Guest post written by author Cade Bentley
Cade Bentley is a novelist and editor who is also published as Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author Abby L. Vandiver, as well as Abby Colette. When she isn’t writing, Cade enjoys spending time with her grandchildren. She resides in South Euclid, Ohio. For more information visit www.authorabby.com. Where Wild Peaches Grow is out now.
Have you ever started a book only to put it down because you knew that, in a million years, that could never happen? It all defied logic and sent you the wrong way over a cliff.
In my books, I invite readers to follow me down a rabbit hole. To a place of wonder and surprise, and hopefully to root themselves and settle in for an enjoyable read. Filled with plot twists, suspense, heroes and heroines, murder and mayhem my stories often bend the rules of the realm of realism. Still, I endeavor to make my stories believable. I want readers to hang in there with me until the end.
In genre fiction, which I usually write, readers must suspend their disbelief—allowing the reader to accept the fictional elements that are, in reality, nearly impossible to believe. To do that, I have to ensure that there is an “appearance” of reality. My backlist of books is are filled with very day, ordinary people solving dastardly crimes—figuring out and following clues, approaching killer villains. Something I don’t think many of us in real life would do (I know I’d run in the other direction if confronted by one). I have to work hard to give my stories a muster of verisimilitude to keep my readers invested in my invented tale. I like to say that, I mix fact with fiction. To do that, I always try to throw in something real—a fact of history, a real person or place.
Recently, however, I tried something new. Realistic Fiction. I don’t know that I started out with that end result in mind. But I knew I wanted my new story to have a backdrop that echoed today’s concerns and to show damaged family relationships that mirrored real human emotions and reactions. With that goal, a true-to-life family saga, Where Wild Peaches Grow, was what emerged.
Realistic fiction weaves an accurate depiction of real-life scenarios. These stories are easy to get lost in as they are layered with conflicts and obstacles that readers will have a profound connection with, many times due to their own life experiences. Given a contemporary setting and relatable characters, realistic fiction tends to teach us about ourselves, different cultures and oftentimes leaves us with a lessoned learned. It aims to represent the truthful world around us.
This genre isn’t new. The 1960 story in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee painting a picture of race relations during the peak of the Civil Rights Movement, The Fault in our Stars by John Green about finding love and hope even with a terminal disease and The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennet giving an inside look at why people try to reinvent themselves even if it means becoming someone else are perfect examples.
Writing is a hard and crafting a believable story can be a challenge whether you ask your reader to suspend their disbelief or you offer a story that woven to conjure feelings the reader would face in every day life. But realistic fiction offers what we know to be true and can anchor the story to keep it grounded and convincing and your reader satisfied.
