They live In the shadows

As someone who intends to write stories in faraway lands (e.g. USA), Google Maps and Google Earth are invaluable. Just think about trying to write about someone travelling through a place you have never been to. You have some choices. You can actually go there, at the expense of time and money - though you may get a “feel” for the place while you’re at it. You can buy a map so that you know the street names, schools, etc. You can talk to someone who lives there, if you are lucky enough to know such a person - helps with “feel” and time / expense. But, perhaps the most useful tools to come along in a long time are Google Maps and Google Earth.

Much of the planet’s populated areas have been mapped by Google and can be overlayed with satellite imagery. Not everywhere has the same level of detail in terms of maps and imagery, but for most places you will get some idea of the lay of the land. For urban areas, the detail can be extremely accurate. For example, I’m just going to pick a random piece of the USA and describe a car journey….

Hank drove south on 206, taking the exit just past Dunns Mill Road for the New Jersey Turnpike. He arrived at the toll plaza, still fumbling for change in his pocket. A couple of quarters stuck to the leather around his gear shift by dried Mountain Dew saved the day. He preferred the automated toll gates to the ones where you had to make idle conversation with a human being. Once through the gate, he took the left lane and headed northeast on the Turnpike.

After what seemed like an eternity of monotonous straight-line driving, he finally saw the exit for Rossmoor. He took the exit and turned onto Forsgate Drive, then turned right onto Rossmoor Drive. Rossmoor was built in the 60’s to accommodate “Active Adults” - senior citizens in other words. It was a golf community, like a little piece of Florida all the way up here in New Jersey. Most of the streets were named after places in England: Sussex Way, Dorset Lane, Stratford Lane. It made Hank sick to his stomach. His father had never set foot outside New Jersey, yet here he was in a faux-Florida surrounded by English street names.

After a frustrating drive around what seemed like a rat’s maze, he finally stumbled upon Bradford Lane, where his father lived in a small semi-detached bungalow. Since his father liked the idea of playing golf rather than actually playing golf, he knew Hank Senior was likely to be in. Fixed on the TV, most probably.

Ok, I didn’t spend very long putting that together, but it’s filled with several geographical accuracies that I did not have to invent. Someone in New Jersey reading it might think it has an air of reality about it, like I know the place. There are several things I can write about that a map won’t tell me. Like how another golfing community is being built on the other side of Forsgate Drive. How these golfing communities are surrounded by masses of commercial / industrial units, including an enormous warehousing facility. I can talk about my driver passing lakes, rivers, wooded areas, etc. All adds to the realism of the journey. For people living in the area, it’s an air of authenticity. For those who never have been there, the detail sounds convincing.