The Allure Of Lake Lanier

My Favorite Setting Evolved From The Allure Of Lake Sidney Lanier

I love to talk about the setting of my Lake Lanier Mysteries series. I live on the northern shores and, gazing across the shimmering water, you'd never suspect the lake is filled with secrets, or that it never gives up its dead. The spine-chilling history and spooky lore attached to this man-made vista speaks of a town time forgot. A sleepy rural area with homes, churches, and businesses, still lingers beneath the surface. The eerie lore inspired my series. What better setting to create a story with natural mystery, suspense, and a love that spanned across time?

 



The creepy stories attached to Atlanta's famous man-made lake, Sidney Lanier, fascinated me. Research lured me into the lives of 1940's moonshiners and added built-in suspense with the birth of NASCAR. Looper Speedway, a half-mile dirt track where bootleggers competed with their souped-up cars, bared its cement stands in a recent draught and the photographs fed the fodder. 

The spine-chilling lore holds whispers...

of a Lady of the Lake who haunts the ghost town beneath the surface. Some say she lures victims to her watery grave. In truth, swimmers get trapped among the deadfall of sheered-off trees and town remains. Even expert divers fall victim when they get tangled within the murky depths, hence the lake's unnerving curse that Lanier never gives up its dead.

Strange phenomena, unexplained disappearances, and supernatural sightings continually plague the 38,000 acre lake, but the eerie stories don't stop the over 10 million annual visitors that come to enjoy the amenities. And the fodder feeds my muse daily, when I gaze through my office window. Dreaming-up mysterious tales is not just what I do, it's who I am, am and Lake Sidney Lanier inspires me.

Ideas for my series swirled through my mind with alluring whispers and a plausible theory: What if excavation explosions induced a seismic shift and, given enough energy, could open a portal to a different dimension or a rip in time. I loved the possibilities. Once the elements entwined, Beneath The Lake blossomed with an energy and life of its own.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwOqm8DUUfA&feature=youtu.be

The sequel, Beyond The Mist, was published September of 2017, the perfect month for the storyline, picking up where Beneath The Lake ended and incorporating two minor characters as the new hero and heroine. But this stand-alone story challenges Lake Lanier's secret time portal by spinning the characters into 2001, and the terrorist attack on The World Trade Center.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj6ySTh_7xI

Another beloved character plunges back to 1865 Georgia, evades the grasp of some renegade Civil War soldiers and discovers the secret to a century old mystery about millions of dollars in missing Confederate gold. Between The Shadows is scheduled for release this summer, so don't miss the big launch.

As a writer, I spin ideas from scenery, people, news stories, and every-day events, but nothing inspires me more than Atlanta's Lake Lanier.

My Lake Lanier Mysteries can be found in print, e-book and Audible. To discover the portal, start with Beneath The Lake. 

A ghost town submerged beneath Atlanta's famous man-made Lake Lanier reportedly lures victims to a watery grave. But when Lacey Montgomery's car spins out of control and hurtles into the depths of the icy water, she awakens in the arms of a stranger, in a town she's never heard of--34 years before she was born.

When the 2012 lawyer tangles with a 1949 hunk, fire and ice swirl into a stream of sweltering desire. Bobby Reynolds is smitten the moment the storm-ravaged woman opens her eyes and, despite adamant protest, Lacey falls in love with a town destined for extinction, and the man who vows to save his legacy.

Threatened by a nefarious stalker, the wrath of bootleggers, and twists of fate, Lacey must find the key to a mysterious portal before time rips the lovers apart, leaving their star-crossed spirits to wander forever through a ghost town buried beneath the lake.

Availible on Amazon Audible &

through the Wild Rose Press

Then take another journey through the mysterious portal to the 2001 terrorist attack on The World Trade Center and experience a tale that will spin you Beyond The Mist.

Piper Taylor concedes she’ll never fall in love, until a treacherous storm spirals her into the arms of the handsome Nick Cramer. Unrelenting remorse over a past relationship haunts Nick, but he can’t deny the mysterious connection and hot desire Piper evokes.

