Where is Empire?

By Deborah Cooke on July 25, 2024

My upcoming series, The Carpe Diem Café, is set in the fictional town of Empire, a small town where nothing seems to happen - at least until Luke Jones comes roaring back on his motorcycle at the beginning of Just Trouble.

It's the kind of place where people don't lock their doors, where news travels fast and gossip travels faster, where houses are known by the families who live there instead of their street addresses. ("The Old Bradshaw place", etc.) Houses tend to be older in Empire and lots tend to be bigger. The pace of life is a little slower and everyone knows their neighbours.

In my imagination, Empire is located close to the northern shore of Lake Erie, which puts it in Canada, in the province of Ontario. It's not where I live, but close enough that I could make a day trip to have lunch in Merry's bistro - if The Carpe Diem Café existed. (I wish it did.) You'll find Canadian spelling in these books and local conventions, too.

I've started a Pinterest board so you can get an idea of what Empire might look like.

Inspiration for The Carpe Diem Café series of contemporary romances

Fictional Empire was established in 1870, just a little after Canada became a dominion of the British Empire (thanks to the British North America Act of 1867) and a country in its own right. Our highest authority remained the British queen Victoria, so the main street of Empire, which runs roughly east-west, is Queen Street. This is typical in my corner of Canada: you can guess when a town was founded based on whether the main drag is Queen Street (Victoria) or King Street (Edward).

Empire's Queen Street still is lined with two and three storey buildings, with businesses on the street level and apartments above. The sidewalks are wide. At the center of town, in the middle of the boulevard that runs down Queen Street, is a circular island and green space where the founding fathers planted a sugar maple tree. Old Red is over 160 years old and dominates the townscape. In other bigger towns, there might be a war memorial here, engraved with the names of the fallen from the two great wars, but no one was going to mess with Old Red in Empire. The war memorial is at the cemetery, west of town.

When our series begins, most of the downtown retail space is empty and many of the apartments are, too. The twenty-first century has passed Empire by, as did most of the twentieth, to be honest. It all went awry when the railway chose to build their station in the sister town of Port Cavendish instead of Empire in the late nineteenth century.

Empire's once-glittering neighbour, Port Cavendish, was once a busy resort on Lake Erie, offering beaches and entertainment to day-trippers and vacationing families, but its appeal faded with the outbreak of World War II. Now, people go to the Caribbean when they want a beach holiday. There's a provincial campground in Port Cavendish now, and a picnic area that's invariably quiet. The train tracks have been removed and the track bed is a hiking trail. You have to go to Havelock, to the north and east of Empire, to catch a train.

There aren't a lot of jobs in Empire itself, and so there aren't many local services. People go to the larger town of Havelock for work, groceries, chain restaurants, and big box stores. Their kids go to school in Havelock; the closest police station is in Havelock, as is the hospital and that train station. Havelock isn't very big at 25,000 souls, but it's a lot bigger than Empire. Port Cavendish isn't even a town anymore. It's on some maps, but Mackenzie Rhodes says it's more of a feeling than a destination. (She's right.)

The Cavendish family, though, are still in Empire - in fact, they own most of the town and influence everything. They once ran the fairgrounds, the restaurants and the casinos in Port Cavendish. They ran the ferry service to Toronto and New York state, and owned the port outright. Savvy businesspeople, they've moved with the times. Edward Cavendish perceived early that the north of Lake Erie was ideal for growing seasonal produce that could be shipped to Toronto. He bought up land and his son, Patrick, ultimately built greenhouses to extend the growing season.

Cavendish Enterprises is the largest grower of greenhouse tomatoes in the province at the beginning of the series, and holds its own in the greenhouse cucumber, hydroponic lettuce and other fresh produce markets. Their extensive greenhouses are located north of Empire, still run by the family - well, mostly run by Mike Cavendish, grandson of Edward and second son of Patrick. There's a line of bicycles outside the door of the greenhouse complex: it's so big that's how workers get around inside.

Just Trouble, book one of the Carpe Diem Café series of contemporary romances by Deborah Cooke

Patrick Cavendish and his influence are impossible to avoid in Empire. He seems to consider it his town, and in a way, it is, since he (and Cavendish Enterprises) owns most of the property. There are those who would say Empire is clutched in his iron fist. There are those who despise him. There are others who think it prudent to stay on his good side, and there are still others who are waiting for their moment to remind Patrick that he doesn't own them.

The series starts with the return of Patrick's so-called prodigal son, the illegitimate child he never acknowledged but who everyone knows is his blood: Luke Jones is ready to shake up Empire and right some old wrongs in Just Trouble. He expects a fight and he'll get one, but he's going to be surprised to learn how many people are already on his side. Daphne Bradshaw is the first to join his team.

This series is going to be so much fun. 🙂

The other names I mentioned? Mike Cavendish gets his story in book #2, while Mackenzie Rhodes has her story in book #3. More about both of them, and their partners, to come.