Do you like to read a fictional story that has some truth in it?

[Chris]

I find that I can tap into my muse only after I have some details or history of an event from the real world to add into my writing. The Rainbow Murders inspirational seed was from true murders in Tampa, Florida. I took this seed and then built my own story and fictional world.

I decided to take the “what if” approach and write this psychological thriller. My concept started with the news story of community that had been targeted in the true crime, then I steered my killer in another direction. My protagonist, Amber Moon is stalked by a serial killer the news media has dubbed as “The Rainbow Killer,” and romanced by the perfect man. No one is exactly who they seem to be, making many twists, turns, and surprises in the story.

Believing that every city has its own excitement and beauty, I didn’t have to go far for a location. The famous and exotic Ybor City, once known as the Cigar Capital of the World is just outside the Tampa Bay area where I live and is the setting for most of the scenes in my novel. This cross-genre is an interesting mix of Love and Terror.

What do you like to read? Do you enjoy finding some real world in your fictional books?

[Chris]

I love limiting the time travel to the lifetime of your character! Time travelers who jump all over in history always seems to me like a sneaky way to make us read about history.

I love to find hidden facts within a fictional story. It's an added treasure. An unexpected bonus when you read about real things or places. Good job not over using this feature in fiction writing. I'll have to check out your book.

[B.C.]

Considering my first novel actually used not only my hometown, but a fictionalized version of the high school I attended . . .yes. Heh.

[Michael]

I find if there is not an element of truth, some underlying meaning greater that the sum of the pages, I cannot maintain interest. If a story doesn't make me wonder about an aspect of my life I hadn't previously considered, I feel like I've wasted my time reading it.

[Chris]

Exactly. Some one said that there needs more truth in fiction writing than needed in non-fiction. A non-fiction book your reader is already on the author's side and doesn't question what is offered. However, in fiction your reader expects the author to convince them that is could really happen. If you are not believable than they stop reading. The elements of truth is that convincing element in fiction writing.

[Gary]

I'm with Chris when she said "I find that I can tap into my muse only after I have some details or history of an event from the real world to add into my writing." Here's how I came to write my second novel, Ash: Return Of The Beast:

I was browsing through a second-hand bookstore one day and came across a biography of the notorious British occultist, Aleister Crowley (1875-1947), the man the British press once labeled as “The Wickedest Man In The World”. Having had a long time interest in all facets of the supernatural, paranormal, and generally anything that resonated with those topics, I was familiar with who Crowley was. I knew he identified with the number 666 and often referred to himself as “The Beast”. But I’d never read a full biography about him. I paged through the book and, toward the end, my speed-reading eyes almost passed over a remarkable little factoid that I’d never heard about before. I did a double-take to see if it said what I thought it said. It did.

According to the biography (and I’ve since found the same information elsewhere), Crowley’s body was cremated upon his death. Curiously, however, the urn containing his ashes mysteriously disappeared. Its disappearance has remained a mystery to this day. When I read that I thought, wow, if that isn’t a great set-up for a supernatural tale, I don’t know what is.

This idea wouldn’t leave me alone. I mulled it over in my head for days, maybe weeks, trying to come up with a good story based around this intriguing little bit of Crowley trivia. Eventually, it came to me and I couldn’t wait to get started. Three years in the works, it finally emerged as Ash: Return Of The Beast, a supernatural serial killer chiller steeped in the occult and drenched in esoteric lore. Ash: Return of the Beast

[Chris]

Gary, I love this story!

An article written in the eighties about the magician David Copperfield featuring his poster collection of famous magicians reported Copperfield saying that what made something interesting was the stories behind the objects.

I believe those hidden stories drive everything. My sequel, "Beyond Havenridge-Finding Jacob," will be release this year is a seventy-old mystery surrounding a man who left his beloved to find work but never returned. My protagonist wants to write a book about the two lovers but first has to uncover what happened to Jacob. In her research, she stumbles onto a mental hospital of questionable practices and uncovers old suitcases of past patients. My inspiration came from true-life stories saved, recorded, and is now part of a museum exhibit called "The Lives They Left Behind-Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic."

In my novels, I share interesting facts and any links like the suitcase museum link http://www.suitcaseexhibit.org/indexh... in the back of my books.

I suggest you use your bookstore story, your inspiration, in talks you give and promotions about the novel. Great story, you have me hooked. I want to read it and I’m not much of a paranormal follower.

[Nik]

I agree with the comments above about fact driving the story. I've done it in my novels and it makes it more interesting to me as well as, hopefully, the reader. An earthquake actually happened on the day my protagonist was in Yazd, ancient city in Iran, for example. Of course George MacDonald Fraser did it all the time with Flashman!

[Chris]

Thanks, Nik.
It's interesting to hear how our own unique ways are not so much unique. They say different strokes for different folks but it seems we're all swimming in unison.

[J.S.]

My YO book is based on my teen life, town, school, etc. I brought up some history (underground tunnels, big foot)that is involved in the story too. I think it adds more depth to a fiction story.

