Earlier today, Karen took a few things to Allyson who was planning a surprise birthday party for one of her friends. When Karen returned she pronounced she was bored. I said, “Let’s go scout that location you need so you can finish that scene.” Many of the locations in My Prior Life we are already familiar with and Karen has scouted a previous scene in English, IN. So we took off without Google mapping anything and I said, “I think I know a great place for that scene because I’ve had a client in that neighborhood.”
After about 20 minutes of driving we were finally there. Since it was an upscale neighborhood Karen wasn’t comfortable with walking through people’s yards. But I didn’t have a problem with it because I would just talk to anyone who wanted to know what I was doing. I started walking between yards and Karen followed my lead, reluctantly.
The first location in the neighborhood didn’t work so we drove down a bit and found what I think is a fantastic location. Karen and I talked about the scene and how this location could inspire it. We were there for around 30 minutes. The neighborhood was secluded and in all that time we only saw one car, a red Porsche 911.
We got everything we needed for the scene and as we were leaving we passed one of those little utility trucks (like a golf cart) with what appeared to be a mother and daughter on it. I smiled and she smiled back. Then Karen says, “We’re attracting attention.” And she was right. After passing the truck, I noticed a couple had walked out of their home onto the street. I assumed they wanted to know why we were there and I was right. I stopped the car and said hello to the gentleman, his wife standing behind him taking a picture of our license plate. He asked if there was something he could help me with. I didn’t want to make him nervous but I got out of the car to talk to him because about that time Dixie (our Chihuahua) started barking at them.
Karen remained silent in the car because the whole situation made her uncomfortable. I explained that Karen is an author with 4 published children’s books and that we were simply scouting a location for a scene in her first novel (My Prior Life). I thought it would be comforting to them if I gave them one of my contact cards so I reached in my wallet and pulled one out and handed it to him. He handed it to his wife who remained at a distance and then walked back into her yard. He asked me what area code that was on my card and I said Los Angeles. I tried to give a brief explanation why it was Los Angeles and not local but I immediately knew how that looked. He said that I could be arrested just for being in their neighborhood and that he was friends with the local sheriff. I said none of that was necessary because I could easily explain why I was there. I wasn’t really worried because I had no nefarious intentions.
I was guarded with some of the details of the scene because they could be story spoilers but I explained the scene to him in a little more detail when his wife said I was contradicting myself. He told her I was just asking questions. When I realized he was a little bit comfortable with me I asked him some questions about other similar locations just in case he knew of one better. He gave me a few pointers which I explored but were lacking in certain details we needed for the story.
On the way home I received a local phone call from someone asking for the company that I closed a couple years ago because of the economy, I told them that company had been closed and thank you for calling. My previous company is also the first result in Google when you look up my phone number that’s on my contact card.
To the nice couple who came out and wanted to know why we were there I want to thank you for being nice and I will let you know when the book is released. The details of your neighborhood will be completely vague so no one but you and us will actually know where the scene got it’s inspiration.
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