“Just the facts, Ma’am,” is attributed to Sgt. Joe Friday on the long-running TV program Dragnet. A writer of fiction wants a bit more than the facts. She wants to embroider on the truth to make it more interesting, but when she states facts, they had better be correct.
Facts and inspiration come from many different sources. I’m fortunate to have a policeman neighbor. I had asked him about the validity of a conversation which will appear in Moonstruck and Murderous. Yesterday as I was watering flowers, he walked over to give me his opinion on my question. I very much appreciated his input. Now, I’ll feel a lot more comfortable in including that.
And today, I plan to talk to a lawyer. No worries–it’s not about any problem I have, but it is a problem that one of my characters in the upcoming book has. I need to know the validity of a document that was written a long time ago. Would it hold up in today’s court? It’s all fiction, of course. I’ve never known, in real life, anyone with a similar problem, but the whole story hinges upon its validity.
And then, I got inspiration for a minor character in Moonstruck. I won’t say the source of this inspiration, but it was good!
If I’ve not mentioned it before, let me just say that writing fiction is a great deal of fun. It’s also a learning process when I can take a few facts, enlarge them, embroider them, add a dash of imagination and a whole lot of what if and come up with a fun and enticing cozy mystery.
Blanche Day Manos Mysteries
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