SimonDoom
Kink Lord
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2015
- Posts
- 15,774
Would it make a difference if you set the story in 1993?I'm working on a story set in June 1992, and I wanted one of the characters to be reading The Secret History by Donna Tartt… which came out in September that year.
It's not like many people would catch the slight anachronism, but it would bother me if the timeline couldn't be reconciled; I was planning to leave the year unstated, as something readers could work out from various clues if so inclined, and this might spoil that.
Fortunately I'd already established that the character had connections in the publishing industry, so I decided that it must be an Advance Copy. I think that's pretty plausible, as apparently there was a great deal of buzz about it in literary circles ahead of its release—and I will not research the timeline around that any further in case I discover any more contradictions.
Unfortunately that means I'll have to drop the joke where another character glimpses the author name on the cover and thinks Madonna has written another book after Sex, this time called Tart. (Sex only came out in October 1992.)