Beware of Using Actual People in Fiction

I learned a valuable lesson in fiction while writing Deadly Beliefs. One of my sources of information was a retired consultant to Homeland Security. He was extremely careful and never divulged sensitive information but he was helpful in pointing me to un-classified whenever he could without violating his clearances. In one of our morning coffee meetings he said, “I’m not sure it’s a good idea to use actual characters in your book.” At that point I only had two non-fictional characters: Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri (bin Laden’s right hand man) and I ignored his advice. On May 2, 2011 Seal Team 6 took out bin Laden – I was thrilled that the world was rid of such an evil person but the book required a relatively major re-write. Exit bin Laden – enter Nasi Ahsan, the fictional successor to bin Laden who was in the same compound in Pakistan when the Seals attacked – Ahsan escaped. The next time I saw my friend after bin Laden’s demise he simply smiled and said, “I tried to tell you not to use any real characters.” Lesson learned the hard way.