For writers who want to craft richly detailed settings for their characters, you can either spend lots of time and money researching dozens of travel guides, or you can get all the facts you need right here. The Writer's Guide to Places provides information on more than 100 cities in the U.S. and Canada, including the facts you need to develop convincing characters and compelling narratives, including:
Basic ethnic, religious and economic facts that shape your character
Regional history and facts your character might know
Your character's favorite food and drink
Things your character may be proud or ashamed of concerning his or her birthplace
Interesting places to set a scene
Myths about the state
Resources for further research

Designed specifically to be fast and accurate, this guide opens with a chapter on how to research real places for settings in fiction including short-cut ideas and guidelines for researching information quickly. Dozens of cities are profiled and organized by state for easy referencing-from major cities and their satellite cities, to smaller towns of interest, including Atlantic City, Raleigh, Aspen and Tampa.

Don Prues is the co-author of Formatting and Submitting Your Manuscript and is the former editor The Writer's Guide to Literary Agents. His work has appeared in the New York Post, Merto-Augusta Parent Magazine, Sagetrieb and other publications. Jack Heffron is the former Editorial Director for Writer's Digest Books and the author of The Writer's Idea Book. Both authors live in Cincinnati, Ohio.