THE JAMES MASON COMMUNITY BOOK CLUB discussion

I don't think there is an issue with it unless it is mentioned in a negative context -- many novels are set in real settings with real places. Look at how many novels set in New York City mention Rockefeller Center and the Empire State Building and Tavern-on-the-Green.

My first novel, The Old Mermaid's Tale is set in a fictional town on the Great Lakes but I mention lots of real businesses in the vicinity. That gives authenticity to the tale. Unless you are using the places in a negative context I see no problem.

My mysteries are set in Santa Cruz, California. I use real places, have my characters go to real restaurants, drink wine from local wineries, etc. The mysteries are centered around a Realtor named Regan McHenry. The houses I use are real, too, but I make up street names for them like Royal Street instead of King Street or set them in a recognizable location but on a street that doesn't exist.

One new home owner bought a book with the climactic scene, although not a murder, set in her house. She called about a week later and asked if it was her house in the book. When I admitted it was, she bought several copies for friends and family.

I've just finished my latest children's book and it's set in The Opera House. I hope I'm allowed to do that too, though I know i couldn't use their image on the cover as it's apparently illegal as it's a sculpture and copyrighted.

My characters go to a singing festival and cause mayhem in the Opera House. I hope that's allowed. It's a frictional story, so I don't see why not.

Yeah, Patricia, I'm struggling right now with my current novel in progress. I have three characters -- two dancers and one NFL football player. In the past the two dancers danced for Boston Ballet and American Ballet Theater and I doubt there will be a problem with that but I want to make my football player play for a real team (in the past) and am a little hesitant. I'd love to make him a former Pittsburgh Steeler but, for some reason, I'm uncertain...

I think it is important to include a disclaimer in the opening of the book that states it is a work of fiction and that businesses, locations, and organizations while real are used in a way that is purely fictional. Or something like that.

Good point, Kathleen. While my locations are real, I do put in a disclaimer.

The disclaimer is a good idea.

I use real places too and I've found the people who know and love the area want to read the book - can't hurt for sales huh? : )

I know as a reader, I'm attracted to books set in places I know well. Its fun to visualise yourself there.

Kathleen wrote: "Yeah, Patricia, I'm struggling right now with my current novel in progress. I have three characters -- two dancers and one NFL football player. In the past the two dancers danced for Boston Ballet ..."

Yes, I always put disclaimers in my books. If I can, I change the name of villages and towns. Most of my books are set in my area so I change the names of the towns and villages and the forest, but I couldn't with this story as it's set in Sydney, and The Opera House. It's a gross children's book for reluctant readers. I'm waiting on my proof copy and was hoping it will be available before Christmas. LOL.

I did contact The Opera House and asked if I could use my own Opera House picture, and they said to send it in for them to see. All that would take too long and they would probably have said no as I asked the question on Absolute Write Water Cooler and got heaps of information.

There are some very knowledgeable people over there. You can ask the publishers and I think a legal person answered in the end. So I gave the cover a miss and just used my own illustrations.

Artistic license offers a great deal of leniency where this is concerned. As a general rule of thumb, if you are using a quote, and if that quote is copyrighted, you must gain permission. However, per the Chicago Manual of Style, (via my paraphrased version) it would be unfortunate if we were all to ask permission whenever merely referencing a place, such as Disneyland. In so doing, we are ultimately limiting artistic license for ourselves and for future generations of authors.

If you're naming actual regions, countries or civilizations I wouldn't think so.

Unless your description/comments etc are derogatory, I believe a writer is okay naming specific places in a book. Especially in passing, or as navigational points when the landmarks are well known.

When getting more specific re: a local smaller business, it doesn't hurt to ask permission or let that business owner know in advance. And it might even help with book signings later on (if you're brave enough) and sales.

I used Bayona Restaurant (New Orleans) for one of my dinners in Hoodoo Money. I wrote the owner in advance, and she sent me a copy of her menu so my characters could actually choose a meal from it - which they did. When the book came out in print, I sent her a copy and a thank you. Never hurts.

