Special Feature: The Where of The Bone Man...and other stuff, too
by Vicki Stiefel

When I began The Bone Man, the latest novel in the Tally Whyte homicide counselor series, the book took place in Boston and thereabouts. But I soon found Tally wanted to travel. In fact, my protagonist insisted on it. So we first ventured to Martha's Vineyard, then journeyed west to New Mexico. Talk about straying from her New England roots!

I've often wondered why my novels evolve in such settings, why one minute my Boston-based character is in her apartment on the South End and the next she's driving around Maine. I've come to realize that, in fiction, "place" should read more like "PLACE." Where we are can be as crucial to a tale as "who" and "what" we are. The "where," of course, doesn't simply mean a locale. 

I'm writing Tally's fifth book, so I've spent a lot of time with this character. I admit I love her. I love almost all of my characters, but Tally is special. She drives my books, and while her "where" has to do with location - and Tally sure does love a good road trip - the "where" also addresses Tally's humanity in relation to her homicide counseling work, her family, her lover, her dog, and her place as she sees it in space and time.

Darned complicated, if you ask me, especially when the "where" isn't Tally's home base -- Boston and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner -- but rather someplace that I, that author, haven't traveled. Her journeys get even more complex when I've not only not visited the physical locale, but also the emotional landscape Tally's traveling.

Then again, that's why I write fiction.          

I often wonder how authors choose settings and make them feel utterly vivid. I understand  why my husband, Bill Tapply, focuses on Boston and New England and why Tony Hillerman set his books in the Southwest. These are familiar and alive places to them, and so they can write vivid, tactile prose about Fenway and the Four Corners and Cape Cod and Albuquerque. I also love writing what I know. Yet I occasionally yearn for exotic lands, ones, in particular, my lead character may not know well.

In fact, I like plunking Tally in an unusual location, one that seems strange to her. It gives me, as a writer, new perspective; it offers new insights into Tally's character; and it gives readers a fresh locale to visit. All good stuff, as I see it. True, it can make my job as a writer more complicated, but that's half the fun, isn't it?

As the writing of The Bone Man progressed, I planned to set part of it on the Hopi reservation. I love Hopi pottery and jewelry, and the idea of such an exotic setting intrigued me. Trouble was, I'd never visited Hopi. I'd never seen her cliffs or eaten Hopi food or walked her streets, which I've heard are quite marvelous.

I have visited the Zuni reservation, and since I hadn't the time to visit Hopi, I moved my location to Zuniland. I believe it's essential that all the senses are engaged as readers turn the pages of book. In The Bone Man, I wanted readers to taste the fry bread, to see the mysterious "zat" in turquoise, to smell the crystal Zuniland air, to touch a res dog and have her wet tongue lick Tally's hand, and to hear the chants of the White Buffalo Dance. I wanted readers—if only for a little while—to be part of the fabric of Zuni, just as Tally was.

So I planned it out, interviewed several Zuni natives for up-to-date info, and wrote. I was pleased when I edited the Zuni chapters. I believe they read "real," which was my goal.

All well and good, but what I didn't plan for was the book's ending.

Endings matter. Everyone knows that. I had carefully planned out what I thought was a dynamic ending. And yet—as I wrote—The Bone Man's climax and ending came as a complete surprise to me. I had planned (there's that word again!) a radically different ending to Tally's latest intrigue. Yet as I was in the moment, as I pressed my fingers to the keys of my computer, different words appeared on the screen and odd feelings erupted within me. Words and feelings that changed everything.

Honestly, to go with what I'd written was a risky move. After I'd completed the climax and denouement, I gave them a lot of thought. Initially, believed I should rewrite the pages, modify them, massage the words and scenes in some way. Yet, ultimately, I couldn't do it. Oh, I edited for spelling and style and flow, but not content. Why? Because I came to believe that everything that preceded the ending of The Bone Man had literally led up to the climactic moment. Yes, the climax is strange. Yet it feels utterly true to me.

I'll let readers be the judge if it feels the same to them. I'm done.  All I know is that I loved writing the book, and I hope readers love reading Tally Whyte's fourth adventure.

As of today, Tally Whyte's fifth outing is set in and around Boston.

Then again, I haven't written Tally's last sentence. So who knows where she'll end up?
 
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