Oh, it's got to be plausible all the way through. Otherwise the reader's suspension of disbelief will break. Your small town needs to have small-town-appropriate additions, or a believable alternate history (something that happened to another, previously small, town a hundred miles away). The army base would be perfectly fine for me - not shrinking the real world, but building a new one, if that's what the story needs.
Right now, for instance, I've elevated Machynlleth to the capital of Wales. This was a distinct possibility, and the Mach of today - which is a small and sleepy (and very ecologically aware) town - has expanded accordingly without becoming Cardiff transposed to the north. But the poing about Cardiff is that it's close to England and easy to reach, which Mach - for all the central government and university facilities I place there - will never be, so there's got to be a balance.
I always think that the more trustworthy a writer is overall - and the same goes on the character front, I want them to be well-rounded and acting like human beings - the easier it is to buy into a couple of odd things.
I'm currently writing in an alternate Britain, and the amount of research that needs is scary. Usually I can trust my historical/geographical skills to make things up wholesale and have them interesting and coherent. Meshing fiction with reality is a much harder job.
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Right now, for instance, I've elevated Machynlleth to the capital of Wales. This was a distinct possibility, and the Mach of today - which is a small and sleepy (and very ecologically aware) town - has expanded accordingly without becoming Cardiff transposed to the north. But the poing about Cardiff is that it's close to England and easy to reach, which Mach - for all the central government and university facilities I place there - will never be, so there's got to be a balance.
I always think that the more trustworthy a writer is overall - and the same goes on the character front, I want them to be well-rounded and acting like human beings - the easier it is to buy into a couple of odd things.
I'm currently writing in an alternate Britain, and the amount of research that needs is scary. Usually I can trust my historical/geographical skills to make things up wholesale and have them interesting and coherent. Meshing fiction with reality is a much harder job.