Sharon Cupp Pennington

Again, I would refer to the Chicago Manual of Style for guidance on this and other such subjects.

Hi everyone. I'm new to this whole website but I am an author and am currently working on my first publication book, I'm only 13 but have an unhealthy writing-too-much habit! My book is about a spy and I came across this question whilst doing some research.
I have included a disclaimer stating that all my characters and events are purely fictional and all relation to real people is completely fictional unless in the public domain.
I think countries/places are obviously in the public domain but I have mixed the two.
I am setting the beginning of my book in the United Kingdom but I am adding a fictional village in the U.K.

Gosh, I have only just noticed this was over a year ago but I'll post this comment anyway!

Thanks!
Charlotte ~ Author

My book takes place in France, but the village was a fictional one.

My fiction takes place in real locations, but I put in a disclaimer at the beginning of each. For example, The Rock Star in the Mirror takes place in the real town of Rockaway Beach, Oregon; however, I state right up front that the hotel, diner, etc., are fictional.

It's already been said, but as long as you aren't trashing the place, you won't have any worries. I have a novel about robbing a very real hotel here where I live. The hotel was thrilled that I planned to "rob it" and gave me a tour of the entire place.

Charlotte wrote: "Hi everyone. I'm new to this whole website but I am an author and am currently working on my first publication book, I'm only 13 but have an unhealthy writing-too-much habit! My book is about a spy..."
If you've seen other posts on this thread you'll know it's okay to use fictional places in real settings. I just want to say how fantastic it is that you're writing novels already! Keep at it - it may be a while before you're ready for publication, but practice makes perfect in writing as every other activity. And it pleases you - that's the most important part. I started my first novel at 15, and I've been writing ever since. Keep it up!

I am a college student, will be 21 next month, and writing a YA novel set in San Francisco, CA (which is also an hour away from my house and the place I want to settle in eventually). I want to mention real landmarks - like Coit Tower, Sunset district (where my characters live), Union Square, Haigh-Ashbury, etc - and businesses - high schools the characters attend, cafes they visit - and street names as well.
Would this be okay?
I think it would be even better for readers if they can imagine themselves there and even visit those areas someday. As I said, I live very close to SF and travel there a few times a month, and I can make my descriptions very accurate. I think that adds to the great experience of reading a book, knowing you can relive some "memories" of characters literally by visiting the City.

For the girl writing a novel at 13, best of luck to you! I started writing at that age too, but now finally my novel is turning out.

Stella wrote: "I am a college student, will be 21 next month, and writing a YA novel set in San Francisco, CA

Stella - Yes, you can use the names of real places/locations in your book, as well as street names.

Hi. I'm Michelle, and I'm new here. My fiction blog is based on a fiction city called Kent. It's based loosely on my own city of Edmonton Alberta Canada. I will be renaming roads and relocating some businesses, but I am thinking of bringing in an interactive element of using real points of interest where people have been. For example, I will be renaming my own apartment building and moving it. Can I use an app to create these points of interest and send them back to the blog? What you've told me has helped. I'm going to use some real businesses and maybe write the owner. I hope I'm not being confusing. If you need to see the blog, let me know. It's really new, so there won't be much there. Thanks.

The posts on here are quite facinating!! most appreciated

These comments have helped me answer the same questions I've had now that I've finally decided to attempt writing my own book. I moved from the east coast of North Carolina a few years back and when I'm writing, trying to think of locations, my favorite and most fondest memories come from the places I'd love to use. Disclaimer is an excellent idea and I'll be sure to use that as well. I've been writing off and on since I was very young and now, at 27, I'm trying to put ink to paper and come up with something I can be proud of. So happy that I stumbled upon this discussion. Makes me more confident and excited about why I'm trying so hard to pursue.

Stefoni wrote: "These comments have helped me answer the same questions I've had now that I've finally decided to attempt writing my own book. I moved from the east coast of North Carolina a few years back and whe..."

Wonderful to hear Stefoni! Best wishes with your writing and please do share with us how you are doing with it!!

