If viewing from your inbox and the message is truncated, please view the complete newsletter here.
As we approach the release of Merged, book two in the Forged Series, I want to point out some posts to those of you newer to my newsletter.
As a reader, do you visualize the stories you read like a movie in your mind? I do! When I can easily visualize the scene, the immersive experience is more satisfying. If the location is one that I know (either in specifics or described in such a way that I have a real-life location that is comparable), all the better.
I wrote the Forged Series with this in mind. I used both specific locations that were important to me growing up and focused on descriptions of places (and people) to help a reader bring to mind a comparable place (or person). At least, I attempted to do this—I guess you will have to decide if I succeeded or not!
Sorry if you are now singing the theme song to this kids’ show! I have a difficult time asking the question “Where in the world?” without adding “Carmen Santiago.” In this case, it should be “Where in the world is Tessa Wright?”
Though I didn’t move to Idaho until I was ten, I consider the Pacific Northwest my home. I have now lived more of my life in Oregon than either Idaho or Wisconsin. Since Boise was where I spent my formative pre-teen and teen years, it seemed the logical location for my main character to experience during that stage in her life.
The now-current Boise Bench, renamed Bannock for the series, is the urban center to which Tessa travels to live with her Aunt Clari and Uncle Finn Roberts. In fact, I placed the Roberts’ home at the base of the canal wall, the same as my teenage home.
Read more about the house location:
When Tessa waits at the foot of the stairs on her first day of public school, she stands transfixed by the imposing three-section main building of Bannock High School, feeling similar trepidation to what I felt on my first day of high school.
I knew that the school needed to feel real, and I wanted the movement of the students through the halls to make sense, so I based the building on my years at Boise High School. I even drew a map to keep Tessa’s class locations straight in my mind.
Read more about the high school:
This post is public, so feel free to share it. (Someone in your community might be interested too!)
Though the world in the Forged Series is vastly different from today’s world, I wanted it recognizable. I spent a significant amount of time researching and determining how I wanted the future of the Treasure Valley, Idaho, to manifest. The setting needed to feel plausible, which, according to at least one teen reviewer, I succeeded in doing!
I turned to mapping the Boise area to figure out where another dam might be built, what might be flooded by the lower reservoir, and how the population would live and move around the urban center.
Read more about the urban planning of Bannock:
In Shattered, she picnics at the Old Boise Train Depot Park with Clari. She also spends a day on Kairos Island, an imaginary island on the Lucky Peak Reservoir. And though the teens don’t make it back to the island beyond the pages of Shattered, it is deeply based on my summers as a teen.
To see proof of my prowess on water skis, check out this post:
Other than the Transfer Hub, which Tessa will finally visit in Merged and Forged, and the Reservoir she spends that day at in Shattered, she discovers another favorite teen hangout: the Sports Complex.
Loosely based on the Simplot Sport Complex and Joe Dancer Park, where I spent countless hours watching my boys, the Sports Complex in the Forged Series also has memories of a park I frequented in my teens. The photo below was taken during my junior year in high school. Anyone recognize it?
We are the sum of all of our experiences. So part of Tessa Wright’s personality originates in the Wilds of the United Pacific Territories. Like my time living in Wisconsin, her time in the Cascade Zone was marked by lush green and thick forests, so different from what she finds in the urban center.
If you are curious about the Wright family home location, check out this location profile:
Add Merged to your “Want to Read” status on Goodreads, Fable, and Storygraph.
If you are an Amazon customer, follow me, watch for Merged to be listed (soon).
Interact with my social media posts on Instagram and Facebook. Follow, like, comment, share to stories, and save my posts—each interaction tells the algorithm to show the book to more people!
Give Shattered a review any place you look for books—and yes, you can post the same review in each place! Here are a few review sites: Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, Goodreads, Fable, Storygraph.
Subscribe to the Indie Book Fair newsletter, an old-school Scholastic Book Fair-inspired way to find indie books. The July issue featured Shattered. The August issue features fellow YA dystopian author Mae Harcourt’s Nothing Out There. And, fingers crossed, you might find Merged in the September issue…
Friday, September 4, 2026, and Sunday, September 6, 2026, 10am to 8pm, Oregon State Fair - I will have a booth in the Columbia Hall (between the quilts and cakes) at the Oregon State Fair in Salem, Oregon. I will have copies of Merged with me to sell along with Shattered and some free swag! Cost: admission to the state fair. For more info and a complete list of authors in attendance by day, visit here.
ARC Opportunity! - Want to help hype up the release of Merged? Or maybe you are willing to post a review to give social proof for other readers to find and take a chance on an indie author? I’m sending out free digital Advance Reader Copies of Merged! I’ve kept the forms open so you can still join! For the full experience as a Street Team Member (with behind-the-scenes, first looks, and interactions with other Street Team members and me), join here. To be a Review Team Member who leaves a review anywhere you look for books, join here.
Did you enjoy this post? Click subscribe so you don’t miss future posts. Tap the heart to let me know. Restack your favorite quote. Share with your community. Recommend me to your followers. Leave a comment.
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.