It's Not Plagiarism If It's Research!

A Literal Literary Loser Rationalizes

Last week, I wrote a guest blog for The Historical Fiction Company on how I researched the setting for my upcoming family saga, “My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region.”

Would you believe I did it on… YouTube? Click the link above for details! And video!

I also relied heavily on Masha Gessen’s incredible book, “Where the Jews Aren’t: The Sad and Absurd Story of Birobidzhan.”

And when I say relied heavily, I mean, I took the parts of their meticulously researched history that I liked, tossed the parts I didn’t like, and made up some stuff to make the story I wanted to tell work. I used real historical figures - unless their real, historical actions didn’t fit my narrative, and then I made up imaginary people using pieces of real historical people. Trust me, I’m a professional!

Had I only relied on Gessen’s work, that would have been plagiarism. But since I also used other resources, such as the archives at Swarthmore College, and even a Soviet made propaganda film, it was diligent and responsible research! Trust me - still a professional!

Birobidzhan, though, is only half of my story. Another section of “My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region” takes place in a World War II prison camp housing both Soviet and American POW’s - another piece of history which, like the 20th century first independent Jewish state, I find most people are unaware of.

The inspiration for that portion came straight from a segment I caught on “Through the Decades” (Decades, the channel for the history-obsessed TV geek).

The story of an American dentist trying to track down the Soviet soldiers with whom he’d been imprisoned moved me so deeply that, after watching it, I called my Soviet-born parents and urged them to watch it. (Thank goodness for reruns!) And then I started thinking of how I could… uhm… borrow it.

If I’d based the character in “My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region” solely on the life of the man I’d viewed on Decades, that would have been plagiarism. But I made up a whole backstory for him. I gave him a wife, a daughter - a motive for wanting to track down one particular Soviet soldier he’d been locked up with.

Now, maybe the dentist featured on Decades also had a wife, also had a daughter, and even, coincidentally, the same motive. But I knew nothing more about the man than what had been featured on television.

And that’s not plagiarism. That’s plausible deniability.

I’m a professional.

Enter to win a copy of my well researched and not all plagiarized upcoming novel, here!