On authenticity...

...in fiction.

Thoughts from Betsy and Liz B.

I've noticed that unless I have issues with the voice or the writing, I generally don't stop to think much about authenticity while I'm reading. Maybe because while I'm engrossed in the world of a book, I don't think to question it, but if something knocks me out of the story, my mind starts wandering?

(Unless it's a glaringly obvious factual error. But those knock me out of the story, so that situation amounts to the same thing.)

After I'm done reading? That's a whole different story.

Which is why I LOVE Author's Notes and Afterwards and Historical Notes and whatnot -- because I love it when the author foresees my questions and answers them immediately. (Instant gratification, I love you.) For instance, I really dug the Author's Note at the end of The King's Rose, and, after reading Liz B.'s review, I reallywished there'd been one at the end of Wildthorn. (Unless there was one in the finished copy -- I read an ARC.)

Anyway. You?