My mystery novels are all set in real Rocky Mountain locations (Colorado Springs, Breckenridge, Salida, Cataract Canyon) and I've never had a problem with using real locales. However, I do make up business names when I want something bad to happen in one, such as a murder or drug deal. The goal is to avoid libeling or slandering a real business. On the other hand, I've had a few restaurant/bar owners say, "Heck, yeah, I'd love for you to kill someone in my business. It's all good publicity." So, if you get the owner's okay and approval, go ahead.

Hello, everyone. My question is . . . I'm writing fiction set in 1935, with a fictional town set near NYC. I want to use real historical events in the novel. Is this acceptable?

I go one step further. If my characters are eating in a restaurant, I always say good things about it and even add a web address at the end of the book. I do point out that I have no financial interest in the joint. I've had one response so far, thanking me for adding the name in the story and the link on the last page.

Most of my stories are written with real locations that I personally enjoy. Sometimes I write them after visiting, often I do so much research when writing the story that I plan to visit the next time I'm on holiday. In my book "Stranded" (scheduled release date, May 2014 Secret Cravings Publishing) the story begins with the heroine wakes up in Las Vegas at the Paris hotel. The hotel and the surrounding area just wouldn't be the same with fictitious names. I hope that readers would be inspired to visit, although I wouldn't recommend they follow in this character's footsteps. ...but then again, to each their own, eh? Xoxo, Elle

Steve, it's fine to put real towns/places into a fiction story. However, where you need to tread carefully is anything that might damage a person's or company's reputation.

It's one thing to say your character went to a rally for Mayor _____. It's libel to say Mayor ______ embezzled money.

Companies are very protective of their brands. Coke might not protest your character drinking a coke. They might sue you if said something false and damaging about their brand.

Disclaimer is wise, but use some common sense too. If your portly mayor Joe Tow is an obvious parody of Mayor Jim Blonde then you might get yourself in trouble.

You might run into more trouble using the name of a private highschool than a public one, but how you depict the highschool is probably more important as to whether it crosses legal lines.

I'm working on a fictional story taking place at a real high school (Lindhurst) in a real town (Olivehurst). I know there isn't any issues regarding the town, but is there any issue I would have regarding the high school?
Note: there is no negative context about the school

Jesse wrote: "I'm working on a fictional story taking place at a real high school (Lindhurst) in a real town (Olivehurst). I know there isn't any issues regarding the town, but is there any issue I would have regarding the high school?"

As long as you're not claiming the school's administration is full of pederasts or that the gym teacher stages Satanist orgies in the locker room, you're probably okay.

The bigger challenge is that if this is a contemporary story and it's been years since you were last at Lindhurst High, people who know the place will trip over every anachronism and misplaced water fountain. This may or may not be a problem for you depending on how large Lindhurst looms in your story. If it's the main setting, you may find it's useful to create a fictional high school in the real town just so you don't have to keep up with what color the lockers are this year.

I agree with Lance: create a fictional high school. You can have fun with that.

Since when have the names of real places been conferred with copyright status?

You can use real places. However, you must be careful not to use real people. I would not worry abut the colour of the lockers, either. The only problem is that you do not write something that might lead others to believe one of the teachers is a criminal or scumbag, so be careful you do not describe someone in a way that misidentification is possible.

I agree with Ian although it could be less constraining to fabricate the location loosely based on the real place. Good luck!

I use real towns in my mysteries, but when the detective has to go to a specific place like a store or street or house I make them fictional.

For example: The victim lived in REd Bank, NJ on (ficticious street).

I think you have to be very careful about using a specific building or exact location for the crimes. You don't want to make derogatory comments about real places. Even if you don't think they are derogatory, others might.

Richard Brawer
www.silklegacy.com

I have used real places in my futuristic thriller novels. Of course, the advantage of their being in the future is that they will change as far as buildings go, but using real places make sit a lot easier to keep the geography self-consistent. Sometimes, something fictional has to be added to the geography, to permit the action to have a little more oomph.

You can put anyone, anywhere and anything in your book that can't (or won't) sue you back.

