On the Spot with R.S. Dabney

Discover the author’s favorite real world setting from her book.

The Spot: Grand Junction, CO

“Home sweet home. Riley turned into the driveway of the two-story house she’d grown up in, situated on ten acres a few miles west of Grand Junction. Sandstone cliffs and rolling desert hills dotted with sagebrush and junipers dominated the view. It was a harsh landscape, but Riley thought it was heaven on earth. The Colorado River stretched to the horizon, and the Colorado Plateau rose in the background.”

From: The Soul Mender

In The Soul Mender, twenty-two-year-old Riley Dale narrowly escapes becoming the sixth victim of the elusive Rocky Mountain Murderer, only to find herself thrown into a parallel universe where Las Vegas is known for its churches, the United States initiates terrorist attacks, and peace can be found in some of the world’s darkest corners.

As the deadly visions that have haunted Riley since childhood begin coming true, she learns that the world has been split in two and that the people she thought she knew may embody startlingly different versions of good and evil. Hunted by the government and a secret sect of assassins, Riley must uncover the truth about a mistake that has followed her family for thousands of years. Her unlikely allies include the troubled other half of her own soul and the counter soul of the murderer she narrowly escaped.

The resulting adventure carries Riley across the globe and beyond. 

Squirl: The Soul Mender takes readers to locations around the world, as well as their opposites in a parallel universe. How difficult is it to choose a favorite?

Author: It is really hard to choose a favorite location from The Soul Mender, as the book and the trilogy take us to some really neat locations. From small town Colorado to Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Northern Mexico, and Southern Iraq, Riley Dale and her crew of allies journey across the globe in search of peace and unity for the human race. As I’ve visited or researched each location, I’ve been captivated by qualities and attributes about each of them. But I’d still have to stick with Grand Junction, Colorado as my favorite.

Squirl: How did Grand Junction become the hometown of your main character?

Author: Often you hear writers discuss how they “write what they know,” and throw in real experiences and sentiments into characterization and plot. I suppose that is how Grand Junction came to be the hometown of my main character, from my own deep love of the area.

Squirl: Where did that love for Grand Junction begin?

Author: I grew up in Moab, Utah, a few hours west of there, but spent a lot of time as a kid in Grand Junction visiting my grandparents. As Moab, back in the early nineties, didn’t have a whole lot of amenities, we’d come to Grand Junction for everything.

Squirl: What are some of your favorite childhood memories from your visits?

Author: It’s where we’d go shopping for anything beyond basic groceries; where I first saw Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and all of those movies that defined my childhood; where I ate my first Taco Bell (yum, am I right?), rode my first roller coaster at that tiny amusement park that used to be there, and ran through my first cornfield while being chased by an angry farmer…

Squirl: Your characters also visit vibrant cities like Las Vegas and Los Angeles. What draws you back to this quieter setting?

Author: I am much more drawn to the pines and bentonite of the Colorado Plateau and the surrounding foothills than I am to the hustle and bustle of the vibrant cities my characters also venture to. The truth is that sometimes the spectacular lies in the simple. For me, that is a small town that stole my heart as a child and earned itself a spot as “hometown” in The Soul Mender Trilogy.

Discover Grand Junction and other settings from The Soul Mender on Squirl 📍📚

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