Wednesday, May 25, 2022

When Real People Intrude in Fiction by David Hagerty






LUCY BURDETTE: When David Hagerty, a contributor, contacted the Reds about a date for the new anthology, LOW DOWN DIRTY VOTE 3, we said we'd love to have him. What's more important than every single person having a chance to vote? Today he'll talk about including historical figures in his fiction. Welcome David!

DAVID HAGERTY: I’ve included many historical figures in my fiction. Growing up in Chicago, I heard stories of corrupt politicians and infamous criminals that fit right into a mystery. The city’s history teems with ready-made characters, so when I need a villain I don’t have to look far. I insert John Wayne Gacy or Mayor Richard J. Daley and let them do their worst.

However, I get a lot of questions about the practice, often from other writers. Have you ever been sued? (No, I’m not famous enough). Do you make them do stuff they never did? (No, that would be grounds for a lawsuit). Do you research them? (Yes, as much as possible).

For me, the challenge and delight of using real people as characters is capturing them as they were. Anyone can create a caricature. To sum up a living being, with all his or her traits and contradictions, is far more difficult.

Truth be told, you can choose facts based on your own ends. Whether you love the president or loathe him, there’s plenty of material out there. You just need to put your spin on it.

In my last book, I wanted a community activist to pontificate, so I read Jesse Jackson’s speeches and distilled them to a few catch phrases. When I needed a criminal governor, I had four in Illinois’ recent history to choose from. And when I needed a tale for Low Down Dirty Vote 3, the new anthology about voter suppression, I had decades of election fraud to cull.



I created a fact as fiction piece about Chicago’s last political assassination: of Aldermen Ben Lewis in 1963. I read all the original sources I could find and stuck close to the facts. Ben Lewis was executed in his own office two days after his reelection. No need to falsify the drama of that.



What’s more, there was rampant speculation in newspapers of the time about who did it and why: a jealous husband, a bilked business partner, a vengeful mobster. All I created was a skeptical journalist to narrate the tale, and the story wrote itself.

I don’t often get so lucky. In most of my books, I have to invent most of it and sprinkle in the historical figures for spice. I like to think it gives the text the flavor of my hometown. This story captured the city’s corruption at its most rotten.

What about you? Is there a person from your town’s history you’d like to write about?

David Hagerty is the author of the Duncan Cochrane mystery series, about a governor bent on revenging his daughter’s death using the powers of political office. He has also published more than two dozen short stories online and in print. The most recent, “City Mourns Slain Pol, Chicago Style,” appears in Low Down Dirty Vote 3, which released this month.

About Low Down Dirty Vote 3: Twenty-two writers contributed stories to the anthology, which is the third focused on voting rights. The theme of this edition is « the color of my vote. » Sales from the volume will fund $10,000 donated to Democracy Docket, a journalist organization fighting voter suppression.


https://lowdowndirtyvote.com/

37 comments:

  1. Congratulations, David, on your new story . . . “Low Down Dirty Vote 3” sounds quite intriguing and I’m looking forward to reading it.

    I think using real people as characters in a story makes it uniquely relatable for the reader.

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  2. The Jungle Reds blog is always such a timely one, and, boy, is it ever today. David, thank you for this book with its focus on voter suppression is so important. I will be happy to buy a copy and support this cause. With the massacre of 18 children and two teachers (it's probably more now) in Texas today, the right to vote and the necessity of voting has never been more important.

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    1. Agreed. Awful event but a reason why we need to break the logjam of inaction.

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    2. Surely we agree that that murder of children and teachers is unacceptable. If not, then it's time to vote many people (of both parties) out of office...

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  3. DAVID: Congratulations on your new short story in this important anthology. I was able to watch the Crowdcast event with editor Mysti Berry & several short story contributors on book launch day.

    Now living in Canada's capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, there are plenty of historical figures whose stories should be highlighted. But much more needs to be done to recognize the indigeneous leaders in Canada. For example, everyone who travelled the Kichi Zibi (Ottawa River) had to pay a toll to the Anishinabe (Algonquin) tribe that controlled the flow of river traffic & trade. Chief Tessouat was a talented orator & diplomat who formed the first alliance between First Nations & the Europeans. He remained independent & defended the rights of the Anishinabe until his death in 1636. I saw a (new) monument to him as I cycled along the Ottawa River on Monday.

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    1. Good story idea

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    2. FYI, Ontario's provincial election is next week on June 2. Voter suppression is less of an issue here but voter apathy is a big problem. We had just over 50 % of eligible voters casting ballots in last summer 's snap federal election. Again, there's not much interest in this provincial one. I plan to vote in the advanced poll to avoid the delays caused by COVID protocols.

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  4. Congratulations on your new book! I struggle with the problem of using real people in fiction. Before I retired from my work as a history teacher, during my (scant) free time, I spent five years researching my CT hometown during the American Revolution. It has been fascinating to me. The true story of neighbor against neighbor in a civil war has never been told, and there were heroes and villains on both sides. Now I'm trying to write a historical novel, introducing a fictional family into the neighborhood and drawing on all this information. I have struggled with the question of whether, morally, I can invent looks, situations, and dialogue for the every-day real people I have researched, using their real names. I suspect not, but I'm so hamstrung by general fear that I am doing so in my first draft with the idea that I can change them all later.

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    1. what a good idea, and a fascinating question! I don't write historical fiction so I'm not well-informed about how other writers handle this. I do have lots of real people in the Key West mysteries, and for these folks (who mostly want to be a book!), I do just what you're describing.