I use real Monmouth County, NJ towns in my mystery series, Murder at the Jersey Shore. When my character is on the move I use real streets and real town names. However, when it comes to finding the body I use fictional streets and fictional buildings. When it comes to naming a business I use a fictional business.

Remember, you can't defame someone or someone's business. that may get you sued.

Richard Brawer
www.silklegacy.com

I am new to this thread, and a have a question that's slightly off topic. I have not only used actual locations in the novel I am writing but I have also mentioned quite a handful of real celebrities, musicians, TV shows, etc. I put their names in italics, and I do plan to put a disclaimer in if and when I am able to publish this book, but I'm not sure that I'm allowed to even name these existing people without potentially facing a law suit... If anyone knows whether or not I'm safe with this please reply. Thank you.

You can use real place names without any problems. Just think of all the books set in Los Angeles or New York City or London.

Similarly, there's nothing actionable about having your characters eat in a real restaurant or get money out of a name-brand ATM or drive a real car. (The down-on-his-luck protag of my WIP works at Starbucks, because it's one of the few national chains that will hire ex-cons.) This is a good way to show both the nature of your settings, and the social and economic status and perhaps political leanings of your characters.

If, however, you have a real business or institution or the people associated with it doing things that are illegal, immoral or fattening, be prepared for blowback. Businesses in particular fight back if they're shown in a bad light. Your characters can eat at Burger King, but if one of them gets food poisoning and dies, you're going to get into hot water.

Naming celebrities, movies, other books or TV programs can be okay depending on what you do with it. If the person or thing is a cultural touchpoint to establish a time or place (having a character refer to a "new Led Zeppelin record" to show your story is set in the early '70s, for instance) is perfectly safe. There's no harm in having a character watching Mad Men or Duck Dynasty on TV, both to establish period and to say something about the characters. Ditto with the movies they watch, the actors they enjoy or hate, and the books they read. Many, many writers are very explicit about the real-life musicians their characters enjoy.

However, if you suddenly have a real-life celebrity showing up in your book as a cannibalistic serial killer, or a real TV show being a subliminal recruiting tool for the Trilateral Commission, or a real book being the source of an Ebola outbreak in Wisconsin, then you've gone way over the actionable line and you should be prepared for legal consequences.

Finally: lose the itals. It just looks silly.

Ahna, good writer---

You are right in seeking advice when a possible problem might arise, be it a publisher's abhorrence of 2 spaces after each sentence---an actual situation---or disgrace and bankruptcy due to a suit for unsuitable slurs of people or places.

I'm not a legal eagle, but the common conception is that if it isn't harmful, it isn't actionable. The catch here---hardly a catch 22---is "What is considered harmful?" Is it worse for someone to become ill in the hotel coffee shop or for a mob killing to take place in the hotel lobby? Or are both forbidden?

I had a scene in one of my books where a couple fell in love. The restaurant owner where this happened was delighted. If they had an argument there another time, would he be just as delighted.

If you want to be safe and save the legal fees of consulting an attorney---will he defend the case in court free if he's wrong?---you can change names, e.g. Clark Gable to Clark Cabal, Hilton Hotel to Hilltom Hotel, etc.

I wish you success in your writing.

BTW, LinkedIn has many groups who help with this sort of question. One of the best is Crime Fiction which has a few rare geniuses willing to help and a rowdy collection of writers intent on making the group a lot of fun. It's free, so check it out.

​I love you.

In God's love,

Larry Winebrenner, Novelist
The Case of the Locked Drawer [http://booklocker.com/books/6581.html]
The Case of the Locked Apartment [http://booklocker.com/books/6592.html]
To Steal an Election [http://booklocker.com/books/6517.html]
Timaeus the Tracker [http://booklocker.com/books/7153.html]
Bron Trek Master [http://booklocker.com/books/7154.html]

Ok, I have been working on a book for a little while and I realized a potential issue. The book involves real places such as entertainment areas, different baseball stadiums, different universities; using their real names.

