Stranger than fiction buries the needle on the "verisimeter"

I apologize if it sounds like I'm moaning about real conspiracies overtaking the fictional ones I've created.  I'm not complaining so much as apologizing to you all for aiming so low with my poor, deadly, plausible conspiracies.  Maybe I should endeavor to be less plausible in future. On the verisimilitude meter current events superseding those in Faithless Elector are eye watering.

My imagined "Verisimeter" (c) looks a bit like the Politifact truth gauge, but with an editor's red pencil in place of the needle.  And instead of ranging from "mostly true" to "pants on fire" the gauge would swing from "Oh, come on!" to "Hmmm. Yeah, that works."

Apologies to Politifact

Case in point: an article in Bipartisan Report, citing the Huffington Post describes events that leave the poor (fictional) conspiracy of Faithless Elector, and the machinations of Dark Network behind in the dust:
"A 1994 federal court ruling in Pennsylvania may have set a precedent that could put Hillary Rodham Clinton in as leader of the free world, according to Huffington Post," says Gloria Christy.

My post from just two days ago (28-May) began with the Tom Clancy quote stating that the difference between fact and fiction was that "fiction has to make sense."

If I were to write HuffPost's above scenario in a future novel, I think my editor's head would explode, along with the heads of my readers if said scenario made it past the draft stage. Moreover, because it's so tenuous, ill-conceived and implausible readers would feel cheated.  It screams deus ex machina. Back in the real world, my questions are:  a) are there no editors at these publications? is there no one to say "that would/could never happen, spike it;" and b) regarding the current administration and its daily blundering intrigue, who's in charge?  Who thought any of what's been happening would play well?

I will be beginning a weekly Verisimeter (trademark pending) test of recent headline stories.  I will write the chain of events behind the headlines as they are known or suggested, and then run the whole thing through the Verisimeter, giving it a rating of "Oh, c'mon!" or "Yeah, that could work."

My interest will be purely academic--not whether what's happening is good, or just or wise, and frankly it's a bit late in the day for that, but whether it could withstand scrutiny in the fictional world.

 James McCrone is the author of Faithless Elector, a suspense-thriller, Publishers Weekly calls a “fast-moving topical thriller.”  Its “surprising twists add up to a highly suspenseful read.” The sequel, Dark Network, is coming soon. Consent of the Governed will be available next year.

Faithless Elector, by James McCrone is available through Amazon.
If you live in Philadelphia, pick up a copy at Head House Books -or- Penn Book Center

Verisimilitude and prediction

Tom Clancy famously said, "The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense."  Verisimilitude means "like truth," plausible; and it's the novelist's key storytelling tool. What makes the kind of intrigue I write about disquieting is that verisimilitude requires setting up possible, plausible scenarios to dramatically examine and explore.  While the facts in my books couldn't withstand even the internet's sketchy fact-checking, the meaning and import--the truth behind the facts--of what these stories grapple with is meaningful, disturbing and relevant.

The New York Times today (Sunday, May 28) published an opinion piece by Stephen Roderick, Do We Really Want Mike Pence to be President? It leapt out at me for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that issues surrounding the office of the vice president are key to the events in the final book of the Faithless Elector thriller series, which I'm writing now--working title, Consent of the Governed.

Faithless Elector, the first book in the series, told the story of a deadly efficient conspiracy to steal the presidency by manipulating the Electoral College.  In this third book, the conspirators are still at large, still trying to win, with grave consequences for the future of our democracy.  Faithless Elector had great reviews and garnered a good deal of attention in the run-up to last year's presidential election, for which I am grateful.

Its premise turned out not to be prophetic (thank goodness!), but the havoc wrought on the political landscape by the Electoral College is all too real; and the weaknesses (fictionally) exploited in Faithless Elector are real, still latent--and potent. [For a primer on those issues and weaknesses, see Primer on the Electoral College]

The final book, Consent of the Governed, veers farther from the true events besetting the nation, but the premise remains all-too real.  Who is the vice-president?  Did we really think much about him/her during the campaign, or when we voted?  Does he/she have an agenda?  Where, as a governmental afterthought, does the vice president's power lie?

"Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed," reads the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence.  In Faithless Elector, these words resound in the mind of the protagonist Duncan Calder as he frets over what a nation not so constituted would look like...would act like.  The Faithless Elector series is not about what is happening right now, but about what it means.

In an earlier blog post (Sailing Too Close to the Wind) about book two in the series, Dark Network, I wrote about how I worried that the meaning behind the events I described was a little too close for comfort; and as I begin working on chapter three of this final book, I find that once again I'm not far from the mark.


Dark Network is coming soon.  Consent of the Governed will be available next year.

 James McCrone is the author of Faithless Elector, a suspense-thriller, Publishers Weekly calls a “fast-moving topical thriller.”  Its “surprising twists add up to a highly suspenseful read.” The sequel, Dark Network, is coming soon.

Faithless Elector, by James McCrone is available through Amazon.
If you live in Philadelphia, pick up a copy at Head House Books -or- Penn Book Center

Paying attention

"People need to be reminded more than they need instruction."

-Samuel Johnson 

The Faithless Elector stories shine a glaring light on complacency by homing in on people working frantically to preserve and protect the weakest, most vulnerable aspects of our democracy--the Electoral College, legislative oversight, an independent judiciary.

Samuel Johnson's quote, above, might also extend to vigilance in politics. [He didn't get everything right about politics, by the way, nor the Americas for that matter: see Taxation No Tyranny (1775)].  
Like housework, politics is never finished; and it is precisely when things seem to be going reasonably well that we let our collective guard down, stop paying attention.

Faithless Elector, which debuted in March, 2016 just over a year ago is a taut thriller about stealing the presidential election.  Its central premise is the latent weaknesses and possibility for abuse inherent in the Electoral College system.  The precise machinations envisioned in the book have not come to pass (thankfully!), but the larger issues raised by the story remain.  Those same weaknesses remain latent and prone to mischief...and there are others, as we are seeing almost daily.

Faithless Elector, and the second book in the series, Dark Network (coming soon!) were never narrowly about political parties or merely the weakness(es) of the Electoral College; but rather, the precarious vulnerability of our democracy and its potential impotency in the face of decisive, ruthless, well-heeled interests.

"Governments are instituted among Men," the Declaration of Independence reads, "deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed".  The Faithless Elector series stares unblinking at the forces arrayed to thwart and negate that consent. Taken together, they are the stories of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.

I'm gratified that readers (see Amazon reviews) and independent reviewers have picked up on these broader themes of political accountability and personal responsibility, of the necessity for "ordinary" people to participate in the life of their nation.

To take just three examples:

• Book Viral Review: "Taut and well-paced, but for readers reading between the lines it also works on a moral level." (emphasis mine)

• "The pleasure of Faithless Elector lies not just its smooth evocative prose, but in the author's justified confidence that good writing can make chases through recognizable locales sufficiently exciting without a Navy SEAL or a terrorist plot." Review, Plattsburgh Press-Republican

• Publishers Weekly Review: "A fast-moving topical thriller...Surprising twists...add up to a highly suspenseful read."

The series has never been about the rightness or fitness of one party or another.  Parties are, after all, at least responsible and responsive to their constituents; and ideally, when a party no longer has our consent, they are voted out.  The series is about what can happen when a tiny group seeks extra-democratic means to take control for their own benefit.  In that way, the books may be more prophetic than even I imagined.  You should see for yourself.

 James McCrone is the author of Faithless Elector, a suspense-thriller, Publishers Weekly calls a “fast-moving topical thriller.”  Its “surprising twists add up to a highly suspenseful read.” The sequel, Dark Network, is coming soon.

Faithless Elector, by James McCrone is available through Amazon.
If you live in Philadelphia, pick up a copy at Head House Books -or- Penn Book Center