The day was warm, so she lingered in the shadows cast by the shops around her. She stopped into a local bookshop to look around. One scene she had just finished reading the night before took place in a local bookshop, and she wanted to see whether this one looked the part. To her delighted surprise, it was perfect. Coincidentally,Texas Sunrisewas in plain sight on a display table of best sellers. If she didn’t already have a copy, she might have bought one.
“Can I help you?” the salesperson asked. He was a young man, probably still in high school. There was a very real chance this was his first job.
“Just looking,” Anna assured him. “Thanks.” He went back to his work behind the counter, and Anna decided to test the waters a bit. “Are you familiar with the owner of this shop?” she asked.
The salesperson shrugged. “She hired me. Nice lady.”
“Do you think she’d be excited about the prospect of filming a movie scene in her shop?”
He thought a moment, and then it seemed to dawn on him. “Are you looking for locations? Oh, wow! I think she’d love it. I meanI’dlove it anyway. Hey, are you looking for extras? I aced drama, and I’ve always wanted to act. It would be so cool to break in, you know?”
The way he came to life at the mere suggestion gave Anna a lot of hope. She knew he wasn’t the owner, but if this kid was even a distant representation of how people in town would feel about filming, she liked her chances. “We’re looking for locations tofilmTexas Sunrise.” She gestured to the stack of paperbacks on the display table.
The salesperson’s eyes lit up even more. “You don’t say! Oh, Shelly will love that. The owner, I mean. That’s one of her favorite books.”
“Good to hear.” Anna smiled brightly at him. Two of the key aspects of location scouting were attitude and making connections. They were both things Anna had always felt were some of her best strengths. “Do you know when she’s usually around? Can I stop in later?”
“She should be here tomorrow if you want to ask her,” he said.
“I still have a few more locations to scout in town today, but I may be back tomorrow if things go smoothly from here on out.”
She said goodbye to the young man and continued her walk into the center of town. Great care had been taken with every shopfront. All the signs were hand-painted and hung with pride. She really did feel like she was wandering through some kind of small-town wonderland.
At the center of town was a perfect patch of green. And at the center of that, there was an absolutely beautiful little gazebo. Anna had to stop herself from shouting and jumping for joy so she didn’t look too crazy to the people lingering in the park. She immediately pulled out her camera and snapped several photos of the park to send to the director. One of the more pivotal scenes in the book took place in a setting just like this.
She didn’t wait for the director to respond. She knew well enough to get the gears turning as soon as possible. A place this perfect didn’t come around every day of the week. Maybe she wasn’t able to convince the owner of the perfect ranch to get onboard, but the people of Denson Oaks didn’t seem remotely as cold as Charlie Greene.
The town hall was small but dignified. It was within walking distance of the park at the center of town, so Anna didn’t bother to get back into her car. It was a pleasant walk, and she got to see even more of the town. The more she saw of it, the more she thought it was the perfect location.
She pushed open the doors to the town hall and found a meeting room with people leaving. “Sorry,” she said to one man passing by. “Is this the Denson Oaks town council?”
The man nodded, and she thanked him. Her original intention had been to get some contact information, but they appeared to have just gotten out of a meeting. So, she let the people who were leaving go without stopping them.
She made her way into the meeting room to find a few stragglers still packing up their things. “Hi there.” She greeted the stragglers with a friendly smile and a wave. “Does anyone have a few minutes to discuss something with me? I promise it’s a fun subject. Good vibes only.”
Her smile could not have been brighter. Most of the people present kind of ignored her, which was fine. They were done for the day. She was just about to ask someone for contact information so she could reach out later when two people she hadn’t noticed approached her.
They were an older man and woman, and the way they moved, she would guess they were a long-standing couple. The woman approached first and held out her hand. “Hi there. I’m Paris, and this is my husband, Sam. We’re senior members of the town council. What did you want to talk to us about?”
Anna offered her hand and introduced herself. “Anna Lafferty. It’s good to meet you both. I’ve actually come to discuss the possibility of filming in Denson Oaks. I’d like to talk permits and logistics, if you don’t mind.”
“Already so certain, are you?” Paris asked. “What would this be for? An advertisement?”
“Oh, no.” Anna laughed. She was about to hand them more than they asked for, and she was loving every minute of it. “It’s for a movie. Have you heard of the novelTexas Sunrise?”
Paris’s eyes widened when she heard the title. “The romantic comedy? You’re kidding!”
Now Sam leaned in and spoke quietly to his wife. “I don’t think she’s kidding, Paris.” He seemed to be the quiet type, and his wife was his polar opposite. Perfect. Anna could work with that.
“Can I take you both to lunch so we can discuss it further? You can show me the best place in town. It’s all on the studio.”
Paris grinned. “Well, we’re not going to say no to free food, are we, Sam?”
Sam shook his head, and it was settled.
“Let’s do The Sandwich Slam,” Paris said. “It’s casual and delicious. Locally owned, too.”
“Perfect!” Anna said. She was prepared to get her car, but it turned out the place was within walking distance of the town hall. She shouldn’t have been surprised, really. The center of town seemed to be where most of the good businesses were. Almost everything was within walking distance of the town hall.
