Looking for Opinions (or Advice!)

Hi Bookewryme - If you can find the information, someone else can too. First caution.

If the names of the two people were ones that would have been used by others - in the same generation or prior or subsequent ones - you're probably all right using the names and the information.

An option always is to change the names and use the information as you've found it.

Hope that helps. Puma

I think the key thing for me is, at the end of the day, you're writing a work of historical fiction. It is your authorial privilege to change the historical details to fit the needs of the story. Yes, you should be careful doing this (unless you're writing an alternative history and even then you don't want to make changes willy-nilly without considering the consequences) but I don't think anyone but your advisor or your dissertation committee is particularly going to care if you choose to situate two relatively unknown historical figures into the same time and place. (And I'm guessing you're not going to give this to your advisor for feedback...? )

If it's really bugging your historical sensibilities, you could always change the two characters' names and have two entirely fictional characters who are based on your historical figures (personality, life, etc.) but are not actually the same people.

Bookewyrme said:

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What would you do? With people these obscure (these are all villagers, no great kings or anything) people would you still stick as rigidly as possible to exact times that they lived, or would you be willing to mix it up a bit, while remaining true to the real people in other ways?

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Obviously these are known historical figures of some sort even if they aren't royalty so I'd make it as accurate as I can. You'd be surprised at how much readers know. If you plan any kind of a career in writing historical fiction you want to avoid inaccuracies. Historical readers are astute, they'll call you on it and may likely never read anything else you write. I don't know if she has time to help or not but you might try contacting Michelle Moran and asking her if she knows anything about the people you want to put in your book. She's written several novels set in ancient Egypt. Just Google her for her website. Good luck. Research can be frustrating at times but so worth it when it all comes together.

I think you...

have two choices.

1.
Write an author's note saying you know that these two people lived a generation/two generations apart but you put them together for the sake of the story.

2.
You do as Puma suggested and rename them but use their lives as your research has found. You also add an author's note that you are sure astute readers will recognise them as fictional characters based on the lives of Bill and Ben.

Hello, Bookwyrme!

I'm also writing fiction set in ancient Egypt. I have a novel agented (18th dynasty -- Thutmose I and Queen Ahmose, plus wee baby Hatshepsut at the end of the book) and am working on two more Egyptian novels. I've got ideas for more, as well. So I'm glad to meet somebody else who'll be writing Egyptian fiction! Woot!!!

I ran into some similar issues with my book. My problems came specifically from how Mutnofret was related to Ahmose (if at all) and the ages/maternal parentage of Thutmose I's three eldest sons (the ones who all died before he did.) As you know, evidence can be incredibly sketchy. This is both good and bad, from our perspective. On the one hand, if evidence is sketchy to support the choice you've made, then you're pretty justified in making it. You know how to do your research, and you've probably got more resources than the average historical fiction reader, so you an really thoroughly explore the options. If you still feel evidence isn't STRONG for the choice you want to make, but it is a PLAUSIBLE OPTION, and if you feel the story really would be best told by making this somewhat unorthodox but technically POSSIBLE choice, then I say go for it.

On the other hand, historical fiction fans can be vicious, and Egypt nerds seem to be especially so. I think something like an author's note explaining exactly why you made such an unorthodox choice could go a long way in defraying any potential backlash or bad reviews. This has worked fairly well for Michelle Moran -- a whole lot of learned readers have been able to overlook the fact that in "The Heretic Queen" she chose to make Nefertari (Ramesses I's Nefertari, that is) the daughter of Mutnodjmet even though there is clear historical evidence showing this cannot really have been the case.

If something so obviously inaccurate can fly with readers, you ought to be able to make something much less obviously inaccurate work. That's what I'm telling myself, anyway, about the choices I've made in my own Egyptian novel(s). For my novel that will hopefully be going on submission soon, I did include an author's afterword to explain how I arrived at some of the conclusions presented in the book. It should mollify most vicious Egyptophiles, I hope, to at least know that I am aware that some of the choices I made in the name of "good storytelling" probably did not really happen.

Good luck to you! If you ever want to chat about Egypt stuff, you know who to talk to!

Also, I'm dying to know what your book is going to be about. Yay, we need more Egyptian fiction!

I freakin' hate it when there's no bibliography! Arrrgh!!

I actually didn't bring up the author's note (which I envision going at the end of the book rather than the beginning) until the revision stage with my agent. I don't want it put at the beginning of the book because I'd rather start with the story instead of a history lesson. It's pretty short, too -- about 400 words. It wasn't a part of the manuscript I submitted to her, but we've added some tidbits to it since January. A historical timeline and a family tree, to be precise.