I have written six books about the zombie apocalypse, and all six take place in the St. Louis area. Much of the story also takes place in Jefferson County, Missouri, just to the south of St. Louis county. Since this is where I live, it makes it convenient for me to do research.
One of the advantages of all this local lore is that it simplifies author interviews with the newspaper for my county. In fact, they did a nice feature of me on page 1!