’d have to do. Do you have any tips?

Guide: Creating a Fictional Town in the Real World

Step 1 - Choose Your Location - There are two ways to go about choosing a location for your fictional town. One is to go the "Springfield U.S.A." route, ala The Simpsons, and be vague about the specific location (borough, parish, district, county, region, state, or province) and instead give a broader geographic region... "the East Coast," "the Pacific Northwest," "Central Canada," Northern Scotland," etc. The other option is to go ahead and put your fictional town in a specific location. Just figure out where (for example, somewhere outside of Des Moines, Iowa) and go to Google Maps, click on satellite view, then start zooming in on big empty areas. Choose a place big enough to fit a town. Yes, in reality it's probably farm fields, pasture, or someone's property, but that doesn't matter. You don't have to actually show it on a map. It's just a plausible spot to build your town. Now you can measure how far it is to other places, you know what highways to take to get to it. You can even do street view to get the lay of the land, see what the landscape looks like and try to envision the buildings there. You can also use what's there to create parks, popular recreational areas, and anything else your town needs.

Step 2 - Choose Your Inspiration - Even when you're creating a fictional town, it's still a good idea to use a real town (or two, or three) from that general area as inspiration for your town. For a fictional town in Des Moines, I would zoom in on the map to find a nearby town of similar size... like Elkhart, then I can take a look around to see what it's like. Just looking at the map, I can see they have a couple of churches, a couple baseball fields, a very small main street/downtown area with a couple shops and restaurants, a post office, a few different neighborhoods, and a cemetery. This would be a great model for a small fictional town outside of Des Moines. And, as I said, you could look at a couple other sand combine them. Once you have your inspiration town/s, you can walk around on Google Maps street view, go to the town's web site, watch a tour on YouTube (if one exists), or look up pictures in Google Image search.

Step 3 - Start Planning - This is the really fun part! First, you might want to draw a basic map of your fictional town using your inspiration town/s as a guide. This doesn't have to be a pretty map... just a basic line drawing to help you envision where everything is. Think about some of the basic things this town might have, like the ones I listed in step two, and any other things you might want your town to have, like maybe a library, a hospital, a city hall, school, and maybe a movie theater. It might even be helpful and fun to put together a collage of pictures to represent your town so you've got something in mind as you write about it. You can even choose representatives for specific locations in your story, like your MC's house, school, and their favorite hangout.

Step 4 - Naming Your Town - Start by looking at the kinds of town names that surround your town. Look for common naming conventions... suffixes like -ton, -ville, -dale, -burg, -wood, -field, etc. Words in a particular language, like a lot of French-inspired town names, or towns with geographical terms (lake, hill, valley, river, canyon, gap, etc.) My guide to Naming Locations has additional tips.

Step 5 - Populate Your Town and Give it a History - Last but not least, make up a little history for your town, again, using surrounding towns as inspiration. Who founded it? When was it founded? What's the town's main industry? What are the people like in this town? What jobs do they have? What do they do for fun?

Here are some other posts that might help:

Five Things to Help You Describe Fictional Locations Setting Your Story in an Unfamiliar Place WQA’s Guide to Internet Research Happy writing!

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here