So, yeah, I'm a fictional romance author. Who tries to represent real things as they happened or could happen. Really. You would be truly surprised just how much research goes into fictional writing. Well, if an author cares about accuracy. Which of course, I do.
So here I am, hitting one wall after another as I write the first book in the upcoming 4 book series titled Peyton's Pride. The name of the book is still floating in the gray just beyond my reach. Maybe because this story that God gave me 25 years ago, is struggling to get out of my head and onto the paper. Or maybe because it's set 54 years in the past. At this point, it would seem that this is as close to a 'historical' romance that I am going to get. Y'all know that I'm happy writing contemporary romances, so it might surprise you that I'm even going back that far. Before I was even born. Yeah, it surprises me too. Makes me nervous even. However, the series begins with Adam Peyton and Elena Abaroa, in 1970. Y'all have to see their story first before you can get to Marinea Peyton and Gage Walker, which leads to Honor Peyton and Matt Pearson's story. Cadence Peyton and Doc (I don't have any other name for him yet) will finish the Peyton's Pride series in modern times (and what a relief it will be to get back to today!).
For instance (circling back to hitting walls), one part of Adam and Elena's story involves Vietnam POWs returning home. The way the story came to me was the POWs coming back on a Navy ship. The Department of the Navy's CHINFO (Chief of Information and the Office of Information) has kindly been providing information to me concerning the possibility of that actually happening. Sadly, it did not happen that way. POWs during the Vietnam War were treated at military medical facilities in the Philippines or Guam or other US friendly places close to Vietnam then flown home to the US on US military aircraft. While I'm thankful that our POWs were returned to us, I'm disappointed that one of the major parts of my book came to me in an incorrect format.
The next wall that I hit today, is the number of female inmates in 1970 in the Northeast. To this modern-day author who has minimal knowledge of prisons and female prisoners, it is a shockingly low number of incarcerated women way back then. Like, 4 women in prison in one of the states I'm looking at. Well...That's kind of hard to paint the picture of a rowdy prison scene with only 4 inmates involved. Sigh.
Okay, Lord. I know you want me to write this story. Forgive me my perfectionist tendencies. And please help me find an accurate way to let my readers learn Adam and Elena's story.