For avid readers and owners of Kindles, iPads and Nooks, visiting the sites of fictional novels is no longer a possibility, but a reality, stemming from a local initiative.

Brian Patrick Miller founded the Southeastern Literary Tourism Initiative three years ago in an effort to promote tourism through literature. Author of the short story “Blind Fate,” which was recently featured in USA Today, Miller pioneered the idea of literary tourism by incorporating live links in the books, allowing readers to instantly visit websites of the real tourism places described in the book.

“I had a short story published in an anthology inspired by Cahawba, the old state capitol in Selma,” Miller said. “I wanted the publisher to include online links to the Cahawba, and thought, why not keep going with this?”

Miller said he wanted to expand his idea by profiling novels around the Southeast set in real places to showcase that all types of books can include tourism.

“I have to push the idea to get a lot better,” Miller said. “The market doesn’t exist for these types of novels yet because the technology is new.”

After being asked about a literary tourism project for Moundville, Miller decided that would be a great location to host a writing competition and gain some momentum for his initiative.

Moundville was a Native American city made of large man-made mounds located on the banks of the Black Warrior River hundreds of years ago. The ruins of the abandoned city were first discovered in the 1930s and became an archeological excavation site. Moundville is now part of the University of Alabama Museums and features exhibits of artifacts and yearly festivals.

“After I took a tour of Moundville, I pitched the idea of the contest,” Miller said. “I thought, ‘What would people do if told to write for a specific place?’ I was fascinated to see what people would come up with. It shows that not just one novel can be written about it.”

The winner of the competition was Kathryn Lang’s short story, “Digging Up Bones.” Her work follows the unraveling of a murder mystery through discoveries made during a current day dig at the historical site.

The competition recruited writers mainly from Alabama and was judged by University professors Hank Lazer, Michael Martone and Alexis Clark. Stories were ranked first through fourth place with the winner’s piece being published online.

Lazer, executive director of Creative Campus, and a poet and writer with over 20 published books, said he enjoyed the freshness of Lang’s work and its ability to involve the reader in the mysteries and history of Moundville.

Lang, who has been visiting Moundville for over 10 years, said she drew her inspiration for a story after seeing interns working at the site during a visit with her family.

“‘Digging Up Bones’ plays in perfectly to a series of novels I’m writing,” Lang said.

Although the short story ends with a cliffhanger, Lang said she plans on finishing it and including it in  the last novel of her series “Run,” “Watch” and “Remember.”

This is Lang’s first venture into literary tourism, but she said she plans on incorporating more of it into her future works.

“This is a perfect additional element to an e-book to show the inspiration or actual locations, that is perfect,” Lang said. “Every town or community could use this and maximize the free advertising. It gets the writers and readers excited about the locations.”

Lang has contemplated working on young adult literary tourism novels about Boy Scouts and a mystery featuring the theme park Six Flags.

“This ignited a spark I had not realized was smoldering,” Lang said. “We have amazing locations people don’t know about, and we can draw attention to it.”

For more information on Lang’s novel or Southeastern Literary Tourism Initiative, visit www.southeasternliterarytourisminitiave.blogspot.com.