How I’m Building a Fictional Town to Market My Novel

I. Love. Worldbuilding.

And creating the fictional town of Grace Hollow, Georgia, has been my favorite worldbuilding activity as of yet!

My mind is exploding with all the fun possibilities, so I wanted to take you through them. Maybe they spark a new project for you!

Table of Contents (scroll to what interests you!)

1. The Map
2. Fable Inn Logo
3. Grace Hollow Tourism Website
4. Lenticular Prints

01. The Map

I leaned on Gilmore Girls a lot for Grace Hollow. Now, don’t get all insistent about how Grace Hollow is directly related to Stars Hollow. In fact, it was inspired by a little old lady I listen to on YouTube who explained she was from a “holler.” And when naming the town, I loved that the town is named after the original founding family (the idea of systems, units, and almost a monarchy of sorts)—but it also has a more sinister meaning (pointing to the lack of kindness or goodwill in the town).

I sat down and compiled a list of all the places I wanted in the town. It’s based on real-life Forks, Washington (which I had the honor of visiting earlier this year): Forks is just one main road that curves along for maybe 7 minutes and then the heart of the town dissipates. I also recently polled my followers and have a couple more buildings and characters to add. I ended up with:

• Faye’s Diner — Home of the best pie in the south. Of course, it’s the pie that originally lures the girls into Grace Hollow. WHY IS IT ALWAYS THE PIE?!
• Fable Inn – a 6-room bed and breakfast with rooms inspired by tragic stories (but don’t ask about Room 1…)
• Salon Lee – run by a woman aptly named Annabelle Lee (yes, like the sad Edgar Allen Poe poem)
• Grace and Sons General Store — What’s with the weird taxidermy heads on the walls??
• Post Office — During the winter, you can leave letters for ghosts in one of the mail slots that have always been vacant!
• Tallulah’s Treasures (to be added) — An unnerving antique store that holds far too many secrets
• Abandoned Movie Theater (to be added) — Crumbling since the 1960s. Perpetually playing the same movie.
• Cotton field by the train tracks — The town often gathers in the empty space here for town events. Interesting how cotton has been used to stuff peoples’ ears…
• Covenant Church — The original pastor’s wife got sick years ago, and one of Eleanor Grace’s sons took over in the interim…or so he said. Now it’s been 10 years, and the pastor is still gone.
• The Laundromat — I’d love to have people always in there just watching the dryers dazedly…
• Forest — Hidden behind the church. Doesn’t have much…or maybe…it does
• The Swamp — The heartbeat of Grace Hollow. Located right behind Eleanor Grace’s home. She likes to spend her mornings here, drink tea made from the swamp roses, and say hi to the frogs.

02. Fable Inn Logo

It’s a fable. It’s an inn. It’s Fable Inn! I have always wanted to stay in an inn/bed and breakfast in a small town (yes, blame Gilmore Girls) so I added it to my fictional world.

In my novel, Blythe writes a note to Victoria on a notepad from this inn (yes—I am working on printing said notepad just for kicks and giggles). The girls also pick up brochures from the front counter with the inn’s logo (although I might change it to the town logo, TBD).

1. I drew the raven on the book on real-life paper with a real-life pen (people still do that?!),
2. then digitized in Photoshop.
3. Then I laid out the type in Adobe Illustrator,
4. then brought into Procreate and
5. drew the grass tendrils and added cicadas.

03. Grace Hollow Tourism website

Ok this one…I’m really proud of this one. I’ve tried my hand at HTML and coding before, and I can get through it, but dang. It’s just not in my wheelhouse.

In situations like this, I‘m ok with using AI to build things since I already gave it a go. But I wrote the copy myself, and gave it the ideas. My idea is to build it out as I get closer to the release of my novel, to build the world out.

Go ahead and click around to see what you can find! (some links aren’t working yet on purpose)

04. Lenticular Prints

This one, I have no art for yet because I’m commissioning my husband! He makes really beautiful, surrealist composited images in Photoshop and they really just connected with me.

I’m hoping to make 1-2 prints that I can send to people who preorder my novel. A few ideas:

• Swamp, then add crows and a woman’s silhouette
• Empty forest, then a house appears
• Blythe and Victoria…then just Victoria
• Blythe’s room at Fable Inn, then the room empty
• Blythe in her wedding gown, then Blythe obscured and wearing black

Which idea is your favorite?