I confess. The details in my fiction are open to interpretation by readers, as well as other authors. In my defense, though, my stories are set in a period more than two hundred years in the past, so many of the situations I put my characters into are dreamed up as I write.

That is not to say the conversations and actions I thrust these men and women into are made up of whole cloth. Their words and manner of speech are as thoroughly researched as possible. When I am working on a story, my browser has three pages open. They consist of:

1. The Jane Austen Thesaurus, so I can check if a particular word or phrase appeared in any of her books
2. The Merriam-Webster dictionary which, in addition to a word or phrase’s definition, also gives me the year of its first appearance in print, and
3. A good old-fashioned modern thesaurus so I can easily find synonyms if the word I want to use is new than the Regency time period

But words are not the only detail where I strive for accuracy. Of almost equal importance is my use of customs, the existence of certain buildings, roads, or even communities, and any reference to infrastructure in place for the time period of my stories. They are based on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and I found out, early in my writing career, that not only are the fans of this genre particular with regard to plotlines they will accept for the P&P cast, but they tend to be very knowledgeable about the Regency era as well.

Most often I have been taken to task, and rightly so, for mistakenly placing Lady Catherine’s home of Rosings Park in London, an error for which I was figuratively raked over the coals. In another story I failed to take into account the distances between Pemberley, Longbourn, London, etc. My mistake was not in placing them too close together or far apart, but in having Darcy get from one place to another in hours rather than days.

I don’t excuse myself for these blunders; the fault is mine for not verifying the facts when a few minutes online would have been enough to set me straight.

Since making what to various commenters are obviously egregious errors, I have made it an iron-clad rule to check and double-check my facts before committing a situation to paper.

On the other hand, I have also been taken to task for supposed errors that, again, simple investigation on the commenter’s part would have pointed out the mistake in their suppositions. In my book “Disgraceful Conduct”, a reviewer seemed to assume that modern investigatory methods and procedures existed in the period when my story took place, when, in fact, only rudimentary scrutiny of a crime was conducted and that was the responsibility of the person wronged. In addition, trials, if and when they were held in rural communities such as the one surrounding Pemberley, were, again, most often paid for by the victim. Keep in mind that the justice system in Regency England, or what passed for one, was rudimentary by today’s standards and money, or the lack thereof, usually determined guilt or innocence. I took that into account in relating the tale of a savage attack on Darcy’s sister, Georgiana, and the consequences of rushing to judgement for Darcy, Elizabeth, and Georgiana.

The message I am trying to convey is that writing is not an easy task and errors, in composition, assumed facts, and vernacular, creep into the manuscript, despite our best efforts to create and publish the perfect story. As an author I welcome criticism and rely on its help in improving my ability to fashion a tempting and satisfying story. If a reader identifies what they think is an error, please bring it to my attention so I can avoid making the same mistake twice. All I ask is that before you excoriate me in a review, take the time to verify the accuracy of your assumptions regarding the error you think I have made.

In closing, I offer an update for those enjoying my Elizabeth Said, Darcy Said series, book five, titled Miss Elizabeth Confronts Lydia should be published before Christmas, with the final, sixth book arriving shortly after. I want to thank everyone who takes the time to read my work and, for the curious, next week’s post will include an excerpt from the upcoming novella. Have I grabbed your interest? I sincerely hope so.