Real Life Influence

In the novel I am currently writing has two broad settings; The magical realm of Aspira and a small rural town. Considering I live in a small rural town, I’ve found myself pulling parts of my own life and applying it to my story. The main character, Lotus, visits a small pharmacy/grocery store and gets lunch after school each day. A small family owned pharmacy with a little soda fountain is a few blocks from my home, and a lot of students from my school visit. Lotus’ cousin Max is a young lawyer, to whom she brings lunch after school and does odd jobs for. My deceased grandfather, and now my own father, my aunt, and my cousin work at a family owned law business that my mother and I help work at as needed (such as odd jobs like cleaning and minor repairs). Lotus’ aunts, Valerie and Cynthia, own a little cafe where Val sells her art. I want to be a history teacher, but one of the careers I seriously considered was opening an art shop. I try my best to make them different from my real life so that it’s not like copying the settings and events, but I also feel like using the events as I’m familiar with them will help me write them more realistically.