Julianne Holmes | Creating a Town

Last Christmas my nieces and nephews introduced me to Minecraft. For those of you unfamiliar with the game, each player builds a world. Now, the world can be scary or not, you can build it with others or on your own, and if chose to interact with others they can affect you. I never really got the hang of Minecraft, but I do know how to build a world. I’ve been learning on the job, while writing the Clock Shop Mystery series. The first book, JUST KILLING TIME, just came out, and will let people get to know the town of Orchard, Massachusetts.

Orchard is in the Berkshires—out in the Western part of the state. It is equidistant between New York and Boston, and a vacation spot for both. There are mountains, and lakes, and small towns and a few urban centers. There are also lots of theaters, and artists, and small businesses. The Berkshires are the perfect location for a family run clock shop, like the Clagan family’s Cog & Sprocket. The location made sense, but I needed to figure out what Orchard looked like. I had a list of businesses, but what did the street look like? What did the buildings look like? In New England, there isn’t one answer to that question, so I needed to decide what type of New England town Orchard was.

I was thinking a lot about that when I started the novels. Then an interesting thing happened. One night I was driving back from Western Mass after going to a theater production. It was dark, and my GPS sent me home a different way. I went with it, weaving back roads on a dark summer night, concentrating on where I was going instead of letting my mind wander. A graveyard came up on my right, and then a fork in a road. I took a left, and drove into Orchard. Or what I could model Orchard on. A quirky, small New England town with a cluster of different style buildings that represented the center. By different, I mean different. An old stone building that was the Town Hall. A white clapboard church. A federal style building that had been turned into a bank. A one story grocery story that lacked in exterior character, but made up for it inside. A brightly colored Mexican restaurant. A chrome diner. I pulled over, and got out of my car. It was dead quiet—all the businesses were closed—but my brain filled in the characters, and changed the terrain to suit my needs. This was Orchard.

Ruth Clagan’s clock shop has been part of her family for a few generations. It is small, and cramped, with an apartment on the second floor. Where would the Cog & Sprocket be located? What would Ruth see when she stepped out the front door? I knew that Ben’s barbershop was next door, but what did his shop look like? Moira Reed’s coffeeshop, the Sleeping Latte, was just down the street. How far? Could Ruth smell the baked goods Moira’s mother Nancy was creating? When Ruth needed cat food for Bezel, the shop cat who adopted her, how far was the Corner Market? Now that I had the set pieces, how would I move them around to suit the series?

I find it interesting that I keep finding out more about Orchard as I write the series. The old bank across the street—who could have guessed it would be a bookstore? Not Ruth, especially not when we first meet her. Orchard is a very fun place to visit, and I wouldn’t mind living there either!

About Julianne Holmes

Julianne Holmes's short stories have appeared in the award-winning Level Best Books.

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About JUST KILLING TIME

First in a new cozy series that ticks with excitement and mystery!

Ruth Clagan may be an expert clockmaker, but she’s always had a tendency to lose track of time. And when trying to solve a murder, every minute counts…

Ruth’s beloved grandfather instilled in her a love of timepieces. Unfortunately after her grandmother died and he remarried, Ruth and Grandpa Thom became estranged. She’s wanted to reconnect after her recent divorce, but sadly they’ve run out of time. Her grandfather has been found dead after a break-in at his shop— and the police believe he was murdered.

Now Ruth has been named the heir to Grandpa Thom’s clock shop, the Cog & Sprocket, in the small Berkshire town of Orchard, Massachusetts. As soon as she moves into the small apartment above the shop and begins tackling the heaps of unfinished work, Ruth finds herself trying to stay on the good side of Grandpa’s bossy gray cat, Bezel, while avoiding the step-grandmother she never wanted. But as old secrets and grudges start to surface, Ruth will have to kick into high gear to solve the killer case before someone else winds up dead…