Places you've made up

[lovecraft68]

Some more involved stories are a lot more than sex. They have plot, characterization, locations and everything the real world has.

But these stories are our worlds and we make up places in these worlds. Now, I'm not talking about world building like sci-fi or non human, but the one we live in.

Name some places, celebrities, music groups, books etc you've created to feature in your stories.

 

[lovecraft68]

It seems I have a thing for fetish clubs. Over the years I've created:

The Devil's Playground located in Boston and featured in Demons Driven

The Velvet Rope. New York City Owned by Mercedes featured in Mercedes Bends and my Circle series.

The Black Flame Chicago owned by Abigail Lefay featured in the Abigail series and an occult hot spot in addition to the BDSM aspects.

 

[litfan10]

I have two creations I enjoy playing around in with my characters:

Paradise Books - a combination bookstore, cafe and adult toy store owned by Diana Hollister-Hughes and her wife, Gwendolyn Hollister-Hughes, along with their daughter-in-law, Cindy Hughes. They bought the vacant location that was formerly a Borders Bookstore in Western Pennsylvania. This is in my series The New Deal.

Forbes Erotic Arts Gallery - a community arts gallery recently converted to displays of a much more erotic nature run by Holly Mason - in my Holly series. This is currently down but I plan on bringing it back. I owe both annanova and petertowers as my intention is to have visiting displays featuring artists and works from other writers' stories (such as annanova and petertowers) as a way to get my readers to check them out. Anna was gracious enough to have Holly in one of her stories setting up the display over the phone- I massively owe her in my story.

 

[CyranoJ]

A couple stand out for me.

A bar called Famous Ferd's turns up in one story whose layout, atmosphere and "Rub-a-Dub Night" are all directly based on one of the punk/skinhead/rockabilly meccas I grew up with, and the kind of speciality night where I learned about old-school reggae (Ferd's is rendered as a specifically skinhead mecca for dramatic simplicity as that particular subculture is the focus of the story). A Korean restaurant and bikini bar in the same story is directly based on similar establishments in L.A. and elsewhere.

Lo's Authentic Szechuan Cuisine -- a drug-dealing front in another story that serves happy chemicals with dessert -- is an idea I shamelessly cribbed from a similar outfit in Infinite Jest. I don't know that it's realistic, strictly-speaking, but I also kind of don't care. It was the right kind of surreal for that moment in the story. (Its roach-infested, don't-eat-the-food-there nature is derived from another "authentic" Chinese restaurant I used to frequent IRL, which turned out to be a gang hangout and was shut down for health code violations -- specifically roaches.)

A place simply referred to as "The House" also turns up in the same story, based on a combination of actual porn-shoot houses and the surreal false-normalcy of the antagonist's house in the movie Brick.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

For my Warrior series I made this place up...

Sacra Mensa shipyards on Mars.

Oops...sorry. That's better.

 

[oggbashan]

Apart from Sci-Fi world building, and I've done several of those, my first creation (for The Bridesmaids' Revenge) was the town of Silverbridge for my stories about the Ladies football team The Silver Vixens. The town of Silverbridge and the town of the Vixens' rival team Hogstock are based on Thomas Hardy's Wessex. Silverbridge and Hogglestock were his names for real Wessex towns. An editor of Hardy's works provided a useful map in a preface showing the correlation between many of Hardy's place names and real locations.

I have visited and walked around the real "Silverbridge" but I have made it about twice the size of the real town.

My Harold in India stories - Harold Plays The Hero; and the 3 parts of Harold Saves Her Husband - are very loosely based on a principality in mid 19th Century India before the Indian uprising. The East India Company and its armed forces were based in that principality but it was ruled by Indians. It is an India of my imagination, not a real India that ever existed.

Recently I set a story (King of the Castle) in "Ruritania" which is Anthony Hope's creation for his stories starting with the Prisoner of Zenda. I needed a fictional former communist East European state and a 20th/21st Century "Ruritania" would fit.

Other stories:

Durante the Dog - an estuary village in Essex or Kent, but mainly Richborough WW1 Secret Port close to Sandwich, Kent.
Christmas Truce - a village in Essex beside a tidal river.
Danger! Naked Woman - real places on Romney Marsh and nearby.
Dead Voices - a dangerous road junction I know well.
Dinner with Friends - part of rural Surrey and Kent.
Excise Duties - Appledore, Kent and Rye Harbour, Sussex.
Great Rite - Roman Saxon Shore fort, probably Reculver.
Hitchhiker - A2 just outside Dover, Kent.
Hostel Ghosts (and jeanne-d_artois' Pond Clearing) - Twyssenden Manor near Goudhurst, Kent.
Jeanie the Genie - sea wall between Reculver and Minnis Bay, NE Kent. The Public House is the King Ethelbert at Reculver.

I could go on and on but I think that's enough. None of the places in the story are exactly like the real locations. They have been adapted for the story.

 

[ChloeTzang]

The Emerald Garden Restaurant in "Hayley's Party" is based on a Chinese restaurant we eat in all the time. I changed the name a bit.

