There can be no doubt that the city inspired me to write The Secret of Lucianne Dove. I visited it three times before I finished writing. While some of the places in the novel are from my imagination, many of the sites and elements are real: the site where Julia Bulette's house once stood; the Silver Queen Hotel; the cemetery; the corner of Union and Taylor; the trolley service that provides tours; the Delta Saloon; the newspaper office where Mark Twain worked; the Bucket of Blood--all real.

As a side note, according to one of the shows on TV about haunted places, the Silver Queen is supposed to have a haunted room. When I made a reservation and asked about it, the clerk said he didn't know, but would be happy to crawl under my bed and push on the springs. While I didn't take him up on the offer, I did make a reservation. And while staying there, I heard a screaming zypher in the middle of the night. It caused some weird sounds like that of windows banging shut. It was interesting.