Last week I dove into my reasons and method for creating the fictional town of Reliance, Montana (and if you haven’t read that post, you can do so HERE!). Today I’m going to get into more of the details, taking you inside the town and into some of the places that my characters frequent throughout the book. Believe it or not, these locations did not pop out of thin air – they exist (somewhat) in real life. In fact, some of them played a huge role in motivating me to write this book in the first place. Let me explain…
Several years ago, when I first started writing WILD HEARTS (in spring 2017), I had a very long commute to work each morning. (I still have a very long commute, by the way.) This commute brought me from my home in Boyce, VA to my office in Ashburn – a roughly 40-mile drive, mostly along one boring highway, but with one very nice and brief pass through the quaint town of Berryville. This is the neighboring town to Boyce (and now my current town), and it offered a little more to look at early in the morning as I sipped my coffee and dreaded the long drive ahead.
I don’t remember precisely when I first took special note of some of the sights around town on my early-morning drives (after all, I’d been in and around Berryville many times, so it wasn’t like these places were new to me), but somehow I viewed them with fresh perspective in the mornings. I paid attention to the Berryville Grille – one of our local treasures – and how I could see a waitress busily wiping down a table and unstacking chairs through the window, as she prepared to turn the sign on the door from ‘Closed’ to ‘Open’. I bounced over the railroad tracks beside the Berryville Farm Supply, smiling at the little black-and-white cat that lounged on the front steps and waited to be fed as the first employees arrived for the day. I noted the early birds strolling down Main Street, walking dogs and headed in various directions (slowly, leisurely) – to the bank, to the pharmacy, to breakfast.
As I drove – always in a rush, because I’m often getting out of the house later than intended – I found myself charmed by the slow sights around me. I thought about what it would be like to be getting the Grille ready for a day of customers, or how it might feel to walk into the Farm Supply and organize the shelves, feed the cat, and hear the trill of the bell on the door to signal the day’s first arrival. For some reason, the pace of such a day appealed to me on those drives. I found myself wondering what it would be like to work at one of these local businesses in my small, charming town. That’s one of the fun things about having a writer’s mind – you envision a million different lives. You insert yourself into other circumstances – jobs, relationships, experiences – and you think, “that would be fun to write about.” The otherwise-inconsequential thought becomes meaningful. It becomes inspiring!
So if I couldn’t actually experience life working at the Berryville Grille or Farm Supply (if instead I was driving towards my corporate job to sit at a desk all day), maybe I’d write about it. It had been over a year since I’d finished my last manuscript by this point, and I hadn’t had a creative idea since. And sure, while this wasn’t exactly a ‘creative idea’ (no character, no concept, no plot whatsoever), I did have a setting (or settings, of sorts). I knew immediately that my main character would have exactly this life – she’d work at these businesses (yes, both, because why not?). They wouldn’t actually be in Berryville, but the Grille and Farm Supply would certainly be inspired by the real-life Berryville locations. The actual meaning behind the story – its purpose – would surely come later.
I should mention also that I’ve spent remarkably little time in either of these real-life places. While I’ve eaten at the Grille a handful of times (and I did fully envision the layout of the restaurant in my mind while I wrote each relevant scene), I’ve only been inside the Farm Supply once! I don’t think my husband could have been more surprised when, one Saturday while having lunch at the Grille, I realized that the Farm Supply was open for another hour. I asked excitedly if we could go in, as I needed inspiration for my writing. I wanted to see the layout, get the feel of the place. He stared at me like I had three heads… “Suuuure, we can walk around the Farm Supply.” We went straight away, and it was a very exciting little visit for me, though I’m sure the Silver Creek Farm Supply bears very little resemblance to the real place. The outside, however, is created entirely from reality – from the front porch (and the location of the hose!) to the railroad tracks that run directly to the right side of the building, and the small gravel parking lot.
Thankfully, in addition to these locations, a plot did emerge as I began my planning. My main character, Cara, was created, and the town of Reliance, Montana was born (an even smaller town than Berryville). The Grille (renamed ‘The Reliance Grille’) and the Farm Supply (‘Silver Creek Farm Supply’) were indeed vital settings in my story from the very beginning. Some of my most critical scenes take place in these locations. They’re where we see Cara living her daily life: serving customers, chatting with her best friend, and (crucially) boxing up leftover pie for Ron. The Grille and Farm Supply are very important to WILD HEARTS, and seeing their real-life Berryville counterparts every morning on my commutes helped to fuel my motivation to write (as bizarre as that might sound).
As I just mentioned Ron, I should note that he (Cara’s father) is the only character in WILD HEARTS who is inspired by a real person from my life. And to be honest, I don’t even have a good reason for that. It’s not like I set out to write a book with a character modeled after my father-in-law, but it felt natural once I decided that Cara’s father would be a cattle rancher. See, my husband’s stepfather, Ron (affectionately called Ronnie), has been a farmer in Central New York for practically his entire life. He’s raised both dairy and beef cows, and he works harder than any other human I’ve had the pleasure of knowing. His identity is wrapped up in his job as a farmer, and he diligently cares for his cows with a devotion and expertise that is inspiring (and makes me tired just thinking about). Truthfully, I couldn’t write cows into this book (or their farmer) without picturing the real-life Ron, and so that inspiration was also born.
Ron Brown, in the story, probably bears little resemblance to my father-in-law. I have no idea, for example, if the real Ron is addicted to pie, or if he’d spend every evening in front of the TV watching baseball (in fact, I doubt that second one – though the fictional Ron’s reclining chair is very much taken from reality). I didn’t necessarily pour specific details about my father-in-law into Ron Brown’s description, but I pictured him all the way through. As I wrote any element of his character, I imagined Ronnie’s quiet demeanor, his relentless dedication to his work, and his love for family. While it’s totally likely that nobody from my life would even recognize the fictional Ron as being inspired by the real one, this was a special element of the writing of this book for me. It’s a small, subtle tribute (if you can even call it that), but it’s worth noting in this post.
Oops, maybe I lied up above about Ron being the only character inspired by a real person. I should also mention that Butch Luray (Dustin’s dad) is named after my husband’s best friend (and real-life Butch, I’m so sorry about this character’s fate. I promise it’s nothing personal!). While Butch Luray’s character isn’t actually inspired by this person, I did like the name. So I stole it!
And that, as they say, is that. These are the real-life places and people that motivated me (entirely unknowingly) to write WILD HEARTS. Honestly, if anyone who works at either the Berryville Grille or Berryville Farm Supply were to read about this source of inspiration, they’d probably laugh. No doubt I glamorized the day-to-day life and work in these small businesses, and probably got a fair number of details wrong… but just looking at these places, imagining spending the days there – well, it inspired an entire book. As weird as that is, WILD HEARTS might not even be a thing without the Berryville Grille and Berryville Farm Supply.
That’s the strangest (most interesting, exciting, etc.) thing about writing, in my opinion. Inspiration can come from literally anywhere. I never know when it’ll hit, or what I’ll be compelled to build off of. Maybe in the future I’ll write a post all about writing inspiration, as well as my process… but I think this particular post has gone on long enough! I hope you’ve enjoyed this little behind-the-scenes look at where WILD HEARTS got some of its most written-about locations, and where the origins of the story (or rather, setting) came about.
To visit Reliance, the Grille, and the Farm Supply, get yourself a copy of WILD HEARTS! Once you’ve read it, please consider leaving a rating and/or review on Goodreads and Amazon. They help indie authors like me out more than you know. As always, thanks for reading, and thanks (so much) for the support!
For more in the “Behind WILD HEARTS” blog post series:
STEPHANIE KLINE 