Writing Fiction with Facts - By Joyce Lavene

There is always some truth to our lies. That's what fiction writers say. And even though there may be a spot in the book that says all characters and places aren't real, we know some of  them are.

There are two of our daughter's old boyfriends who ended up dead in unpleasant ways. Our neighbor who likes to rev his car engine at 6 am on Sunday mornings met with a sad end too.

There are also good people who we've met or worked with that ended up in our books. They weren't killed - just did interesting things.

And there's the research.

Even when you write fiction, you do research. In our Peggy Lee garden mysteries, we researched plants, poisonous and non-poisonous. We went to garden shows and visited botanists.

In our Renaissance Faire Mysteries, we research crafts we have Jessie do in the books. And of course we go to lots of Ren Faires and festivals!

In our Missing Pieces Mysteries, we research antiques for Dae to have in her shop. We also do research on the paranormal element to the books and spend as much time as we can in Duck, NC.

Now we're writing a new series, the Sweet Pepper Fire Brigade Mysteries. Our protagonist is Stella Griffin, a ten-year veteran of the Chicago Fire Dept. Obviously there will be some research there!

The story takes place in Sweet Pepper, Tennessee. This isn't a real place but we still spent time in the area around the Smoky Mountains outside Dollywood where we imagine the town to be.

But our research has taken a new turn. I knew my grandfather was a fire fighter in Chicago. What I didn't know was that he helped fight the Our Lady of the Angels fire in 1958 where 93 children were killed when their school caught fire.

This research has become personal now. How do you look something like this up when everyone who had first hand knowledge is dead?

I'm not sure yet but I think it will be an interesting journey. And by sharing my family history with Stella, it will make her life more real for us and our readers.

Wish us luck!