Recycled Houses by Annette Dashofy

You might say, after making up a story full of characters, murder, and mayhem, I would run out of imagination when it comes to houses and cars. However, I prefer to think I simply use my writing to relive happy memories.

In the first three books of the Zoe Chambers series, Zoe lived in half of a big old farmhouse. In Death By Equine, Dr. Jessie Cameron lived in a big old farmhouse too. Both are, in fact, the same house, although Zoe lives in one half and Jessie lives in the other.

Confused?

My grandparents' farmhouse 

 Let me explain. The house is based on my grandparents’ farmhouse. Prior to its demolition, it perched on the hillside across the road from my current home. I spent a lot of my youth in that house. Divided by a center hallway with two rooms on each side downstairs and two more on each side upstairs, the house had at one time been used as a pseudo duplex. My grandparents let their nephew and family live in half. Hence the idea of Zoe renting half of the house. Her side was the side my cousins lived in. When I was writing Death By Equine, Jessie lived in the side my grandparents used and was renovating the other half. 

So while it’s the same house, it really isn’t. Both Jessie and Zoe live in Monongahela County, but they don’t live in the same area. 

Still confused? 

Basically, in my mind, I planted a duplicate house in two different spots. 

Now we have the Detective Honeywell series set in Erie. The farmhouse didn’t move north, but I still used a familiar home for Emma Anderson’s character. She currently lives in a seventeen-foot camper, based on one which my husband and I used to own. Once again, in my mind, I picked it up and placed it somewhere else. We had it set up in Confluence, Pennsylvania, on a permanent campsite near the Youghiogheny River where my husband likes to fish. Emma’s camper is on a permanent site at Sara’s Campground near Lake Erie.

Camper NOT at Sara's Campground

 

Camper kitchen

Emma doesn't have a cat, but we do! #KensiKitty

Let me clarify one point. Sara’s Campground is real. I am very grateful to the owners for giving me their blessing to use it and their restaurant. However, don’t go there and drive around looking for Emma’s site number. It doesn’t exist. I made up a fictional area in the campground to protect the real residents’ privacy. 

Houses aren’t the only thing I recycle for my fiction. I do it with vehicles too. Has anyone noticed that Zoe and Jessie both drive Chevy pickups? Until recently, I owned that pickup. 

Not our proudest moment but one 
of the most memorable

It’s gone now and I miss it as much as I miss the farmhouse and the camper. But pay attention. Zoe now drives a white Subaru Forester. So does Emma.

"Our" Subaru

Guess what. So do I! 

I really intended to change Emma’s vehicle to something else, but forgot to make the switch before the manuscript went to my editor. Oh, well. 

From here on, I promise there will be no more old Chevy pickups, Subaru Foresters, or seventeen-foot Terry camper trailers in any additional series. Nor will Grandpap’s farmhouse show up anywhere other than future Dr. Jessie Cameron stories. I think I’ve recycled all of those houses and cars as much as I reasonably can. 

Fellow Writers Who Kill, do you use actual houses or cars you’ve owned in your fiction?