How to Accidently Build a Town -

Post by Doris McCraw

aka Angela Raines

When I wrote my first novella "Home For His Heart", now a part of the anthology, "Old West Stories of Love" I needed the name of a town. Since this story took place in the Colorado Mountains I used the name of an old campground up in the area I was writing about called Agate Gulch. I have since written two other novellas, also in the anthology, that took place in that small mountain town. It's just a name I haven't really platted out where everything is. I will have to soon as I'm working on another story that takes place there.

When I increased my word count and wrote my first short novel "Josie's Dream", I wanted to town on the eastern plains of Colorado. I thought long and hard about what I would call this town my aspiring doctor would be moving to. After much deliberation, the town of Kiowa Wells burst into being.

I fell in love with Kiowa Wells. So much so my second novel "Chasing a Chance", began there with my main character. But I was not done with Kiowa Wells, a third novel "The Outlaw's Letter" continued with characters from the town.

Photo (C) Doris McCraw

Now in my fourth novel "Amos", a part of the Christmas Quilts Bride series, I am back in Kiowa Wells. It has gotten to the point now where this fictional town is now very much a part of my life. This 'accidental town' has taken on a life of its own. I'm at the point where I'm ready to plot out where all the buildings are, where all the characters that I talk about live and work. And it's a growing town. I have at least one if not two more novels that take place there or near there and a very short story that I'm working on about how the town began.

So this 'accidental town' is now growing because I've fallen in love with it, its location, and the people who inhabit it.

Although my upcoming release of "Amos", on December 22, can be read as a standalone story, it is inhabited by the other people that live in my accidental town.

What is so lovely is that there are people who believe there really is a town in eastern Colorado by the name of Kiowa Wells. Who knows maybe someday there will be.

You can pre-order "Amos" now at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CKP7VG24

Until Next Time Stay Safe & Stay Well

Doris