Writing the "Real" world.

Up to now, everything I've written has been genre. Fantasy, horror, historical, etc.

I was sort of amazed when I tried to write about the real world in my Vampire Evolution Trilogy and Tuskers, but there was always the genre hook, the little step outside of reality.

This mainstream book I'm writing is a genre, I suppose. Thriller type. But it is much more firmly placed in the "real" world.

There is a specific sub-culture it is placed in, for instance, the members of which will probably judge the accuracy of what I have written.

When I wrote The Death of an Immortal, I had police involved, and sure enough it was pointed out to me that I had jurisdictional problems. I didn't think it was so egregious that it couldn't pass. But I do think readers have every right to expect things to be correct.

I've avoided police procedurals, therefore. And science-fiction. And other detail specific genres. Better to take a step back or to one side, and be able to write from my imagination.

Anyway, with this new mainstream book, I've really got myself into a situation with a couple of subcultures that I'm trying to get right.

A lot could be solved if I'm allowed to set it, say, five years in the future. I can adjust the jurisdictional issues and procedural problems by explaining, basically, that things have changed. In other words, impose my impression of the real world on the actual read world.

A bit of crutch. I don't want to make it science-fiction, however. I just want a little space. Plus it will be fun to involve things like self-driving cars, drones, and other near future things -- and a gender neutral President of the U.S. heh.

I think it still works effectively as a thriller, better even, but also allows my more egrecious inaccuracies to be excused.

The book is going to require a huge amount of research and fact-checking, even so. So much so that I really kind of want my proposal to be accepted before I tackle it.

So this first draft is more or less off the top of my head, my own version of reality, with constant checking of Wiki for details and facts.

It's the kind of book I normally read, actually. So it isn't at all unfamiliar to me. So I'm having great fun with it. When I have these big bursts of inspiration, I know it's the right thing to do.