Perceptions about places in fiction

I was discussing with a beta reader today the flow of a narrative and whether a character (Nick O’Malley) would ever actually want to move to the city where the other character (Dt. Brandon Carr) resides. Now, Nicky is from Vegas. I don’t have to explain Las Vegas to anyone. Even if you’ve never been there you know what Las Vegas is and how huge it can be…you’ve seen pictures.

So the first misconception we had to deal with was WHICH Riverside, CA. I thought I’d made it clear from references to San Bernardino and LA that Riverside is actually in Southern California, you know Riverside County, the Inland Empire (hence the title of the second book of those characters).

And then we spent a good twenty minutes on IM discussing just how freaking big Riverside the city in So. California is. This is a city that still thinks of itself as a small town. The mindset of the 909 area code…it’s hicksville —

YEAH, when compared to Los Angeles, where the city almost fills the boarders of the county, and the county is bigger than some small east coast states. Riverside itself has a population of 300,000+ souls. It’s the 12th largest city in the state — bigger than the capitol Sacramento.

So I guess I have to drop something into the WIP to clarify that position.