Details count

Recently, a reader familiar with Suffolk County in New York informed me that the area's electric company hadn't been called LILCO (Long Island Lighting) in about twenty years. I mistakenly referred to it by its old name in The Heat of Heat. I was annoyed at myself for not checking that detail, which would have taken only a few minutes.

My most recent annoyance came from a book someone else had written. I was recently reading a hardcover book by a bestselling author about a woman on the run who is using an assumed name. This character's truck broke down, and the local auto parts man gave her a check for $700 for salvage. The narrative read that she went to the local bank and cashed the check "with no trouble." My eyebrows shot up like someone had just insulted my mama.

No way would this happen.

With fraud so prevalent, no bank or check cashing place in the country would cash a check without a picture ID. The author did explain how the character got hold of a deceased person's social security number to give to her employer, but simply glossed over this rather important detail of how her heroine waltzed into a bank and came out with seven hundred bucks. Did she hope no one would notice? Didn't the line editor point out how implausible this was? Or was her suggestion vetoed because this couldn't be explained, with the powers-that-be deciding she could get away with it because she's a bestselling author?

Readers will often point out when something totally out of left field occurs in novels. I was surprised that no readers mentioned this, perhaps because it was so casually stated. But details do count, and it's those little things, like the name of the local power company or cashing a check, that give a book credibility.

So writers, be sure to check your facts.