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Manisha's avatar

Hello Harvey

I have a question. When writing historical fiction is it ok to keep the real names or must you change them?

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Peter's avatar

You know, Harvey, as you've witnessed, I'm not the greatest writer on the face of the earth (but I don't care about that. I just write it down a I see fit). I began in life as a factory worker while still in high school to make some money to the get the hell out of town. Thankfully, I did that, because I didn't want to live and die within a mile of the cemetery. Along the way, I picked up a helicopter pilot's license and thousands of hours of flight time and miscellaneous illegal ventures in various and sundry countries around the world - not guilty, yer honor, and I've never seen those guys before in my life (just as they never saw me).

I climbed on my motorcycle and ran around the southwest U.S. and the Mexican Baja for six or eight years as an illegal. While I was down there, I was sitting poolside at my favorite reclusive desert inn watching a bunch of models on a photo shoot.

My first short story was born of that shoot, and from there a biker series evolved. (I was never in a club. I'm an Independent.) Somewhere on the road, I thought I might tell a tale about some beat-up, broke-down crew of men doing things in Africa, having fun, and making cash by buying and selling gemstones and other things. Well, it didn't stop there. That has evolved into an on-going series as well.

Finally, thanks to my Baja adventures and the people I encountered, I started a PI/romance series. Oh, and there was the job I had in that old-school bike shop in the high desert. Man, the characters that went through that place on a regular basis would curl your hair.

Have I been fortunate? Hell, yeah! Could I have done it without all of life's "little" ups and downs? No idea, but I'm putting it down on paper with quill and ink-well. Is it any good? How the hell would I know? I'm having too much fun laughing and reminiscing over former comrades who are long gone. I have no idea why I'm still here, but I'm telling some stories with a little bit of fact thrown in with a lot of bullshit and having fun doing it.

I've forgotten all about more than a few villages and towns and cities, but that's what a search engine is for. Would I go back to some of those places? Not likely these days - or any other day. It's all in the past, and they deserve better.

What I'm trying to say is, write what you want. If you don't know something, look it up and ruminate for a bit. Let your mind wander. Let your fingers do the same over the keyboard. Close your eyes. Imagine. Pretend. Research. Put yourself there. Surely you've seen enough moves and read enough books or newspaper articles or watched news reports that will make it happen.

Or not. As always, your mileage may vary, as the saying goes. I know mine sure did, a lot faster than I wanted it to, in many cases.

Write on!

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