Kitty Katz strip bar in Chinese Takeout is turning into a location I'm using again as I move along with that story line. I modelled it on a few different bars I've hung out in plus a strip club I persuaded my partner to take me to so I could get an idea of what ones like.

Il Casino restaurant and bar in "Happy Birthday to Me" - the story is set in Singapore but the restaurant is based on one I went to there years ago with my Mom and Dad.

Next up - a Trailer Park

 

[lovecraft68]

Bloch, Howard and Ashton. A Chicago law firm that's a shout out to three members of the original Lovecraft circle

The Blessed Damned A heavy metal band with actual occult ties that has appeared as entertainment at the Black Flame as well as a private party in my Broken series.

A couple of recurring characters who I mention in many stories as a sort of "LC68 mythos"

Molly Minx a 90's porn star who retired young to settle down then after her husband passed away, went back to the industry and is now the hottest 'mom' in porn. Featured in her own story here and mentioned in passing in several stories featuring boys who watch a lot of mom/son porn.

Malcolm Stone. A porn producer who is obsessed with mother son porn because he wanted his mom, who found out, agreed to be with him next time his father traveled to let him 'get over it' then died tragically before that happened. He's in Molly Minx and Mom will do anything.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

I've either used real places or left the fictional nameless. I like the idea of naming such places within which our imaginations dwell; definitely a must-do for my future stories. Thanks, Lovecraft.

 

[49greg]

I have had several stories, both posted and not completed, in the fictional town of Woodston, Iowa. It's in the Northern part of the state, where the fictional "Lime Creek Industries" makes grain, travel, and utility Trailers. The town is near the larger town of "Riverton". Near Woodston is the totally fictional Arrowhead lake, featured in two posted stories.

In another story I used "Gore and company" or maybe it was "Gore and Son", can't remember. It was a company that provided very adult company parties for their employees, and a good place to work. The same story also included "Madam Kent's Boutique Exotique", and "Hollies Costumes and Party Supplies".

The towns are based on real places, just with related, but different names. The Gore company as well as the two costumes shops are named after some people I knew in School. Lime creek industries is based on a company that really exists, but under a different name and making a different product.

While Arrowhead lake is completely fictional,the terrain of a couple of coves and beaches on the lake are based on real places on a small recreational lake near where I now live.

 

[49greg]

Apart from Sci-Fi world building, and I've done several of those, my first creation (for The Bridesmaids' Revenge) was the town of Silverbridge for my stories about the Ladies football team The Silver Vixens. The town of Silverbridge and the town of the Vixens' rival team Hogstock are based on Thomas Hardy's Wessex. Silverbridge and Hogglestock were his names for real Wessex towns. An editor of Hardy's works provided a useful map in a preface showing the correlation between many of Hardy's place names and real locations.

I have visited and walked around the real "Silverbridge" but I have made it about twice the size of the real town.

My Harold in India stories - Harold Plays The Hero; and the 3 parts of Harold Saves Her Husband - are very loosely based on a principality in mid 19th Century India before the Indian uprising. The East India Company and its armed forces were based in that principality but it was ruled by Indians. It is an India of my imagination, not a real India that ever existed.

Recently I set a story (King of the Castle) in "Ruritania" which is Anthony Hope's creation for his stories starting with the Prisoner of Zenda. I needed a fictional former communist East European state and a 20th/21st Century "Ruritania" would fit.

Other stories:

Durante the Dog - an estuary village in Essex or Kent, but mainly Richborough WW1 Secret Port close to Sandwich, Kent.
Christmas Truce - a village in Essex beside a tidal river.
Danger! Naked Woman - real places on Romney Marsh and nearby.
Dead Voices - a dangerous road junction I know well.
Dinner with Friends - part of rural Surrey and Kent.
Excise Duties - Appledore, Kent and Rye Harbour, Sussex.
Great Rite - Roman Saxon Shore fort, probably Reculver.
Hitchhiker - A2 just outside Dover, Kent.
Hostel Ghosts (and jeanne-d_artois' Pond Clearing) - Twyssenden Manor near Goudhurst, Kent.
Jeanie the Genie - sea wall between Reculver and Minnis Bay, NE Kent. The Public House is the King Ethelbert at Reculver.

I could go on and on but I think that's enough. None of the places in the story are exactly like the real locations. They have been adapted for the story.

I love the map, I only heard of Barchester from Anthony Trollope's stories? I didn't know if Barchester is a real place or fictional. It gives me the idea of mapping the towns and countryside for my stories that take place in my fictional places. After all, forty six years ago I took a class in cartography.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Vesey College: a female counterpart to Arkham, based on the Seven Sisters colleges.

I think I named it by mashing "Vassar" and "Wellesley" together, and then discovered that Elizabeth Vesey was a historical bluestocking so it works better than I'd intended as a name for a ladies' college. It's nice when stuff like that falls together.

The Redmond Barry Building: I wanted something that was fictional but identifiably Melbourne. Redmond Barry was a prominent judge, best known as the man who sentenced Ned Kelly to hang but died before Kelly did. To my surprise he doesn't have much named after him so the name was useful for my purposes.

