Mixing reality with fiction…

Tom Clancy once stated that fiction had to seem real. Even good sci-fi needs to follow that rule in the sense that future humans should seem real and doing real things that are possible in whatever future settings are part of the plot. In a fictional universe of the past or in the near present, what better way to make things seem real than to mix the fiction with reality? Real events, real people, and real settings liberally mixed into a tale can help the reader enjoy the story more.

I’ve been b...