Mirror Mondays: Jackson as a Mirror

I just got back from a long trip to visit my in-laws, and I got to go to Jackson. Not Jackson, IL, but Jackson, OH. The real town. We were driving south to see my in-laws, and this was along the way. Of course, I had to stop. The town was just like I thought it would be...just not for Jackson, IL For Sunny Valley, OH.It is the right size, in the right location, and certainly has the right feel. It is set near enough to the Appalachian Mountains to get the right feel.Driving through the Appalachians also gave me many ideas for both of my fictional towns. Jackson, OH, and Jacksonville, ILThese two towns are about 760 miles apart and don't have a lot in common. My fictional Jackson, IL, owes a debt to the real Jacksonville, Illinois. It is not a copy of it. Yet it provides the sense of place that I need. From Jacksonville, I get a Midwestern town of the proper proportions and the right kind of civic life: the streets, the neighborhoods, the schools, the churches, and businesses that…