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    2. The beauty of first drafts is you’re not committed to anything yet. Try it and see what you think of the results.

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  5. Congratulations on a great - and timely - collection, David. I wouldn't mind writing about the awful previous mayor of my small city. He was all about business and not much about the average citizen. We now have our first female mayor, our first who grew up here, and she's not even forty, so she's brought things like an updated web site and Facetime Live to the office. And we reelected her last fall!

    I'm writing about a famous person from the past right now. I put lots of words in her mouth, but she doesn't get her own POV. I can't claim to know what went on in her head.

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    1. Interesting, Edith. It would be difficult to give your historical character a POV, but I never thought of that. Can't wait to find out who it is.

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    2. I did the same with John Greenleaf Whittier in my Quaker Midwife series. He acts and speaks, but we're never in his head.

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    3. Sometimes it’s more engaging to let your antagonist just act than think

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  6. David, welcome to JRW and congratulations on your latest story. It is timely to look at Voting Rights in every possible way. The anthology sounds terrific.

    I do like to see actual historical people in stories as long as it makes sense that the person was there and his/her actions are in character. James Benn is masterful in his use of real characters in his Billy Boyle WWII Mysteries. His main character interacts with historical figures who were known to have been in the area and doing something that conforms with what they do in his stories. It works great! JRW's Rhys Bowen also uses historical characters in her fiction and her use of them always feels real!

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    1. I haven't read the Billy Boyle mysteries but will add them to my wish list...

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  7. Welcome, David! I have never been brave enough to write a real person, but I do agree it would give the story flavor.

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  8. Congratulations on your latest. What a timely topic.

    I like to see historical people and places in novels. As far as writing someone from my town. Maybe. There was a castle in our small town, Iviswold Castle. It went on to become part of Fairleigh Dickenson University and is now a part of Felician College. Despite being part of a university, it was a place of mystery with all sorts of fantastic rumors. I'd like to explore that, and the family who built it.

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  9. Roberta/Lucy seamlessly brings real people into her Key West Mysteries. I often marvel at the fact that current chefs and restauranteurs, and other local celebrities are featured prominently. It's incredible, I love it! How do you do it, Roberta? I know you speak with them first, but do they see the manuscript? Tell us more.

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    1. (Google made me sign in again, and they wanted to know my birthdate before they let me on Blogger. Google is ruthless.) That's my question above, Roberta.

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    2. thanks Judy, you are a having a moment with Blogger! No, I don't show anybody anything. But I do mention I'd like to use them (mostly), and no one's declined so far.

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  10. JUDY: WTH? I also had problems posting my second comment this morning. What is Blogger & Google up to now?!

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  11. DAVID: Congratulations on your latest and welcome to JRW. Perhaps you are excellent at reading people and know how to steer clear of people who would file lawsuits against other people? You would not enter a business deal with someone who is sketchy, right?

    I would like to see stories about people who lived in my town before the Europeans settled here. What were the Native Americans' lives like? That would be interesting. I would like to read about underrepresented people who perserved (spelling?) despite the obstacles that they faced in life.

    Diana

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  12. Growing up in NW Indiana with all of our news from Chicago, the news stories about Chicago politics were interesting enough to capture this kid’s attention. And if they ever drain Wolf Lake, according to urban legend there will be many more bodies than they’ve found in Lake Mead. Looking forward to reading these stories!

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    1. I'd be more interested in seeing the bottom of the Chicago River, where they used to dump the wastes from the slaughterhouses.

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  13. Hi David! This sounds amazing. And oh, I grew up in Chicago and now live in Boston--I could go forever on just the locals! Mayor Curley, who governed from jail. Or the local state rep who was caught on camera stuffing cash into her blouse. Has anyone written about Paul Revere's wife? Did he have a wife? Hm. And the house we live in now, circa 1894, was the home of the editor of the Newton MA newspaper. Imagine what he knew, or might have kept secret? I keep thinking there must be someting in the crawl space in the basement, but it's too spooky to go look. You have given me some ideas! xxx

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    1. Sounds like you have many more books to write...

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  14. Paul Revere had two wives... women wore out in childbirth in those days. (Paul had a total of 16 children between the two). Esther Forbes has written very sympathetically about both wives, but clearly has a fondness for the second, Rachel, about whom more is known.

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  15. Hi David, great to have you here! These are such good anthologies--I can't wait to read the latest. I don't think I've used any real people in my books, although I've written around some real events. It's a very interesting proposition. Also, I don't write about my hometown, Dallas, but I'm sure there are some interesting stories to be told.

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  16. I love reading your historical crime fiction. I feel like I'm standing right there watching history happen!

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  17. I love these anthologies. High quality stories that are impactful for the times we're living in. I also follow Democracy Docket - a very worthy cause!

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  18. Hello David! We're so thrilled to have you here today. Looking forward to reading the new anthology... Definitely I've been inspired by real people. Growing up I was fascinated by the murder of actress Lana Turner's gangster boyfriend Johnny Stompanato, and I used it as the starting point for a book... but I stuck a photograph of Joan Collins to my computer screen and used her as a model for the main character to make her as different as possible from LT. Sadly, the story did not "write itself." That has never happened for me.

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    1. Rarely so for me as well. This was an exception.

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  19. The Second Amend­ment to the United States Constitution needs to be – MUST BE – revised to remove the individual’s right to bear arms outside the personal residence!

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