How real is your fiction?

I’ve now published three novels in my Four Corners Mystery Series. Book One is The Road to Lavender and Book Two is A Lavender Wedding. Both novels take place in the mythical village of Lavender on the wild Western Slope of Colorado. And both works chronicle the adventures of my handsome detective/lavender farmer, Trinidad Sands, and his spunky partner, Anne Scriptor.

Envisioning a third book, I’d intended to keep my characters grounded in the same familiar setting. I shared my vision with three local book clubs and soon changed my plans. These loyal readers pointed out that my first two books provide details about the background of my female protagonist, but little about the past of her male counterpart. The club members also urged me to consider writing about other parts of Colorado. Their insightful input inspired me to write a prequel that describes past events which inspired Trinidad Sands to become a detective. Moreover, I decided to challenge myself by moving this third mystery to another locale.

Spirits of Grand Lake takes place in a picturesque mountain region known as Grand Lake, Colorado. In addition to serving as a vehicle to convey Trinidad Sands’ backstory, the title is a nod to multiple layers of phantoms which haunt the deep mountain lake, including Ute ancestors; victims of a 1883 wild-west shoot-out; and a quirky villain bent on revenge over an incident from the 1970s. In my story, Trinidad takes a seasonal job at Grand Lake Lodge and is soon immersed in the mystique of the location.

I had visited the area years ago, but to refresh my memory, my new bride and I embarked on a road-trip to Grand Lake. We explored the rambling Grand Lake Lodge–-built in the 1920s–-as well as the vintage lodge’s scenic locale. My story takes place in the lodge and surrounding wilderness. I took a haunting photograph of sailboats at anchor and left with a renewed sense of purpose and a mental image of a dynamite book cover.

I returned to my studio and drafted a cover only to discover, much to my chagrin, that I had taken a photograph–-not of Grand Lake itself–-but a neighboring body of water known as Lake Granby.

Ugh.

I’d envisioned a great cover. But it was the wrong lake.

Having authored two mildly successful novels, I’ve found that my fiction works best when it’s grounded in reality. My first two mysteries rely on vivid descriptions of the Western Slope of my beloved Colorado–-descriptions which ground my fictional characters firmly in real settings. My attempt to move my characters to an entirely new setting was beginning to fizzle. Photographing the wrong lake was merely a symptom of a greater oversight. I simply did not understand the place I was writing about. I didn’t know where I was. So how could I hope to have my characters function there?

After some agonizing reappraisal, I decided a return trip was needed. We packed up the car and headed back to Grand Lake to capture a more authentic image and garner a better feel for the place.

While there on our second visit, we made a point of chatting up local residents. When folks learned of my plans to write about the area, they eagerly supplied me with information and photographs. Among these was a spectacular sunset shot which became my cover image. Their enthusiastic cooperation included a lengthy boat tour. Cruising around Grand Lake in the company of a lifelong resident, we passed through a narrow waterway to reach Shadow Mountain Reservoir and approached a cluster of enchanted islands. After a week in Grand Lake, listening, walking the back streets, hiking the trails, my vaguely conceived story began to coalesce into a solid narrative. I returned home inspired and anxious to get to work. A much-improved Spirits of Grand Lake was published in 2022.

Correcting my mistaken photograph meant a 300-mile roundtrip and a lot of rewriting. But it was worth the journey to make my fiction real.

Don Paul Benjamin