One question that I’ve been asked since releasing WILD HEARTS is how I set the story. Why did I choose to set it in a fictional town? Why did I choose Montana? Why didn’t I choose a real place for my characters to live? Where did I get the name Reliance?
I love these questions, and I love that setting a story is such a unique, and at times complex, subject for any writer. It’s true – many authors choose to set their stories in well-known towns and cities, and then painstakingly describe every detail of those places to the best of their ability (knowing full well that residents and/or visitors of those locations might read their work and nit-pick every detail). And there I’ve answered one of the above questions already… I am afraid of exactly that. I find, in general, that I prefer to create towns that are completely my own – primarily because I don’t want to get a real place wrong. The only real-life locations that I would feel (almost) comfortable describing in a book would be the towns that I’ve lived in… and even there I’d be taking a risk (I can’t know everything, after all).
For me, it feels safer to write about a fictional place, and I don’t think I ever considered otherwise when starting WILD HEARTS. I knew it would be a place that sprouted from my own imagination, but with some very real-to-my-life landmarks that served as sources of inspiration. In addition to feeling safer, it also felt more fun to create a completely new place!
But why Montana? It’s a state I’ve never visited, a part of the country I’ve never been anywhere near (I’ve never traveled north of Nevada in that region of the USA)… so what the heck inspired me to write about Montana?
^^THIS is why I wrote about Montana. I could fill this blog post with images of Montana’s landscape – the stunning Rocky Mountains, the glorious Glacier National Park, the farmland, the streams… This state is beautiful. A quick Google images search will prove to anyone that this is an area of the country worth dreaming about. That, combined with the facts that I wanted to include wild mustangs (who largely inhabit the western states), incorporate a picturesque mountain range, and create a quaint, quiet ranching town complete with cowboy hat-wearing ranchers… and it was an obvious location. Quite simply, Montana is just a state that I admire from afar, which really fit the story I wanted to tell. In real life, I hope to visit before too long.
But unfortunately, I’ll never visit Reliance, because as previously stated, it is a town that was built entirely within my brain. Where did I come up with the name? Here’s a fun fact: randomly, the name Reliance comes from a street sign that I often see when driving towards the nearby town of Front Royal, VA. Over the past few years, whenever I’d drive from Clarke County to Front Royal (via rt. 522), I’d see a sign pointing towards a West Virginia town called Reliance. I always thought it was a cool name.
And that… THAT is why I named my town Reliance. I thought the name sounded cool. It sounded small, and quaint, and charming.
Here’s the real-life Reliance, WV on a map:
Mind you, I have never been to this Reliance (maybe I should drive through sometime, just because). I am absolutely confident that my Reliance, Montana bears ZERO resemblance to Reliance, WV… and it’s not supposed to. I just stole the name! It’s not a very deep or meaningful story, but there you have it – it stems from a street sign that I often saw on my drive towards Petco and Target. Hah!
One thing I did decide to do, although Reliance was always going to be a figment of my imagination, was to set my town around real-life Montana locations. I did have an idea of where Reliance would be located, and throughout the story I reference the surrounding area – like Bozeman (the home of Montana State University), as well as Gallatin National Forest. As such, I created Reliance to be situated within Gallatin County, near enough to Bozeman for my characters to take a theoretical evening drive for drinks or dinner in the college town. Gallatin County is located here on the Montana state map:
In chapter eight of WILD HEARTS, Dustin and Cara take a drive (or rather, a few) from Reliance to a northern Montana town called Denton, in order to bring horses from Dustin’s father’s ranch up to his horse breeding business partner, Derick McCallan. For this bit of the story, I used another real-life town. Denton does exist – situated in Fergus County, roughly 200 miles (three-and-a-half hours) from Bozeman. In my book, it’s a three-hour drive from Reliance, which gives a little more insight into how my town is situated in relation to Bozeman. (When building a fictional town that’s set around real places, Google Maps and MapQuest are your best friends!) Travel time in this case, of course, needed to be believable.
It’s easiest for me (and the most fun) to create my setting this way, because it allows me so much more flexibility than if I were to write about a real place. While it might be tempting to look at the Montana map and pick any number of Bozeman’s surrounding towns to set my story, I’d constantly be questioning whether or not I was getting anything right. I hate to think of someone (someday) reading WILD HEARTS while sitting in their real-life home outside of Bozeman, saying, “Hey, this is absolutely 100% wrong in every way. Has this author ever seen this place?” Instead, I love the freedom of creating a town no one has ever seen. There’s still the challenge of inserting that fictional place into a real-world state/county… but it’s a more manageable challenge for me, and one I really, really enjoy.
Reliance, to me, is a teeny tiny ranching community with one main street through town, one traffic light, and a small number of locally-owned shops and restaurants. It’s open space and beautiful mountain vistas, dotted with sky-high pines and firs. It’s got two-lane gravel roads running along cow pastures and horse fields, and you might be able to drive ten miles without seeing another car. You might also plan your travel time according to the combine tractors that traverse the road ahead of you, moving from farm-to-farm.
My next blog post will be another “Behind WILD HEARTS” feature, exploring some of the spots my characters frequent in the book – such as the Reliance Grill and the Silver Creek Farm Supply. Yes, these locations are inspired by real-life places, and they actually played a huge part in the overall inspiration for this story (weirdly enough). But more on that next time!
In the meantime, if you haven’t already purchased or downloaded your copy of WILD HEARTS, you can do so HERE! Don’t forget to join my social media communities on Facebook and Instagram (Stephanie Kline Author), and consider leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads if you’ve read the book already. As always, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for the support and love you’ve shown for WILD HEARTS!
More from the “Behind WILD HEARTS” blog post series:
Latest reader review from Amazon:
“This story, the setting and the characters grab you from the very beginning. It is a fantastic summer read, full of my favorite things. I highly recommend reading Wild Hearts, especially if you want to escape to a life in the beautiful west. I am anxiously awaiting Stephanie’s next book.“
STEPHANIE KLINE 
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