I'm a bad reader. When an author uses real places that I'm familiar with, any inconsistencies just pull me out of the story. Started reading @scalzi.com's "Starter Villain" last night. I'm all of 40ish pages in and I'm just completely hung up on the fact that there is no outlet mall in Kildeer. - ThreadSky

heltzer.us • 597 days ago

I'm a bad reader. When an author uses real places that I'm familiar with, any inconsistencies just pull me out of the story. Started reading @scalzi.com's "Starter Villain" last night. I'm all of 40ish pages in and I'm just completely hung up on the fact that there is no outlet mall in Kildeer.

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warrenterra.bsky.social•597 days ago

I am reminded of Richard Osman talking in interviews about the sheer number of complaints he got regarding scenes he set in a (nonexistent) Waitrose store in Tumbridge Wells.

scalzi.com•597 days ago

https://www.pinetree.com/portfolio/the-shops-at-kildeer/

Close to Deer Park Town Center!

heltzer.us•597 days ago

That was the one I was picturing in my mind since there is Nike Outlet there... but yeah... it's definitely a problem in my head for sure. :)

samcrut.bsky.social•597 days ago

Somebody brought receipts!

nerdista.bsky.social•597 days ago

I have learned a lot about things in Seattle and the surrounding areas by reading books set here and written by authors who are not from here, lol! Local folks don't always know all the cool things.

dunhamrc.bsky.social•597 days ago

wait there’s a John Scalzi novel set near my office?

amfisher.bsky.social•597 days ago

Man, try living in DC and watching movies with skyscrapers or views that look down on the White House and Washington Monument. Books can be just as bad (tho' I'm guilty of mixing up the Bay and Golden Gate bridges in a novella, which a reader dinged me on).

heltzer.us•597 days ago

Yeah. I can't watch anything set in NYC for much the same reason. I actively yelled at the screen watching Die Hard 3 with how quickly they got around town.

blackramazoo.bsky.social•597 days ago

It’s the abundant NY alleys that trigger my son-in-law

mightybattlecat.bsky.social•597 days ago

Bones once had Bones and Booth go to a location that was a couple blocks from my house and it was some vacant lot in an area where there should have been park, shops, library, movie theatre, and townhouses/apartments. I don't think I've seen a single episode since.

rookling.bsky.social•597 days ago

How Shyamalan made my historic, gorgeous, art-filled hometown look like the absolute sticks in one of his movies thoroughly put me off him

bardiclady.bsky.social•597 days ago

CSI Miami shooting Long Beach, CA for Miami was a huuuuuuge problem for me. "Wow, it's weird that the Aquarium of the Pacific parking garage is in Miami now..."

katya2032.bsky.social•597 days ago

Umbrella Academy repeatedly mentioned an intersection in Dallas of Knox and Commerce. They are roughly 3 miles apart, parallel and with an interstate between them.

maliceunchained.bsky.social•597 days ago

A minor problem, all things considered. More problematic is an author trying to convince readers like me that Canterbury is a city on the coast of England.

My friend, it is in Kent, several miles inland from anything even resembling a coast.

holzman-tweed.bsky.social•596 days ago

I will never be over novels set in Chicago that set apartment buildings east of Lake Shore Drive, in the neighborhood colloquially called Lake Michigan.

pdhaggerty.com•597 days ago

I set my latest book in my childhood hometown. Specifically, so I could make sure the details were right. Somehow I managed to forget that I've been gone for 35 years. I figured stores and houses would have changed, so I kept those parts somewhat vague. I didn't expect entire forests to be gone.

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