By: Don Prues Publisher: Writers Digest Books Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Writers Digest Books Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 448 Publication Date: December 25, 2002
Product Description: Writers who want to craft richly detailed settings for their characters can either spend lots of time and money researching dozens of travel guides, or they can get all the facts they need right here. Writer’s Guide to Places provides information on all 50 states and more than 80 cities in North America, encompassing all the details writers need to develop convincing characters and realistic settings, including:
• Basic ethnic, religious and economic issues that shape their character • Regional history and facts their character might know • Their character’s favorite food and drink • Things their character may be proud or ashamed of concerning his or her birthplace • Interesting places to set a scene • Myths about the state • Resources for further research
Within each detailed state characterization, readers will find dozens of cities profiled for easy referencing—from major cities to smaller towns of interest, including New Orleans, Birmingham, Honolulu and Chicago.
Before It gets any lower I had thought this book would be helpful however, in starting off the read, when I got to Arizona I discovered listed at the top of "What Arizonans are ashamed of" our beloved Sheriff Joe! Conceding that the book may have been written by someone that does not live in AZ and therefore may not understand that Sheriff Joe is an elected official and not necessarily a police officer and may not understand that his job is not to hunt down criminals but to raise money and law enforcement awareness and therefore may not understand that Sheriff Joe has been re-elected many times in the most populace -- and most liberal -- city in Arizona, I did not argue the point. (For those who have read this book and do not know, Sheriff Joe Arpiao is beloved even by the criminal element as they know if Paris Hilton were arrested for DUI in Maricopa County, she would spend her 10 days in jail at Tent City along with Joe Blow and Maria Garcia and Alice Cooper.) Having decided to forgive the attack on Sheriff Joe, I moved on and eventually reached Colorado, when the author's and the editor's integrity hit the wall -- the map highlighted Colorado as being where Wyoming is!!!!! I do not recommend this book as a reference guide.
Ugh! What a complete waste of time. If you just have to see what this volume has to offer, save your hard earned money and get it from the library.
As other reviewers have noted, it only has info on the 50 states and a few Canadian provinces. Not only that, but after reviewing cities listed that I have lived in or spent much time in, there was incorrect and misleading info. I wouldn't dare trust this as reference.
Do yourself a favor and just get a guidebook to the location and check out the local websites as well.
Don't waste your time or money Writer's Guide to Places by Don Prues & Jack Heffron
I bought this book for obvious reasons suggested by the title. I should have read the previous buyers' reviews first!
The first thing I did when I received it was to compare the cities covered with places I've lived. For Honolulu and Oahu, for instance, no mention is made of the palaces, the Bishop Museum, the Pali, Diamond Head Park, the North Shore, Haleiwa, Sunset Beach, Sandy Beach, the Blow Hole, Mokuleiea, Valley of the Temples, Fort Shafter, Tripler Medical Center and maybe another hundred places that are all part of the very fabric of the place, even part of the air one breathes on Oahu.
I could go on for pages, but I won't. I did, however, check the other areas where I've previously lived and the same applies as the Honolulu comparison. Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Washington DC and Milwaukee are just as pathetic and outdated in their coverage.
Don't waste your money! Lou Novacheck
Bad book Don't bother. It's not a great resource at all. You'd be much better off deciding on which city you'd like to set your novel in, then pick up a dedicated travel guide for that location. You will never have the need, nor desire, to use 99% of the filler in this book.
Seemed like a good idea at the time What a good idea;a guide that lists both the chamber of commerce facts (like "the city was founded in...") and great local information (where to hang out, what the neighborhoods are like). What a shame the author has clearly never been to some of these places and that much of the information is wildly inaccurate. The Jacksonville [Florida] section for example lists Orange Park as a family oriented suburb, yet makes no mention at all of one of the main drivers of the local economy, Dog Racing at the big track on Kingsley. That's like describing Elmont, NY and not mentioning that little Triple Crown/Belmont Stakes thing. And imagine my horror on reading the Los Angeles [California] section, which tells me that my cute San Pedro home is like a third-world country! That will be news to the Mayor of LA, who also lives here, and to the literally dozens of movie and TV shoots that happen in San Pedro every year. I shudder to think of the thousands of copies of this "guide" out there being used as reference, with people assuming that the information is correct, just because it's in a book. It just goes to show you, there's no substitute for real research.
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