The allure of a secret portal hidden beneath Atlanta’s Lake Lanier tempts him into seizing the opportunity to change his mistakes. But his time slip triggers consequences beyond his wildest dreams.

Can Piper avoid the international espionage and terrorism of 2001 New York, find Nick, and bring him home before he alters the fabric of time, or will the lovers drift forever Beyond The Mist?

Find me:

Website: casimclean.com

Twitter: @casimclean

Facebook: Casi McLean

FB Author Page: Casi McLean-Author

Goodreads: Casi McLean

Amazon Author Page: Casi McLean

 

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The Arizona No One Knows

By Brenda Whiteside
“The book’s strength is in its characters and descriptions… The setting was a character in itself. I loved the town! The author really made it come to life, not stinting on details (but not boring the reader either)… the writing kept me turning pages and I never once thought about setting it down.” Review for The Art of Love and Murder ~ Long and Short Reviews

Developing a setting for my novels is second only to creating characters. For my Love and

Murder Series, I chose the northern plains of Arizona and the high country. Like authors often do, I chose an area with which I am familiar.

I was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, but had no great love for the area; dry flat ground and cactus is how I still think of it. I dreamed of snowy

winters, autumn leaves, and fields of flowers. My family rarely traveled. Visiting relatives in California or friends in New Mexico is all I remember from childhood. But a few trips with my family to the north gave me a taste of pine covered mountains and an occasional body of water.

Most people think of Arizona the way I used to...and I lived there. But the dry, featureless environment with a cactus here was my opinion, too.

It wasn’t until I’d lived in several other states and countries that I discovered the part of Arizona I now call home. I love the rugged mountains, evergreens far north, and the yellow prairies of central Arizona. Snow comes to this area and so do autumn leaves.

With the San Francisco Peaks of Flagstaff and the golden prairie of Chino Valley, I found a home for my Love and Murder Series. And until

you’ve experienced an Arizona sunset, you just haven’t seen one!

Have you ever left a place only to go back and find you love it there after all?
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Reasons I Like A Rural Setting

By Maureen Bonatch 

I live in a rural part of Pennsylvania and set most of my stories in and around this area. My love of the versatility of Pennsylvania must be shared, because there are a large number of movies filmed in the state and in my nearby city of Pittsburgh. It’s true that I chose this setting because it’s what I know, but it’s much more than that. It's what I love.

It’s a Setting That I Love

A nice place to rest on the trail and enjoy
the beauty of nature—or craft stories of magic and mystery

It’s not just the beauty of the four seasons, and the way people get to know each other in a small town—those certainly add to my stories—my favorite thing about this setting is the lush wooded areas filled with beautiful trees.

Even with what I refer to as my ‘black thumb’ when it comes to gardening, I can appreciate the glorious transformation occurring with each season.

When I’ve traveled to busy cities, other warmer states and out of the country, the first thing I notice is the absence of trees.

Trees Hold a Bit of Mystery

Perhaps the way the dense foliage seems to harbor ancient secrets, or they way in which they whisper in the wind intrigues me. But I've always found a gorgeous forest a little magical. As a child I loved to play in the woods behind our house. I would craft my first stories while dreaming I might uncover a fossil in their tangled roots.

As an adult I continue to escape my worries from the everyday world  in the woods. The area I live in has countless beautiful walking and biking trails to explore. One my favorites is the Ghost Town Trail. Utilizing many of the old railroad trails,

At the start of the Ghost Town Trail

Pennsylvania has converted over 93 railway lines to walking and bicycling paths (rail-trails) covering 1063 miles and continues to add more. Traveling on these trails is like walking into the past. The remains of old structures hold the promise of many untold stories.

The Wooded Trails Really Inspire My Muse

The eerie woods play a huge role in the setting of my first book of The Enchantlings Series, Destiny Calling, because something so

A gorgeous, yet cautionary view, from the West Penn Trail

beautiful, and so desolate, can craft a multitude of stories. When we rode our bicycles to approach the church rising from the woods in a nearby small town, I knew it would be featured in my story, Grandma Must Die.



