Sense of Place by Susan Van Kirk
Thank you, Marilyn, for hosting me on your blog
today.
I have to admit I was a huge fan of the television
series Friday Night Lights, whose 63
episodes aired from 2006-2011. It told the story of a high school football team
in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas. Running for six seasons, FNL centered around a coach, Eric
Taylor, his wife, Tami, and a group of football players whose talents,
decisions, and circumstances led them to a wider life beyond Dillon or a
narrower life staying home. When it ended, I felt like I had lost a group of
friends. Why?
After much thought, I believe the town, its culture
and expectations, and its human relationships reminded me of “a sense of
place.” I understood and felt comfortable in that small town and with its
characters—some with a huge sense of decency and selflessness, and others
guided by narcissism and selfishness. It felt familiar.
A good book is like that too. Reaching the last
page, I hate to leave that place and time.
For Robert Frost a sense of place was New England
with its birches, snow, pastures, and streams. For William Faulkner and Eudora
Welty, it was the South with its brooding knowledge of the past. John
Steinbeck’s sense of place was the California arroyos and the Hoovervilles of
the Great Depression. For Nathaniel Hawthorne, the Salem area with its witches
and dark forests provided a setting and sense of the familiar. Sometimes I wonder
if we haven’t lost—in this amazingly interconnected and digital world—a sense
of place. Some might call it “home.”
I hope readers of my first cozy mystery, Three May Keep a Secret, will feel that
same sense of place in my small town of Endurance, Illinois. I chose the name
“Endurance” because I wanted to acknowledge both the past and present of my
little town. Hardy Presbyterian stock settled this town by traveling through
all kinds of hazards and difficult terrain. Despite the tiny origins of Endurance,
more and more settlers arrived and survived harsh winters and the difficulties
of starting a new life on the prairie. Now, Endurance is a town of 15,000
souls.
“Endurance” also describes the strong heroine of
my novel. Grace Kimball has survived some terrible life experiences that have
only made her stronger. A fire in college killed her roommates and left a scar
on her hand, but she survived. Her husband died in his thirties of an
unexpected heart attack, leaving her to raise three children alone. But she
survived and endured. Now, she will face another daunting experience: a killer
is on the loose in her town, and even her own life will be threatened before
all is said and done.
Creating that town has been fun.
Endurance has institutions that—typical of the
Midwest—arise from its name. We see the Endurance Historical Society, Endurance
High School, the Endurance Public Library, Endurance College, the First
National Bank of Endurance, and the town’s newspaper, the Endurance Register.
Then there are the businesses. Many of the scenes
take place at a local sports bar named “Tully’s.” Bill Tully owns the
restaurant/bar, and he named it for himself. Other names I chose because of
their sounds, and those would include Patsy’s Pub and Dirty Dave’s. Downtown
you’ll visit the Café on the Square, Little People’s Day Care Center, Gimble’s
Paint and Wallpaper Store, and Harlow’s Book Store. Oh, and Endurance also has
the Homestretch Funeral Home and the Shady Meadows Cemetery.
Despite the welcoming names, Endurance is a town
of secrets. Grace Kimball, newly retired from teaching and now working part
time at the Endurance Register, will
discover that truth when she lifts a rock with her research of the town’s
history, and uncovers secrets people don’t want her to let out. Appropriately,
one of Grace’s friends quotes Ben Franklin: “Three may keep a secret… if two of
them are dead.”
Susan Van Kirk was educated at Knox College and the
University of Illinois. After college, she taught high school English for
thirty-four years in the small town of Monmouth, Illinois [pop. 10,000].
She taught an additional ten years at Monmouth College. Her
short story, “War and Remembrance,” was published by Teacher Magazine and became one of the chapters in her creative
nonfiction memoir, The Education of a
Teacher (Including Dirty Books and Pointed Looks).
Her first cozy mystery about the town of Endurance, Three May Keep a Secret, launched from
Five Star Publishing on 11/19/2014. She has just finished writing her second
Endurance mystery, Marry in Haste. Visit her website at www.susanvankirk.com and her Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/SusanVanKirkAuthor
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