The City of the Jinn: Arabian Nights fantasy location, a magical city hidden in a vast desert. I don't normally do a lot of visual description, so this one was a change in style for me.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I just describes places I know, but don't name them. Folk who know oz cities well could probably spot most from internal clues and little details, although I do tend to blur my geography some. Gee, didn't know that river was there, it wasn't yesterday. Otherwise, it's a quick look at Google earth to get a sense of the land, if I don't already know the geography and place.

 

[RetroFan]

I made up a fictional New York town called 'Pine Tree Park' located on Long Island's South Shore for my lesbian story 'The PTA Queen Bee & The Teen Rebel'.

On the surface it looks like quite a nice, ordinary and desirable place to live, but scratch the surface and it is full of weird men doing weird things and bad girls doing bad things.

 

[NotWise]

The only actually existing settings in any of my stories are in "A Valentine's Day Mess" and it's subsequent parts, and in "Sex and Dinosaurs."

All other locations are my creation.

 

[sr71plt]

I've made up a couple of nightclubs and male brothels and gay-friendly hotels that readers have asked me if they are real and where they can find them. I've also (more often than not in contemporary stories) used real places, so sometimes I can give them real directions.

The most amusing made-up use of location, though, was in the mainstream. I wrote English-language beach-read espionage novels set in a country I worked in (and also wrote the entertainment columns for the English-language newspaper). One of the places I used as an ancient mill in a mountain village that was set into a hillside and was some six stories tall. A tourist restaurant was on the top floor (with an elevator to it)--and I included plugs for the restaurant in my newspaper column. A gift shop was on the ground floor. The intervening floors had been for grain storage and were not finished, but the restaurant owner told me he was contemplating putting in a boutique hotel. So, when I used the building in my novels, which were sold in coastal beach resorts in the country, I included the boutique hotel. Before I left the country, the restaurant owner was getting calls from people wanting to book in the hotel he hadn't put in yet.

On a larger level in my GM erotica writing on this thread topic, I've created a whole world that my stories operate in in which gay activity is open and pretty much the accepted world of the story. In doing that, I don't have to devote background into creating a world in which my characters are free to play.

 

[SamScribble]

I have 'created' a restaurant and used it in several stories. One reader told me that he was pretty sure that he had eaten there on a trip to London. He thought that the food had been pretty good.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

My tale, ANIMAL CRACKERS, recreates Florida circa 1880 or so. Especially its prison camps where tourists, tramps, orphans, and lotsa innocents went tp taoil until they died. The settings and scenes are thje real deal. Took 5 years to write, to get it all authentic.

A few of my anvestors were writers who captured the 19th Century as it was. I have their books with all the details. No imagination required.

 

[R. Richard]

In my Smashwords novel, The Beach Murders, I create an imaginary business, Business Services. The business is imaginary, but the action inside is realistic and works for the Pacific Beach area of San Diego. If the business is not realistic, the story doesn't work.

 

[lovecraft68]

I've created a whole world that my stories operate in in which gay activity is open and pretty much the accepted world of the story. In doing that, I don't have to devote background into creating a world in which my characters are free to play.

We were making progress towards that until the current election.

 

[AwkwardMD]

Most of my real-world stories just use real towns, and the rest of my stories are in fantasy worlds where every place is made up.

However, in the spirit of the OP question, one of my stories features an erotic author with two published works;


The Double Slit Experiment (first time lesbian alchemists)
and
Norrington Steele and the Horny Horde (self-explanatory)

 

[sr71plt]

I've sometimes had a character reading a book written by one of my pen names. I've also doubled back and had a character finding and reading a book written about him by another character based on the two having a relationship depicted in an earlier story.

 

[lovecraft68]

I've sometimes had a character reading a book written by one of my pen names. I've also doubled back and had a character finding and reading a book written about him by another character based on the two having a relationship depicted in an earlier story.

These days they call those Easter Eggs. They're especially big in all the Super hero movies.

 

[oggbashan]

These days they call those Easter Eggs. They're especially big in all the Super hero movies.

Mozart had one in his opera Don Giovanni. The band at Don Giovanni's party plays extracts from other Mozart operas and from some of his contemporaries.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Mozart had one in his opera Don Giovanni. The band at Don Giovanni's party plays extracts from other Mozart operas and from some of his contemporaries.

There's a German metal band whose singer styles himself "Mozart". One of their lyrics is "Teutonen dieser Welt, ihr könnt am Arsch mich lecken" - which gave me a chuckle when I realised it was a reference to Wolfgang Amadeus' K. 231.

I think the king of self-reference is The Reverend Lionel Fanthorpe, aka Victor La Salle, John E. Muller, Karl Zeigfreid, Neil Balfort, Othello Baron, Noel Bertram, Oben Leterth, Elton T. Neef, Peter O'Flinn, René Rolant, Robin Tate, Deutero Spartacus, Erle Barton, Lee Barton, Thornton Bell, Leo Brett, Bron Fane, L.P. Kenton, Phil Nobel, Lionel Roberts, Neil Thanet, Trebor Thorpe, Pel Torro, and Olaf Trent. At one stage he was churning out thirty books a year under those different pen-names, and he used those identities to cross-promote one another shamelessly.