While venturing down a path, I looked through the eyes of my heroine from Forget Me Not when she returned to her home state of Pennsylvania from New York City. What would she see? If she's like me, the first thing she'd notice is the beautiful scenery nature has created.



Looking to escape the hustle and bustle? Why not take a walk into the woods in Destiny Calling.

Have you ever pondered the mysteries concealed in the woods?

A Novel Approach To Settings

By Kathryn Knight

Welcome to Moonlight and Mystery!  For the next twelve weeks, we'll host an award-winning author who will share magical moments that inspire their novel settings. Be sure to stop by and read about some of the fascinating places!  


Cape Cod National Seashore
Sometimes a setting can serve as a character in and of itself, whether it’s a cozy small town, a bustling city, a seaside harbor, an exotic foreign country, a mysterious bayou, a Gothic castle…the possibilities are endless, but the author usually has a good reason to choose a setting, and we’re going to explore some of those reasons—without spoilers, of course—and we’d love to hear from you in the comments section!
Two of my novels—and my nearly complete 5^th manuscript—are set on Cape Cod, which is where I’ve lived for the past 20 years.  Authors often “write what we know”, and I’ll admit, it is easier to write about somewhere you’re intimately familiar with.  But Cape Cod also makes an interesting setting for many reasons: it’s basically an island, connected only to the rest of the U.S. by two bridges.  That isolates us a bit, and it can make getting on or off very difficult, especially in the summer, when the population swells with vacationers and summer residents coming to enjoy all our fabulous beaches, over 1,000 lakes and ponds, abundant woods, quaint towns, and historic sites.
Cover resembles Cobb's Hill Cemetery
I set Haunted Souls, a steamy second-chance romance/ghost mystery, in Barnstable Village, which is steeped in much of that history.  The initial inspiration for this book came for a ghost tour I went on with my sister.  It started and ended at what’s known here as the Old Jail, and it’s truly a historic gem.  It’s the oldest wooden jail house in the entire country, actually, and is thought to have been built in 1690, on orders from the Plymouth and MA Bay Colony Courts.  It was in use until the 1800s, and was moved around a bit, eventually attached to a barn.  It was rediscovered in 1968, detached from the barn, and moved next to the Coast Guard museum on 6A.
The structure itself is quite small, containing three cells which held large numbers of people sometimes.  According to our guide, conditions were rough and people had to take turns lying down to sleep when cells were crowded.  As you can imagine, many people died, and the site is considered actively haunted.
Goody Hallett, the lover of the infamous pirate Samuel Bellamy, was imprisoned there in 1716, and is said to be one of the ghosts in residence.  If you’re so inclined, you can even pay to spend the night at the Jail.  On our tour, we were shown photographs with shadowy figures taken by volunteers who work in the jail house.  A few of the volunteers shared their stories as well, and one claimed that a ghost had followed them home and engaged in some poltergeist-like activities.  Well, that got my attention right way, and my imagination started churning.  My sister had her little daughter with her, and I started to wonder what would happen if a young child with sensitive abilities took pity on a lost soul, and actually invited a ghost to come home with them.  The initial idea was born.

The Old Jail, circa 1690. I took this photo when the building was empty and locked up, but it looks like something is in the upstairs window!
As I developed the story, a number of other spots on Cape Cod made appearances: The enormous military base we have here (referred to still as “Otis” by many) came into play as the reason my military hero returned to his hometown.  Snake Pond, the Popponesset Bay and Peninsula (“The Spit”), The 180 acre Old Jail Lane conservation area, and some ancient graveyards, to name a few.  To complete part of the plot, I had to research the Cape’s past as well, which was fascinating, and I share some of that in the novel.

Snake Pond, near the Air Force Base
What about you?  Do you have a favorite setting in terms of books you like to read?  Have you ever visited the Cape, or would you like to in the future?  Chime in!
And to take a virtual visit Cape Cod in a steamy romance/spooky suspense, check out Haunted Souls or Gull Harbor!