Recently I’ve been working on a family project including
family stories and legends. Sometime back I plugged in the name of a notorious
ancestor and what I found surprised me. I found two blogs about this man and
both were a figment of someone’s imagination. The information in the blogs said
that this ancestor was Italian and that he was a force in the Mafia in Old Los Angeles.
First of all, he wasn’t Italian. Secondly, although he wasn’t a particularly
stellar citizen and he was in a questionable profession, he was not involved in
the Mafia. This blogger hadn’t done his research but had, instead, made some
assumptions based on my relative’s surname. (Immigrants often changed their
names or changed the spelling when they moved to America, and this man was of
one of those.)
When I’m working on a book I do the best research I can
on nonfictional subjects. In A Well-Kept Family Secret , part of the story took place in Old Los Angeles. I researched
what was going on back in the day. I read newspaper articles, obtained
information from an archaeologist and used family history as a basis for the
story. The story was very loosely based on the above-mentioned relative. I
researched books dealing with the late 1800s and early 1900s. I even
interviewed a few people who’d lived through that time. Needless to say, the
interviews took place a very long time ago.
On another front, Old Murders Never Die takes place in a long-abandoned ghost town. In the
interest of accuracy, I researched everything from old cook stoves and washing
machines to the way people talked and lived. Thankfully, I received a comment
from a woman who works as a steward for ghost towns. She said I had everything
right except that the town would have been a lot dirtier. While that’s a good
point, I didn’t want my protagonist to spend the entire story cleaning while
stranded in the ghost town and trying to solve an old crime.
I have a relative who came home from World War II and
became somewhat of a recluse, living in the mountains and only coming down when
it was necessary. He was actually one of my favorite people, and I was so used
to his lifestyle that it was years before I realized he probably had PTSD. That
realization brought on research for a book titled, The Silver Dollar Connection . The men in this story are memorable.
Believe it or not, I was able to include some humor in the story. My relative
would have appreciated that.
Readers are smart. They know the type of material they
enjoy reading, and it’s often something they have knowledge of, which is why
they enjoy it. If the writer gets it wrong, a reader may very well let them
know.
I’ve read a few books where you simply knew that the
author was fictionalizing every word because they were so off the mark. It’s
not just history, but includes how a business is run, what terminology is used
in certain situations, whether it’s a gang member talking, a cop speaking or a
mother of twins bragging about her kids. Very few readers want to read a story
that has no basis, at all, in fact.
My latest book, The Accidental Gumshoe , was particularly fun to write. I had to learn about
slang terms from 1920 and how people dressed and thought. I needed to create a
character who would have fit comfortably into that era.
I try to include lightness or humor in most of my books,
and because of that sometimes things aren’t as realistic as they might be.
However, the basics are researched. Sandi Webster, my favorite protagonist, is
a private investigator. While a real P.I. wouldn’t be able to get away with
some of Sandi’s antics, there wouldn’t be a story if I didn’t fudge a little
(or sometimes a lot).
So there you go. Fiction needs to be combined with fact.
Don’t fudge with something that can be researched. An author should be as
accurate as possible while still telling a good story.
Now you have some idea why most writers research their
projects, sometimes even to the smallest detail.
Until next time, have a good week and check your facts
before making a statement.
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