The year is 1850. Accused of a crime he didn’t commit, sixteen-year-old Ean McCloud faces a daunting three-year sentence at Tasmania’s infamous Port Arthur Penal Colony. According to a Google source, some 1100 prisoners died there during the 50 years the notorious penitentiary served as one of the harshest in Australia. Why do I mention the history of this infamous prison? It's important to the understanding of Paddy Eger 's incredible novel. Historically, the details of her story are accurate in even the minute details. While the characters are fictitious, the locale is real. The "feel" of the area is real. The brutal treatment of the inmates is real. How did she know? She traveled to Tasmania, walked the Port Arthur grounds, and visited the actual prison. After returning home, she was so touched and inspired by what she had seen that she did extensive research on the area and wrote a poem about her feelings. Realizing that wasn't enough to convey her experience,...

Typically, when facts and fiction are mentioned together, it is as fact or fiction. Yet another application of the two words has a very different meaning: facts in fiction. Why is this important to writers and readers alike? Making sure a story is factually accurate when appropriate grounds that story and allows the reader to suspend disbelief. When I retired from teaching elementary school, I began my second career—writing fiction. My first stories centered on my interest in dance. Seventeen years of lessons and performances throughout the Pacific Northwest provided fodder to keep my fiction real. Still, my experience alone didn't seem quite enough, so I researched professional dancers and read ballet stories. Then I sent Marta and Lynne, my two seventeen-year-old dancers, off to join a ballet company set in Billings, Montana, in the late fifties. My original intent to write a single young adult story grew into a trilogy, 84 Ribbons ; When the Music Stops—Dance on ; and L...