Credibility is everything. You often hear in writer's groups, "But it actually happened." That's not an allowable defense. It has to be plausible to the reader. As Laurel Yourke, quoting Paul Horgan, says:
One must always keep in mind how 'if this, then that' must happen. Every detail must mean more than itself. The smallest error in plausability threatens the credibility of the whole.This quote is taken from Laurel's book, Take Your Characters to Dinner (Lantham, Maryland: University Press of America, Inc., 2000) p. xvi. The Horgan quote is from his book, Approaches to Writing (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1968), p. 42.
Publishing and writing are to me entrepreneurial activities. To read my comments on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com. For entrepreneurial real estate, click wwwyourstopforrealesate.com/blog
Ian Kearney, the director of the Kearney Music School, an elite musical training school in Philadelphia, dies after a fall from a balcony during a recital. World-famous cellist, Henry Harrier, recently forced from the faculty, returns to investigate Ian's death when his prized former student is arrested. Henry shows through his brilliant and single-minded pursuit of the truth that, as usual, they have it all wrong. This Sherlock Holmes-type mystery leads the reader through the world of classical music and lays bare the conflicts which dominate the lives of talented adolescents when placed under the pressure of studying for a demanding, stressful, and often elusive career as a classical music performer. Henry Harrier is part John Le Carre's George Smiley, part Arthur Conan Doyle's Holmes, and part Orlando Cole the beloved teacher, renowned chamber musician, and until his own retirement, the premier cellist of the Curtis Institute.
Tim was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on January 30, 1946. In 1951 he moved with his family to Schenectady, New York, where he lived through high school. He attended Baldwin-Wallace College, Berea, Ohio, from 1964 to 1968. He graduated in 1968 with a B.A. in history and philosophy. He received his Ph. D. in history in U.S. history in 1980 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison after spending 2.5 years in the U. S. Army. Most of his army service was completed in Wuerzburg, Germany, from 1969-1971. In 1972 he returned to Madison to complete his doctoral study. His dissertation, Those Who Moved; Internal Migrants in American 1607-1840, combined the statistical analysis of genealogical and biographical data with the study of traditional literary diaries, letters, and journals.
