I’m a career newspaper reporter/editor who loves small towns and the great stories they hold. While newspapers let us tell one set of stories, fiction lets me tell another kind, one I hope you’ll enjoy. Welcome to Exeter, where you’ll find characters as real as those around the corner in your town.
Exeter is the fictional town I created, inspired by places I’ve lived and people I’ve met in small towns and college towns throughout my life. It’s located in Massachusetts, where I lived until my mid-20s. I live in Virginia now, which has small towns with a different type of history and culture. Within the series, you’ll find short stories and novels; small moments in one person’s life and huge events that impact everybody.
On The Site
On the site, you’ll find some rough pieces I’m doing as part of the 54-Week Story Cubes Challenge, started by Mark Bruno. Kyrie, one of my best friends and editor extraordinare, sometimes gives them a look before I post, but doesn’t edit them the way she would if I were trying to write them for publication. They’re more a writing exercise, and a chance for me to dig into the characters in Exeter in different ways. Some are present, some are set before the series. Some might only ever show up here, while others will get pulled into books in some fashion. A few were expanded and polished for my short-story collection “Thrown Out: Stories from Exeter,” which published Sept. 6.
If you check out the Exeter Ledger page, you’ll find Q&A profiles with some of the Exeter residents, plus pieces exploring various places in Exeter.
E-mail: jenniecoughlin28@gmail.com
Twitter: @jenniecoughlin
HI, Jennie. For a brief moment, I thought you meant the Exeter in the southwest of England, rather than the fictional place you’ve invented
I’ve been to the real Exeter and it is a lovely city but I’m sure that your Exeter would be a much more interesting place to live.
I love “To Kill a Mockingbird” too
There are a couple of Exeters in New England, too, but not Massachusetts. My hometown was *supposed* to be called Exeter, but the town fathers decided to name it after Ben Franklin instead. So I stole the name for my fictional town.
Fair enough. If we are lucky enough and everything goes according to plan, we’ll be visiting New England next year. Fingers crossed. In the meantime, I’ll have to be content with reading about it
Iam the resident of a small Massachusetts town and I am really loving htis blog. Can’t wait to read oyur book
Thanks! I’ve had several people ask me if Exeter really is a town in Mass., so I think I’ve succeeded in making it realistic. I’ll be curious to hear your take once you read it. Amazon has the Kindle edition on sale for 99 cents right now.
I also wondered if you were more local to me, as I live about 20 miles from Exeter in South West England.
My Exeter’s fictional, set in Massachusetts in the U.S. So no, not local to you. But I hope you try the books and see what you think of the fictional Exeter.