Guest post by Heather Weidner about Vintage Trailers and Blackmailers

Location, Location, Location – Mysteries in Fictional Places

I am a Virginia girl, and all of my stories are set there. I write where I know. Plus, I want to share the uniqueness of the Commonwealth with its beaches, mountains, fabulous restaurants, and historical sites. I needed a small town in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia to set my Jules Keene Glamping Mysteries. Since murder and mayhem were going to take place all over town, I decided to create my own. I don’t usually have horrific crimes happen in real places. 

Jules Keene, owner of the Fern Valley Camping Resort, grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains. My fictional town is west of the Charlottesville to give folks a point of reference. Her parents bought the traditional campground before she was born, and after her divorce from the Idiot, she moved back to the resort, where she helped her father convert and repurpose vintage trailers. She saved a bunch from the scrapheap and was able to preserve their history and to create some upscale places for her guests to visit. All of the trailers come with wine chillers and posh amenities for glamping (glamorous camping). 

Jules themed each trailer’s décor. Her 1953 Redman New Moon is decorated in honor of Lucy and Desi’s classic movie, “The Long, Long Trailer” that featured the same model camper. Her 1959 Sunliner Caravan, debuted the same year as Barbie, so this one is decorated in pink, white, and black in homage to the classic doll.

At the end of the book, Jules and Jake, her maintenance/security guy, decide to add tiny houses to the resort’s offerings. He plans to build a village of the small dwellings in a vacant section of the resort, and Jules is going to create book themes for each. Each house will have some sort of surprise for the guests. The Beatrix Potter, L. Frank Baum, J. K. Rowling, and Bram Stoker tiny houses appear in Film Crews and Rendezvous (October 2022) and Christmas Lights and Cat Fights (October 2023). 

My aunt and uncle owned a traditional campground in Nelson County near Crabtree Falls in the 1970s. It was a magical place with the mountains and all the traditional camping fun. I heard my first echo there and played my first game of pinball in the rec room. The water in the stream from the falls was ice cold, and I saw an entire family picnic on one of the magnificent rocks. It was a place full of lots of fun memories, and this became the model for the Fern Valley Resort.

My husband does a lot of DIY projects, and he restores classic cars, so we watch A LOT of home and vehicle renovation shows. I stumbled on one that restored classic campers on the West Coast, and it gave me an idea for Jules’s resort. I am also fascinated with tiny houses. I am amazed at how creative people are to build in storage and living space in small spaces. These are a perfect addition to the Fern Valley Camping Resort.

So, while the town of Fern Valley is fictitious, the beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the glamping craze, vintage trailers, and tiny houses are real, and they combine to add a sense of place to the Jules Keene Glamping Mysteries.

Learn more about the Heather Weidner at www.heatherweidner.com. Want more author news? If so, click here to read my Behind the Story interviews from your favorite authors.