[Abby]

Our new book, At the End of the Line, spans from 1958 through 1972. We've included the 1940 & 1960 Democratic Conventions, the March on Washington in August, 1963, Kennedy's civil rights speech, his inauguration and his assassination and we even put one of our characters in a real incident in Alabama during the freedom righters trips. In fact, Jack Kennedy was a friend of one MC, after she was romantically involved with his brother, Joe. Great fun writing like that. We hope the readers enjoy.

[Chris]

Abby,
Putting history or real accounts from a time in the past can be dangerous. In my first novel, I wanted to add some songs I remembered listening to in my teenager years. Since I was putting my character's age the same as mine at the year the story was taking place, I wondered if research was necessary. Nevertheless, I researched to make sure the song had been released and one of the songs I wanted to use had been released, and another had not. The lesson learned was even if you've lived it, researching the facts are still necessary.

I hope your reference in this discussion was a typo. The movement, in which civil rights groups traveled from town to town on buses, was called, The Freedom Rides. Here’s a good link for you http://www.history.com/topics/black-h... where you can view real news footage.

[Janet]

yes, that's probably my favorite. I especially like real settings with a what if theme.

[Barbara]

My newly released novel "#Betrayal" by Barbara Billig starts roughly two years after "The Nuclear Catastrophe". The Fukushima nuclear disaster threatens to contaminate the world. Bryce Anderson’s company in southern California is selected by the UN to investigate. He finds that he is not welcomed by the country of Japan. In fact someone seems to be trying to murder him. Lies, greed, & power struggles intertwine the lives of the characters. Whom should you trust?

The first novel was based on the fact that an earthquake or other natural disaster could cause a nuclear power plant to threaten and disrupt our lives. The Japanese disaster at Fukushima proved this to be true. So I decided to write a fictional tale of what has happened there in the aftermath, which is totally based on facts. The main response I have gotten from this book is "Wow, I didn't know that all this was going on!" #Betrayal by Barbara Billig is on kindle countdown special for Earth Week. Here is the link http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IX1L94Y and I hope you enjoy!
#Betrayal: a Nuclear Fiction Novel of Survival

[Norma]

I prefer books that merge fact and fiction and like Janet I love authentic settings too. Having said that, a good book always feels true.

[Marlowe]

I prefer true crime books much more than the fictional ones. I guess that answers your question. ;)

[Norma]

Yes - Death in Perugia springs to mind.

[Nik]

Norma's hit the nail on the head. (Society for the Protect of Nails please note no nails were harmed in this phrase!)... The point of any good book is for the reader to believe it's true at least during the reading time; some, after the ending's reached, there's still that lingering concern that though it's labelled as fiction, maybe it was true. I found that with the thriller Arm Me Audacity (long time ago!) by Richard Pape (and several others since).

[J C]

I have found that grounding my stories in some kind of "real life", be that in terms of places or events, makes the story seem richer and more solid. I am not one for building a detailed world from scratch. Recently, though I was investigating ghosts and regional folklore, and ended up reading about famous murders. I ended up all entangled in the ethics of using real life murders to flush out your fictional book, even if these real life murders were now part of regional folklore and ghost stories (I write paranormal adventure).

[Richard]

My own process always begins with either a personal experience or a what-if, prompted by a real event. I write in fantasy, scifi and historical fiction, but right now I'm working on a YA book that is at it's heart, memoir, fictionalized. The "real" gives it immediacy and connection with readers (I hope) while the more fantastic aspects of the story, propel the plot. It's always a merging of the real and the invented that attracts me to read a book. I'm reading One Hundred Years of Solitude right now, and no one ever accused Marquez of being too realistic... or not! LOL!

[Nik]

Richard, take note of the number of times Marquez uses the word 'hundred'... it's a lot. Magical imagery, too.

[Zané]

What, exactly, do you mean by truth? I find, in fiction, truth can often be portrayed more accurately than in what's called nonfiction, because the writer is protected under the veil of "this is make believe." No matter what story I'm reading, I want it to have the ring of truth, and that usually involves a writer drawing on his/her own life experience to understand a character's internal life ... as for external life, research and life experience help.

[Nik]

Zane is right. Truth can result from the 'lies' of fiction, a well known fact...

[Richard]

Nik wrote: "Richard, take note of the number of times Marquez uses the word 'hundred'... it's a lot. Magical imagery, too."

Marquez has suckered me in so well, that I didn't notice anything "magical". Even those things which in the real world are not possible, seem perfectly plausible in Macondo! ;)

[Mary]

Hey, this is for the person who likes time-travel stories that don't feature a specific well-known event... and for anyone else, too: Read Kage Baker's "The Company" series of novels, starting with IN THE GARDEN OF IDEN. They're funny, sexy, and very intriguing. (And they're best read in the sequence they were published in.)

[Sue]

My own novels are always firmly rooted in the present reality. That's just me and my motivation. I'm writing a series of novels set in present day Cambodia, and part of the goal is to reveal a real but relatively unknown culture to an English-speaking audience, but through fiction. The more "real" the place and times are, the more flexibility I have with the characters, it seems. Maybe it's a way of recreating reality. Who knows? If you're interested, the latest book in the series is called Out of the Ruins and is available in all the usual ways. If anyone would like to review it, I'd gladly send you a review copy.