4 times Wintersville, Ohio, inspired my work’s setting
Across so many different genres, Wintersville, Ohio, appeared in four different works released between 2022 and 2026. A nod to an epic small town.
If you’ve ever been to the Upper Ohio Valley Tri-State Area (Eastern Ohio/Northern West Virginia/Southwest Pennsylvania), virtually the entire region resembles something out of a Bruce Springsteen song. You’ll find gray skies, abandoned steel mills and coal mines, and numerous small towns on the banks of the Ohio River.
And if they’re not on the river’s banks, you’ll find tiny dwellings located deep in the valley. So small, you’ll never even know you passed through them. Or, towns that forged iron or titanium, which is the case for Irondale and nearby Toronto.
And even if you cross a place that forged no steel, iron, or titanium, just about every other town, village, or unincorporated community is rundown and low-income. But there’s one outlier, and you’ll either find it mentioned OR implied in not one, not two, not even three, but four different series published between 2022 and 2026.
And not because it’s a kick-ass name to call a town in the fantasy genre.
What makes Wintersville, Ohio, stand out?
For one, it resides atop one of the surrounding hills, not near the river or deep in the valley. Depending on where you’re at in Wintersville, you can take one look beyond Main Street and treat your eyes to an incredible sight.
If you like endless blue skies (even when they’re gray down in the valley), and lush deciduous forests that stretch beyond the horizon, something literally taken out of a fantasy novel, this town’s a hidden gem to drive through.
Oh, and in case you’re asking what’s in it, there’s a famous Italian restaurant called Pastaio that you need to check out.
Plus, it was one of the towns General John Hunt Morgan raided during the War Between the States. So there’s plenty of history here.
But it’s a town that just looks out of place when compared to the rest of the valley. You’ll find well-kept, square lawns amidst its suburbia-like neighborhoods, and very, very few rundown homes. It’s got that classic, small-town, Midwestern feel. Something you’d cross in a TV show with streets full of ‘white, picket fences.’
So, which books, those published as early as 2022 and as late as 2026 had a town with a Wintersville-like flair, or even Wintersville, itself? Keep reading.
Wind Wielder (Elementals of Nordica)
Ah yes, I based good old Oslo’s Port, Nordica entirely on Wintersville, complete with a slew of small businesses, the white water tower that one can see no matter where they’re standing in town, and that always calming, homey atmosphere that I get every time I visit the place.
Oh, and I even named a winding road just outside Oslo’s Port Bantam Ridge. In the real world, Bantam Ridge takes you from Wintersville and out into the sticks, where you’ll find some camp and hunting grounds if you know where to look. The same goes with the version found in my science fantasy, Wind Wielder.
That said, I added a few elements. One of those elements was this huge, ocean-like lake. One so vast, that Sion Zona and his crew could hardly see the opposite shore across the horizon. While no such lake exists in Wintersville, it was a much-needed element for Wind Wielder’s storyline.
Liza Fury: Catch 22 (Terrian Chronicles)
I love Liza Fury: Catch 22, because the book lets me mention so many areas from the Valley. You get Pottery Addition, which Liza calls Poverty Addition. There’s Tappan Lake, a fictional version of Laceyville (which is submerged under the lake), Mingo Junction, and Steubenville, Ohio.
I also had to include Wintersville. But, instead of taking on the same, welcoming tone as Oslo’s Port, Nordica, Wintersville gives Liza Fury a false sense of security. During her time in Wintersville, Liza finds herself stuck in a time warp. Or, at least, she thinks it’s a time warp.
But the truth is much, much deadlier than she could’ve imagined.
Beyond the Lost Horizon (Beyond the Lost)
Though I never explicitly mention that the town Quinn Cozens and Yui Kikuchi flee to is Wintersville, I give more than enough background context for this one to be an Easter Egg for local readers. Quinn reaches Ohio via a cable bridge, and turns off of an exit that leads to a truck stop, with a nearby food distribution center another mile or so down the road.
When Quinn makes a left, I mention him driving up a hill leading to another traffic light. This light’s across the street from a grocery store and an adjacent parking lot. I also mention a fast food joint in that same lot.
Jefferson County is explicitly named, as is its airpark. That would give it away in about two seconds to locals, if they’re interested in reading the book.
The Arcane Prophecy (Arcane Elemental Academy)
This one’s also unique since it too resides outside the Renegades Epic. That said, it’s still in the Elementals Universe, unlike Beyond the Lost. And, like Wind Wielder, the Wintersville setting goes by a different name, called Aurora Village.
In The Arcane Prophecy (coming September 2026), the village’s aesthetics mesmerize Yote. It’s got that Wintersville flair, with small businesses and shops lining Main Street. Residential areas branch out from Main, and beyond those areas, there’s nothing but the bounding countryside.
Part of me wants to drive some points of interest home even more. For instance, there’s a church located about a mile from where I grew up (about five minutes outside of Wintersville). You can see that church from Main, nestled between the trees as though it’s nothing more than a house in the woods.
In Arcane, it’d make a great place of worship in the book’s religion – something between Norse and Celtic Paganism and Christianity, if I had to give it a label.
Now, I’ll leave it up to you. Do you want to see my many versions of Wintersville, Ohio, in my work? If so, definitely check out Wind Wielder, my perma-free book that you might just enjoy if you like high-stakes elemental magic whose heroes go to war with tyrannical empires.
