In just 14 days you’ll be able to read the first chapter of A Better Lie. After all this time, I can’t tell you how exciting it is for me that I finally get to share this story with you.
Welcome to all of the new subscribers. I hope that you all noticed the email I sent earlier this week with a link for paid subscribers to my ebook 15 Minute Stories, my flash fiction collaboration with illustrator Ossaín Ávila Cárdenas. If not, click here.
The most exciting aspect of this project to me is that the more subscribers I get, the more stuff I can do for all subscribers. Every dollar I make from a subscription is a dollar I don’t have to make some other way. That means more time to work on creative endeavors.
For this penultimate post before we get going, I want to focus on locations.
When I told a much more successful writer friend about A Better Lie they said, “Hmm, Tacoma. So you’re aiming for a local audience.”
It’s common to set novels in large real cities or in fictional small towns. Tacoma isn’t either of those things. It’s the city that isn’t Seattle, but plays Seattle in Hollywood movies sometimes. (See 10 Things I Hate About You, Get Carter, Singles, etc.) It’s a city that’s not necessarily nationally known. But I think that’s an advantage.
I’m a third generation Tacoman. I don’t see much point in wasting a lot of time making up a city when I can just use the city I live in and the places I’ve gone. They tell you to write what you know and I know every street these character walk down. I’ve had beers at the bars where they drink. I’ve bled in the same sinks.
Tacoma is a character in A Better Lie. I want to introduce people to my version of Tacoma. It’s not reality, but it’s not far off.
I’m far from the first to write fiction based in Tacoma. I don’t see other Tacoma-based novels as competition, but company. And in that spirit, I’d like to point my subscribers to other books that use Tacoma as a location.
Tacoma In Fiction
Tacoma Pill Junkies by Joshua Swainston
Swainston’s Tacoma is full of thieves, drug addicts, and poor people just trying to get by. So, it’s Tacoma. This is a fun if thoroughly twisted ride through Tacoma’s darker alleys. Good stuff.
King of Methlehem by Mark Lindquist
Mark Lindquist is a former Pierce County Prosecutor who just happens to be a damn fine crime writer. His extensive local experience lends a sense of authenticity you can’t fake to the tale of a prosecutor going after a particular meth dealer.
Tacoma Stories* by Richard Wiley
It’s St. Patrick’s Day 1968 at a bar in Tacoma and people are telling stories. Richard Wiley captures certain times and places in Tacoma that give you a feel for the attitude of the City of Destiny.
*Wiley’s book’s title having the same name as my website about Tacoma homicides is a coincidence.
never eighteen by Megan Bostic
Megan Bostic tells the story of Austin, a kid who isn’t likely to make it to his eighteenth birthday but is hoping that’s enough time for him and his best friend to tie up all the loose ends of his life.
Nonfiction Tacoma
Tacoma is also the subject of more than a couple of good nonfiction books. These are the reference books that anyone basing a book in Tacoma should keep around.
Puget’s Sound by Murray Morgan
Late great local historian Murray Morgan wrote the definitive book about Tacoma’s early history. Morgan’s habit of looking at things from individual perspectives gives the book a narrative feel more commonly found in fiction and makes for a good read.
More Than A Century Of Service by Erik Timothy
Erik Timothy was the Tacoma police historian. His knowledge of Tacoma police history is unparalleled. Thankfully, he committed much of it to this history of the first hundred years of the Tacoma Police Department. Unfortunately, it was never widely published and mostly circulated among those who worked at the TPD at the time the book was published (2008). Copies can still be found online and locals can access copies at the main branch library.
Head Shot by Burl Barer
This true crime book is the most frightening true crime book I’ve ever read, but for a very personal reason. After the first few pages I realized that I had memories of the people in this book. I grew up in that neighborhood and was a child when these events happened. My friend’s mother is even mentioned in the book. Chilling true crime that bothered me all the more because I still remember the sound of that gold Charger’s engine.
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