Science Fiction in your neighborhood

[Culhwch]

On the movie front, such masterpieces as The Phantom and Inspector Gadget 2 were filmed in and around Brisbane, sadly. Possibly the best parts of either film.

[Tau Zero]

Originally Posted by dustinzgirl

Yay OREGON! WHOOO HOOOO

There is someone else on the planet from OREGON!

Yes, the Country Faire is less than a month away! I WILL be there, with my horns and wings...

[Anthony G Williams]

It is interesting to read books set in places you know. A couple of detective series I follow (Rankin's Inspector Rebus books, set in Edinburgh, and Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti books, set in Venice) are in places I have explored on holidays, which adds to the enjoyment of reading them.

I find it very hard to understand authors who write about real places and get them wrong: you should either do your research, or be sufficiently vague about the location that it can't be identified (or simply make all the places up, as in the last crime novel I read). I don't live in London (although I visit frequently) but I set several scenes of my novel Scales there. So on one of my visits, I checked out all of the locations I intended to use, including taking a bus trip along a route I wanted to include.

One point for aspiring writers to bear in mind; it can be a good move to set your stories at least partly in your own area if you can. Not only because you know it, but because it is far more likely that local booksellers will stock a book by a local author featuring the local area, and will be willing to host signing sessions - local papers/radio are also likely to feature it. So it can help to get sales off the ground...

[K. Riehl]

I lived in L.A. for, thankfully, a short time and was able to watch a couple of movie productions being shot just down the street. The motorcycle/semi chase from Terminator 2 was in the concrete lined river basin next to my apartment in Reseda. Waking up to fireball explosions is always fun. It's a part of living in L.A. that everyone just kind of takes in stride.

LittleMiss- I remember the City Hall in Fresno.We used to call it the chrome Darth Vader helmet.

I enjoy reading the books by David Brin where he uses Oregon as a background for several stories.

There is a large group of Northwestern authors that often set their stories in the Northwest area. Damon Knight, Kate Wilhelm, Ursula LeGuin, Kelly Link, Neil Stephenson, John Varley, Octavia Butler, Greg Bear, and several others.

[lin robinson]

I used to live a block from Frank Herbert's house in Seattle and the area has a few footnotes.
Nearby Enumclaw, with it's cheese company, was a model for Santaroga, according to Herbert.

And Dune, he said, was inspired by his excrusions on the Olympic Peninsula. As in "Olympic Rain Forest National Park". I always thought was kind of interesting.

[dustinzgirl]

Originally Posted by Tau Zero

Yes, the Country Faire is less than a month away! I WILL be there, with my horns and wings...

I will probably have to miss this year, but I plan on trying to get up there sometimes this summer for the Saturday Market at least.

[sanityassassin]

As another Glaswegian(although I am not really I'm a Portonian(Port Glasgow) and proud. I agree with Ace and Taggart but as for books I remember a supernatural thriller I read was set across the river Clyde from me on the Roseneath peninsular and mentions the sinking of the Sugar boat which still lies in the river and can be seen at low tide. I also read a thriller called Garrowhill set in Glasgow and part of it was set just down the road from where I lived at the time in Maryhill.

[UltraCulture]

Linda Buckley Archer set some of her Gideon Trilogy books in Derbyshire, I'd never heard of her till yesterday when she was interviewed on local radio.

You live and learn.

As far as i know they are a Time Travelling trilogy set in the present and the 18th century, and aimed at younger readers.

[Ru Pringle]

Hmm. Can't think of anything based in the Western Isles. The closest I can come to is film, The Wicker Man (which I think was one of the Inner Hebrides?)

[Ragnar]

Originally Posted by Lenny

- The town in The League of Gentlemen is based on the town a mile from where I live: Bacup.

Many years ago I went out with a lass from Hadfield where most of it was filmed. I only live about 20 miles away myself now & drive through it a couple of times a week. The place has never seemed the same since.

[Ragnar]

Originally Posted by that old guy

The town I grew up in in Massachusetts (Natick) is mentioned several times in Zodiac by Neal Stephenson. He gets just about everything wrong.

Is there a huge Twinkie factory in Natick? or did Family Guy get it wrong too?

[littlemissattitude]

Originally Posted by K. Riehl

LittleMiss- I remember the City Hall in Fresno.We used to call it the chrome Darth Vader helmet.

That makes sense. I've always called it "the crashed Klingon battle cruiser" myself. And, you know, from the back it actually looks a lot more like the backside of a plumber at work, "cleaveage" and all.

You've spent time in Fresno, K?

Oh, and you're right about location filming being an occupational hazard in L.A. and environs. Once when we went to visit my dad's grave in Chatsworth, they were filming part of an episode of Dark Skies. That was a little weird. And way back when, when we lived in Norwalk, I remember the neighbor kid coming charging up the driveway, yelling "Luke Skywalker is over at (insert name of department store, which I've forgotten now). He's there. Right now." Turned out, they were a couple of blocks away from my house, filming Corvette Summer. I wasn't excited enough to go see for myself.

But I have lots of fun pointing out places in movies and tv shows that I know from growing up down there. There's the Golf'N'Stuff in Norwalk, which was in The Karate Kid. There's Grease 2: the football field that's in that move is where my high school graduation was held. And there are so many more.

[Steve Jordan]

I live outside of Washington, D.C., so waaay too many movies and shows are based around my neighborhood.

The funniest thing about that, is spotting the movies and programs that say they are in Washington, but use sets or other cities to stand in for DC that don't even look close! So many times have I watched a scene set in Washington's Metro subway, only to see trains and stations that look nothing like our subway!

Makes you appreciate the movies that honestly go on location, and make it look authentic.

[Kostmayer]

Originally Posted by Lenny

I suppose Lancashire is famous for its witches, which feature in many books, if that counts?

Am a Lanc also Wigan to be precise. Didn't know we had witches here.

Not sure if it counts, but Sir Ian McKellen, he of Gandalf and Magneto fame, was born here.

[Anthony G Williams]

Just finished re-reading (for the first time in decades) Alan Garner's The Weirdstone of Brisingamen. Written for children, but written well enough to grip adults too. It's a fantasy with some vaguely Tolkienesque echoes, but the heroes are two normal children and it's set in Cheshire - it describes a lot of the physical features around Alderley Edge.

I like stories which start off with normal people in a real location and then you find there's a lot more going on than meets the eye...