Replaced: Riverbrook, California

Riverbrook, California in Replaced is a fictional town where the main character, Samuel Khoder lives.

I went to look up information I had written down for the town, only to discover that I no longer had it. I wanted to find where I had decided Riverbrook would be and an hour later after searching through Replaced itself for clues, and my best recollection of where it was on Google Maps, I 'found' Riverbrook once more. I'm just glad I put it near the Salton Sea.

After first settling on a location near the interstate, I noticed it was near a city named Riverside. I had considered moving Riverbrook elsewhere, but decided to keep it right where I put it.

The geographical coordinates for the north entrance to town is: 33.54435,-115.494193. I do realize it is in the desert and there are mountains around, but viewing it from above on Google maps, I am reasonably certain the town can fit within that area without cutting into the mountains.

Gas Line Road would turn into Tree Street, until it leaves town and becomes Gas Line Road once more, while Bradshaw Road becomes Main Street while running through town before going back to being Bradshaw Road.

I had used graph paper to chart the town streets, making them nice and straight, but as I'm sure you noticed Gas Line Road is at an angle and Bradshaw Road curves.

I guess the streets of Riverbrook will have to curve with them? There are streets named after the zodiac, a couple fruits, flowers, two cities in Egypt, trees, a Sims 3 action and two Doctor Who references.

Anyway, the 48 streets of Riverbrook from North to South going East and West are as follows:

Riverbrook Way, Virtue Parkway, Seashore Boulevard, Aquarius Lane, Aries Road, Cancer Street, Capricorn Boulevard, Gemini Way, Leo Street, Libra Lane, Pisces Hill, Sagittarius Road, Scorpio Way, Taurus Road, Virgo Street, Horizon Road, Origami Boulevard, Oriole Road, Chateau Lane, Lemon Street, Apple Path, Alien Road, Canoe Flip Road, Main Street, Cliff Side Road, Science Lane, Torpor Road, Sweden Street, Shalikan Street, Hope Road, Dolly Lane, Flower Parkway, Aster Lane, Forget-Me-Not Street, Longevity and Prosperity Drive, Lobelia Lane, Love Street, Marigold Road, Nasturium Boulevard
 Woohoo! Street, Lion’s Pride Lane, Rome Street, Zoom Drive, Neith Road, Harkness Drive, Christie Lane, Van Gogh Road and Westcott Lane.

The 36 streets of Riverbrook from East and West that go North and South:

Chewy Road, Globe Way, Shakespeare Lane, Poet Road, Writer Boulevard, Sunday Street, Monday Way, Tuesday Road, Wednesday Boulevard,  Thursday Hill, Friday Road, Saturday Parkway, Fairfield Drive, Lennox, Road, Ash Street, Oak Street, Poplar Street, Tree Street, Hickory Street, Acacia Road, Alder Way, Lime Street, Willow Road, King Size Road, Kitten Street, Puppy Road, Lamb Lane, Owlet Landing, Candy Drive, Memphis Street, Weeping Angel Road, Knowledge Way, Wisdom Landing, Hardship Boulevard, Experience Street and Cheeseburger Lane.

I wonder how the town would actually look like overlaid onto that area...

NaNoWriMo?

I mentioned NaNoWriMo in my previous entries without clarifying what it was to those who had probably never heard of it.

For those who aren't familiar with NaNoWriMo:

NaNoWriMo is a yearly event in November in which participants challenge themselves to write a 50,000 word novel in one month starting 12:00am November 1st and ending at 11:59pm November 30th.

The name NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month, but anyone around the world is welcome to join.

NaNoWriMo was started in July of 1999 by Chris Baty, who then moved the event to November.

In 1999 NaNoWriMo started out with 21 participants and in 2011 it had over 250,000 participants.

Participants start out with either no outline, a vague outline or a structured outline, but the writing itself has been described as seat-of-your-pants writing.

December is known as a month for both finishing the novel, if participants hadn't already finished it in November, as well as a month for editing.

NaNoWriMo has inspired many timed challenges, which can be found at this wiki page.

There is also National Novel Writing Day (not an official challenge), where participants set aside a period of 24 hours and write. Most aim for 50,000 words, which would be a minimum of 2,084 words each hour.


My first experience with NaNoWriMo was in November of 2003. I don't remember how I found it but I read about what NaNoWriMo was on the site itself, thought about it, wrote up a quick outline the next day and then started participating the day after that on the 7th.


I won with a finished novel that was a little over 50,000 words with an hour to spare. I found it to be fun and exciting and decided to do it again the next year.


The following year I found I wasn't that interested in participating, but enjoyed reading posts in the forum, especially the nanoisms.


Looking back I realize I participated in NaNoWriMo every other year, except in November 2011, which was a month after my husband and I moved here to Washington state.


I do intend to participate in NaNoWriMo again this year as I have about 16 other book ideas I would like to flesh out. 


There was one year I decided to write 17 novels in 11 months just so they would no longer be just sitting in my computer gathering dust, but I realized I needed a break from writing after that year's NaNoWriMo so I never attempted doing so, just as I never attempted NaNoWriDay myself.


Perhaps I will one day.

The thing about Replaced...

The thing about Replaced is that it is actually supposed to be the third book in a six-part series. Not a sequel to the first two, but they are all in the same universe. Well, HOTM (name will be said at a later point), the sixth book, which I haven't written yet, is the direct sequel to TQFTHOK (name will be said at a later point), the fifth book in the series that I came up with first for the NaNoWriMo in 2006, which was the second time I participated in NaNoWriMo.

The one that was come up with first is the fifth book, the one that was come up with second is the sixth, the third one, Replaced, is actually the third book in the series and is being published first, the first book was thought of fourth, the fourth book was fifth and the second book came about sixth because I really liked the name of the first book's main character's grandson's name when I did his family tree for the book ending.

The reason Replaced is being published first is it was completed, as the actual first book in the series, Shalikan, had only two chapters to its name, the first and last chapters, as well as a finished outline.

I believe I started Shalikan for NaNoWriMo of 2010.

So, While I'm waiting for Replaced to go into revision rounds, I'll start on Shalikan.

First post: Replaced

I wrote the first 50,000 words of Replaced in November of 2009 for NaNoWriMo, then a took a four month break from it then continued writing the other half of it in March of 2010 before finishing it in April of 2010.

Replace sat in my computer for a little over a year before I showed it to my husband, whom I had met in January of 2011. He, despite not being much of a reader, sat down with it and read a few chapters.

When he was finished he told he like it and then asked when I had written it. When I had told him how long it had been sitting in my computer he then asked if I wanted to get it published, in which I had said yes and since then he has been trying to prevent me from procrastinating on getting it published, while telling almost everyone he met that I had a novel coming out before we moved to the state of Washington, where he found some more people to tell.

Here is the back of book synopsis for Replaced:


     Samuel Khoder is the CEO and owner of a local paper distribution company living in Riverbrook California in the year 2057. His life is uprooted when he is shot and left for dead by someone previously unknown to him. 


     He wakes up in the house of his best friends to find that his life has been taken over by an imposter. With the help of his friend Horace, a doctor, and Horace's wife Debbie, a makeup artist, Sam endeavors to take his life back without raising suspicions.

Right now the publication process for Replaced is at 65% and in the next two to three weeks the revision rounds for the book will start.