Welcome to the Bijou Bugle, your one stop shop of all things relating to the town and characters of Bijou Basin.
If you're new here, explanations are necessary. You can find those here:
How Natural Exposure came to be
An intro to Bijou Basin (the fictional town in Natural Exposure)
Location of Bijou Basin in regards to WDW
Location of the town within the Basin's borders
The Studio's Rooms - Log Cabin
Now that you're caught up. Today's Bijou Bugle subject:
The Studio's Rooms - Eatery (The Bistro)
In my book, Natural Exposure, the Main Character - Kenzie - owns a HUGE photography studio. In her teens she worked briefly at mall portrait studios and hated it, thought they were stiff, boring, and impersonal. She had dreams to build her own.
When those dreams were made reality, she went nuts. You'll have to read Natural Exposure to get the full scope of just how big it is, but for now, I thought I'd share the first room you discover within the book.
Her studio is called - Natural Exposure - and I can see it as plain as can be in my head - so much so that I have a floorplan for the whole studio. While I didn't include those plans in the books, it's something I've thought about having with a deluxe edition down the road, once all the rooms are revealed, because in Natural Exposure, you don't get to see all of them - as neither does Ripley, Kenzie's romantic interest.
First, Ripley sees the Log Cabin. Next, she enters the "Eatery" which is like stepping into 4 different and unique restaurants all at once. First up, is the Bistro, which can appear as a quaint sandwich shop, or as a cute bakery, or even as a delightful ice cream shop.
My Books
Natural Exposure on Amazon
Natural Exposure on Smashwords - on $$SALE$$ for $2.40
Natural Exposure on Goodreads
A Bijou Beginning on Wattpad - FREE short story
A Bijou Beginning on Goodreads
A Discovery of BDSM on Amazon
A Discovery of BDSM on Goodreads
Welcome to the Bijou Bugle, your one stop shop of all things relating to the town and characters of Bijou Basin.
If you're new here, explanations are necessary. You can find those here:
How Natural Exposure came to be
An intro to Bijou Basin (the fictional town in Natural Exposure)
Now that you're caught up. Today's Bijou Bugle subject:
Location, location, location!
The fictional town of Bijou Basin is approximately 30 miles west of the Magic Kingdom. The town is surrounded on three sides by a real Nature Preserve. When creating the fictional town, once I decided to have it in Florida to utilize WDW within my stories, I tried to find a place that would be close enough to the parks but yet far enough to be remote. Even now, though it's built up over the years, Lake County is much more open land than populated, like it's surrounding counterparts. The stretch along which Bijou Basin resides still have very few homes (if you look on Google Maps you'll see a few). The little notch in the Green Swamp Wilderness Preserve gave me my perfect locations and left the town with one point in and out of it increasing it's hidden nature.
Would Bijou Basin, as it is with it's bylaws and way it's run, be an actual town? Probably not. It does function more like a Gated Community, so just imagine it that way when you think about it, and don't wonder too much. Let me have my creative licenses!!
I love maps. You'll see many maps, drawings (sorry in advance, I'm NOT an artist), and floorplans in the upcoming Bijou Bugles. Here are your first.
Shows the town's location in regards to WDW
Shows the town's acreage
Just over 6000 acres, or approximately 9.5 square miles
Stay tuned for more Bijou Bugles that focus on the people, places, and things of Natural Exposure. Along with those I'll be posting daily a variety of things, including book recommendations, Disney Trivia, my writing process, looks into the items I make with Photoshop and much more. Feel free to hit the subscribe buttons to the right to subscribe via email or RSS if you'd like to keep up to date.
Would you prefer a newsletter to a blog post? I haven't decided if I'll go that route - for privacy reasons. But if many of you prefer it, leave me a comment so I can work on that!
My Books
Natural Exposure on Amazon
Natural Exposure on Smashwords - on $$SALE$$ for $2.40
Natural Exposure on Goodreads
A Bijou Beginning on Wattpad - FREE short story
A Bijou Beginning on Goodreads
A Discovery of BDSM on Amazon
A Discovery of BDSM on Goodreads
The establishment of people, places and things by authors is undoubtedly a unique experience for each. Authors, I'd like to hear from you.
How did you come up with the ideas for your
characters and/or fictional locales?
To give you a little background on HOW I came to write Natural Exposure in the first place, read this blog post. I haven't been writing all my life or always have stories in my head. My journey here was unique (at least I think, what do you think?)
That said, I want to tell you how my fictional town of Bijou Basin came to be.
First, a little snippet about Bijou Basin (herein refereed to as "BB" or simply "the Basin") from Natural Exposure.
Bijou Basin's Beginning:
Founded in 1969 by the LGBTQ+ employees of Walt Disney World, Bijou Basin is a small town with an even smaller ambiance.
By pooling resources, several hundred employees purchased just over 6000 acres thirty miles west of the Magic Kingdom. The land was barren, most of it marshy swamps, but they worked together to build a small neighborhood. Since many of the employees were builders and engineers who constructed the Magic Kingdom, the town grew swiftly.
Five years after its founding, the land surrounding Bijou Basin was purchased for preservation, creating the Green Swamp Wilderness Preserve. The town, nestled in its own little pocket, now had protected land on three sides, only the east side providing its sole egress.
As workers and lovers of Walt Disney, many of the employees coming from California, they wanted the town to reflect, but not copy, their love of the two parks: Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom. Roads downtown manifest this in their names: Backwater Boulevard, Independence Trail, Expedition Avenue, Illusion Drive, and Morrow Lane.
The core foundation of BB has its roots firmly wrapped around Disney. There's more about that in the book and will be more here at the blog about that.
But before BB came to be - I had to figure out what I wanted. Once I decided on Florida for my town (I waffled between there, where I lived most of my life, and where I live now, NC) it was on to names and locations.
All things Bijou Basin REFLECT but don't completely copy all things Disney. For example, the 5 lands of the Magic Kingdom are: Adventureland, Frontierland, Liberty Square, Fantasyland and Tomorrowland, so the residents of Bijou Basin created 5 main roads in their town, each nearly a quarter mile in length and gave them the names listed above.
But, I've gotten ahead of myself, again. First, naming Bijou Basin.
I likewise wanted to reflect Disney, and this refection is more subtle than the ones above. I started with "Bay Lake" and the "Seven Seas Lagoon" both of which are connected and outside the Magic Kingdom. But just those names without their context weren't enough, so I looked up synonyms of Bay, and got both Basin and Bayou, keeping them in mind. But what before or after that? My search lead me to the Trains, and specifically the "Lilly Belle" named after Walt's wife, Lillian.
Belle lead me onto Jewels, being the Belle of the Ball and such, so I went around with gems and jewels until I stumbled over Bijou. Initially I thought Bijou Swamp, since the land surrounding it is the Green Wilderness Swamp Preservation, but I didn't think it flowed well, plus I was liking the Bayou and Basin synonyms. Bijou Basin was born! :D
In the coming weeks/months, I'll talk a lot more about the history and backgrounds of my town, characters and other locales. If you haven't read Natural Exposure, you're missing out on some unique people, places, and things. No fear, I'll bring some of that here, but hopefully you'll still try out Natural Exposure (on sale at Smashwords through 5/31).
My Books
Natural Exposure on Amazon
Natural Exposure on Smashwords - on $$SALE$$ for $2.40
Natural Exposure on Goodreads
A Bijou Beginning on Wattpad - FREE short story
A Bijou Beginning on Goodreads
A Discovery of BDSM on Amazon
A Discovery of BDSM on Goodreads
