I definitely tend to use places I'm familiar with in many of my stories. For instance Today Again--Grassroots is a real festival that takes place near Ithaca NY, just twenty minutes from me. The group that Lissa meets are all based on real people who camped in the spot I describe every year for a decade (my brother is actually one of these characters and he basically got the tradition started when he was seventeen :) All of their bantering, stories, etc. are based on real events :) I will be continuing that book at some point, just got a bit distracted.