The Truth about Historic Fiction


One of the frequent questions I get regarding my book, “Great Lakes Skipper” is what is true and what is fiction. The book was originally written in the genre of creative non-fiction. That is a narrative based on fact but allows liberties in dialogue and scene descriptions. “The Right Stuff,” the story about the first astronauts which includes many pages of imagined dialogue, is a good example of creative non-fiction. My first draft was documented with numerous footnotes and references to my research. Beta readers, however, commented they wanted more story about the families and their activities. That’s when I decided to give my imagination a free reign, but to use discovered facts as the basis for the episodes. To cover-my-butt, I then declared the book was a historic novel. Chapter Six is a good example of fiction based on fact. That chapter tells of a frightening encounter when the main character, Ebenezer, age 21, and his future wife, brother-in-law, and brother are attacked by a renegade French trapper. The four were returning home from Sandusky with a wagon load of barrels, intended for sale to other Western Reserve settlers. The truth is renegade French trappers did, in fact, prowl the areas around the Western Reserve carrying out nefarious activities. It is also true that Ebenezer’s father had a business selling barrels he bought in Sandusky. It is, therefore, likely that Ebenezer, being a good son, would make trips to Sandusky in support of his father’s business.

The episode described in Chapter Thirteen is another example of fact-based fiction. I imagined an incident where Ebenezer, a ship’s captain, was carrying escaped slaves to freedom in Canada when he is chased down by an infamous slave catcher. There’s a considerable degree of truth in this chapter. Ebenezer was, in fact, a member of a Cleveland anti-abolitionist society. Ship captains were commonly used by the Underground Railroad in their flights to freedom. Hosanna, the Underground guide in my story, was based on the life of the famous, Harriet Tubman. I changed the name of the slave catcher but he was a factual notorious character in Western Reserve history. A number of other actual historic characters appear in the chapter.

I feel 90 percent of “Great Lakes Skipper” is a true account of Western Reserve history during 1798 – 1844. The book is the result of 15-years of research and may be ordered from Amazon.com, either in print or as an eBook,  or for a signed copy, purchase from my website www.jimstarknavy.com.