“Is the historical fiction in your book based on reality?”
“How real is your book?” These are questions I am often asked.
Much of my first novel, The Judas Legacy, takes place in cities I have lived in or visited. One reader smiled at me over a cup of coffee as we sat in a building I had highlighted in the book. He said he recognized the scene, as it ran right by his house.
The addition of real locations continues in my soon-to-be-released Kayne’s Revenge and The Prodigal Son.
Every author has a different idea of using actual locations versus fictional places. Some authors, like Dan Brown, will use locations so real that fans will make trips to see them for themselves. Others will create fictional towns like Godric’s Hollow, England, described in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.
Still others will mix and match. Stephen King is a great storyteller who masterfully does this with mixing real-life cities and towns like Orono with places he makes up, like Castle Rock, Maine.
I’ve also been asked if the coins in The Apocalypse Series are real or if the historical fiction events that took place are accurate.
The series is a work of fiction. As such, even the historical events are fictionalized. However, they are close to the real events.
Warning – Spoiler alert
keep scrolling at your own risk
Historical fiction in motion
In The Judas Legacy, I interject historical events inside a current-day story to add credibility. One of those scenes is the Roman Siege at Masada in the Judean desert. Much of the historical record of that battle is steeped in mystery and myth. In this chapter, I intermix the known with the mysterious, stir in a little of the myth, to create a chapter most of my readers have deemed plausible.
As I said, not historically accurate but historically close.
Another historical chapter depicts the final days of the Russian Royal Family at the hands of revolutionaries, yet it’s not about the historical retelling of the murder of the Romanovs.
When revolutionaries executed the Royals and changed the fortune of the world, some believed princess Anastasia survived. In a re-telling of history from the edges, we see the transfer of relics from Tsarina Alexandra to a member of The Order, the secret society described in The Judas Legacy.
And this historical fiction has enough accurate details to make many readers think, “Huh, I didn’t know that.”
Is it exact? Enough of it is accurate to convince readers of the potential for being the truth.
So, when someone asks me if the events and relics are real, I can tell them with all confidence that they’re not 100% accurate but are close enough for some to question reality.
On a side note-my daughter loves history as much as I do. Her strong interest is in learning about kick-ass women in history. After she read The Judas Legacy, she went to look up one of the characters, thinking there would be another story to enjoy. She was rather annoyed with me when she found out Beulah was entirely made up.