Can you help?

Good evening everyone!

Are you a NIMH fan? Are you from America? Do you know the states of Maryland and Virginia intimately? How about Washinton DC? Do you have a working knowledge of wildlife along the east coast? If so, Procorp needs you!

At Procorp we pride ourselves on producing fan fiction that is not only enjoyable to read, but also as factually accurate as possible. However being British based, we need good people with first hand knowledge of the subject matter.

Do you think you have what it takes?

If so, please reply within.

Alexander Cunningthorpe,
Chief of Human Resources, Procorp.

Okay, maybe I should be serious…

What I was trying to say is I need some help making my fanfic as factually accurate as possible (if you haven't read it, go! Go and read it now!). Unfortunately I'm not local to the area in question (IE. America! Most of the evidence points towards it being Maryland/Virginia, mainly as NIMH itself is near to the capital city) and therefore I need some help from someone who knows these states pretty well. By that I mean not just the city of Washington DC (though that will be crucial in time to come), but also the wildlife that is indigenous to these two states. If you are well acquainted with the area in general, brilliant! I need your help and would really like to talk with you at length!

Exact details regarding the city and how the story fits around it are still classified (read as: I haven't entirely worked it out yet), but I do need info on the scenery, particularly the area around the foothills of the Appalachian Mountain chain and wildlife of northern Virginia/western Maryland, especially the various species of birds. Websites haven’t proved entirely useful, so I throw it open to the floor.

I will also be more than happy to accept emails on the subject, if you really want to go into depth or feel that the forum isn't the place for your reply. Good websites will also be great (all I've found are mapping websites, and you really have to dig to get anything useful outta them!). In short, any info you can give me will probably help.

Cheers!

You are correct in that NIMH would be set in the area immediately outside of Bethesda, Maryland. The actual "NIMH" is located there, and R.C. O'Brien once stated in an interview that he got the idea for the story while visiting a friend working at NIH (National Institute of Health) which is just next door. The friend told him that they had lots of trouble with the rats used in various research projects--they were too smart and would get out, causing the buildings to be locked down while the animals were rounded up.

Another clue to this location (and something that may help you) is a book O'Brien wrote called "A Report from Group 17" which is, in essence, a grown-up version of MFRN.

Hope that helps...and I can try to answer general questions about the East Coast, but I have never lived the area of DC...visited a number of times, but never lived there.

Thanks for confirming what I said. I just hope I got all the names of states, etc, correct. I'll look out for that book, too. Is the story quite similar (ie. a retelling of MFaRoN for a more mature audience) or is it a new story that deals with the same sort of subject matter? I suppose it's got a lot more about the labs and such?

With regards to general questions, can you think of any analogues for the sort terrain on the east coast? I have received information that it can be likened to Wales in the British Isles, but the more descriptions I can gather together, the better.

Also, I forgot to mention before... Does anyone out there have a good grasp of chemistry?