Omnimystery News is pleased to welcome Steven Nedelton as our guest blogger. Steven is the author of The Raven Affair (Asylett Press, Trade Paperback, March 2010, 978-1-934337-78-3), an international novel of suspense.
Today, Steven writes about where plots and characters come from ... how real are they?
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Steven Nedelton
“How did the author come up with the idea used in this novel? Are the characters, the protagonist, real people?”
Many readers ask these questions while reading a book they heard about and ended up getting. In the case of the famous historic suspense novel The Three Musketeers, readers are still asking those same questions over a century after the author’s death. A lot of research was done since 1880s and yet, no one is quite sure who the real d’Artagnan was. But does it really matter?
All professional writers are in the business of writing for profit. Sure they like to create; after all, they are creative people. The truly big names, those who are able to sustain themselves by their writing alone, are under contracts demanding new books. These writers are constantly searching for new ideas for their next creation, for their next best-seller. Where do they get them? Life by itself, particularly the everyday jobs, is often drudgery; there are very few individuals who can boast about their daily grinds. And there are very few events/characters that are really worth writing about. But, since the serious readers, the "avids," are constantly looking for new interesting novels, about crime, detectives, lawyers, vampires and monsters, to name a few, most successful books end up in the fiction genre.
In some cases, with monsters and vampires for example, there’s not much substance to the stories. They are the truly pure dream-worlds’ escapes. In other sub-genres writers depict real life drama in a fictitious, mostly exaggerated manner. Such works tend to be somewhat fairly realistic in their content, and can be educational too. It is interesting to note that in the not too far past, the governments of the former Eastern Block and China prohibited all writing and reading of fiction unrelated to the glory of the People and the System, blaming the genre for its otherwise decadent, adverse effect on the minds of the proletariat. Thus, pure imaginary was unacceptable, even punishable. A very pleasant life in such an environment.
My suspense novels, Crossroads and The Raven Affair, fall into the category of books using real people and true events in a fictitious manner. I based The Raven Affair on the life of a real criminal and his successful evasion of justice. The rest of this horror/suspense story is mostly fiction. The avenger, the protagonist, the two priests and the infamous hit-man and his pretty girlfriend, make the story enjoyable, and yet they are imaginary characters. So are the South American drug dealer and his death. Aside from the mass murderer, there is only one other true life character depicted in the novel. Obviously, without the invented characters and events, the novel would not be interesting. Hence, fiction is dominant, most writers employ it in their writing to embellish their work.
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Steven Nedelton is an author with three novels, Crossroads, The Raven Affair and Fear Factor/Dawn for the Fearless (submitted in April). He is working on his fourth novel, Tunnel. Thrillers are his preferred genre though he is not limiting himself and does write in other styles. He lived in London, England and Paris, France for several years and is able to draw from his experiences living abroad to add realistic descriptions of these locales and characters in his novels. Steven’s novels have been reviewed by a number of professionals, Midwest Book Review, Apex Reviews, The US Book Review of Books and others. Visit his website at SNedelton.com.
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About The Raven Affair: A man on the run. Anton was on the run for the past twenty years. Italy, Spain, Ireland, America. What is his horrible secret?
Two priests living in San Francisco, Father Dominic and Father Joe, like millions of Americans, had never heard of him. Interpol agents are pursuing him when their employer suddenly and unexplainably stops them. They are unaware that one of them is leading a double life and operating clandestinely as a high priced hit-man "Raven."
And then, there are Mick and Lynnie in San Fran. Mick, ostensibly the very popular maitre d’ at the Westin St. Francis’ Michael Mina Restaurant but—unknown to Lynnie and his employers—also a dreaded underworld figure codenamed "Clerk." What invisible circumstance connects the innocents with the criminals? Romance with a killer?
Watch a trailer for the book below:
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