While typically I wouldn't expect that to be an issue. What if I were introduce a bad situation within that venue, specifically a shootout within it or blowing the place up killing thousands and being very specific as to what happens within in it. No real names and characters within the parks are specifically stated out, but maybe a description is used, but they don't do anything wrong like someone in a mouse costume doesn't pull out a gun, but maybe he just runs away.

Is this going to cause me issues, would I have to duck and cover for this? Will I need to rewrite what I have written to make it pure fantasy? I am trying to keep it as close to reality as possible to literally scare the dickens out of you.

I really didn't think this was going to be an issue until I had someone read some of what I wrote and while they liked it they felt it could be a legal issue.

Any help with this would be appreciated,
Tim

Starting off, old boy [or girl as the case may be]---

The legal issue develops when a place of business feels the use of their name connected with the crime may affect the location negatively. For example, you may feel that just because someone gets knived in a particular hotel lobby, a possible occurrence, the hotel may be afraid that the image of that happening in that hotel may scare off potential registrations. You have to consider it from their perception. Changing a MS is no big deal with search and replace.

Hope this helps.

Larry Winebrenner

Dan Brown has had bad things happening in real places (including the Vatican) throughout his books, and no one's sued him yet. Nevada Barr's entire oeuvre concerns placing fictional mayhem in real national parks, and Margaret Truman killed people in virtually every public building in Washington D.C. At a somewhat smaller scale, I staged a firefight in Philadelphia's 30th Street Station, and another at Temple Emanu-El on NYC's Upper East Side. So yes, you can make fictional bad things happen in public spaces.

The tricky part comes when you use real-life private spaces this way. It's probably not a good idea, for instance, to have the staff of a hotel or restaurant be in on the murder or pedophile ring or whatever, or to have the bad act happen because of the staff's blunders. If this is your plan, you may want to create your own fictional business in which to stage your mayhem. (A added advantage is that you can set up the place any way you want to and not have to listen to people bitching about, "I work there and the stairway has eight steps, not six.")

On the other hand, it's probably okay to have the alien mother ship swoop down and vaporize NYC's 34th Street Macy's (we couldn't have end-of-the-world novels if it wasn't). So-called "acts of God" don't impugn the reputation of a business.

Ok, so having an organization blow up say Yankee Stadium could reflect bad on the stadium, so not such a good idea... But I could do it to maybe a monument like the the Statue of Liberty or someplace like that, right?

Thanks, now I know why you don't' see a lot of very visible locations being destroyed or involved in bad situations in books.

It really shuts down a lot of the research I had done into quite a few facilities, oh well lessons learned. And due to the circumstances I wouldn't expect them to look lightly on what I was writing, I assumed we had free reign.

By the way, when you see a bad reference in a book should you notify the writer. For instance I just finished a book that had people flying out of LGA to Germany, LGA is a domestic airport it should have been JFK.

What about for a memoir? Is it okay to use actual names of cities and other establishments within the cities?

Lisa wrote: "What about for a memoir? Is it okay to use actual names of cities and other establishments within the cities?"

Yes, it is okay, providing you don't write anything derogatory about the names of the establishments. It is also okay to use the names of real cities - but - not always wise, depending upon what type of memoir it is (such as a personal one, a tell-all one, etc.)

If there are real characters that you're writing about too (even if you change their name(s) to not use their real name(s)), have said people been consulted about this memoir and are they okay with what was written about themselves (again, even if their name was changed)?

If not, they may not like the writer of the memoir using the real names of cities where other people in their lives and the writer's life also live and who would still know who the writer is referring to.

Saying that, it is technically still "okay" to have the names of real cities in a memoir.

One of the characters is a murderer from a city and country which I am not a citizen, is it okay to use the city and country or do I have to get some sort of permission?

Real places; Gee, hope so:

https://lancegreenfield.wordpress.com...

I use real countries, cities, theatres, hotels, hospitals, and I've never had a problem.

I have a paragraph stating that all the action that takes place in those environs is fictional and no refection on the management or staff is intended.

(Not quite those words, but you get the idea?)