If someone wrote this in a novel, no one would believe it ...

[Robinne Weiss]

I hate it when real life comes up with things that you know you'd be slammed for if you wrote them into your novel. Everything about this story is a plot hole.

Shark stolen in baby stroller

 

[Rich.]

This went international. I saw it on the BBC -- poor shark, stupid (ingenious?) people, and LOLs while reading the story!

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I have a retentive memory for peculiar stories from real life, but quite often have to clean them up, or at least make them more logical when adapting them to fit into my novels. This happened with my WIP, which features a homicidal art gallery owner, who effectively stole the business by killing his brother and walling him up in their dead father's funeral director business.

I based this on a real-life incident, in which a son decided to decorate his mother's stairwell, and fit a Stannah stairlift, while his mum was in hospital. Puzzled at how narrow the half-landing seemed to be, he hacked away at the plasterboard of a false wall, to provide enough room for the stairlift to be installed. Sitting on a chair behind the wall was the desiccated body of an elderly woman...she'd air-dried into a mummy. It turned out to be his mum's lodger, from 20 years ago, who'd rented a room from her after his mum was widowed. An autopsy proved she'd died of a heart attack. His mum had hidden the corpse, to go on claiming her lodger's benefits. His mum, who was very frail, was charged with preventing the lawful and decent burial of a body. Punished with a small fine, she died shortly afterwards.

Her son had great problems selling her house!

As Iain M. Banks said:

“The trouble with writing fiction is that it has to make sense, whereas real life doesn't."

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Goodness gracious. To both stories. But people are extraordinary.

 

[Rachel Caldecott]

I have a retentive memory for peculiar stories from real life, but quite often have to clean them up, or at least make them more logical when adapting them to fit into my novels. This happened with my WIP, which features a homicidal art gallery owner, who effectively stole the business by killing his brother and walling him up in their dead father's funeral director business.

I based this on a real-life incident, in which a son decided to decorate his mother's stairwell, and fit a Stannah stairlift, while his mum was in hospital. Puzzled at how narrow the half-landing seemed to be, he hacked away at the plasterboard of a false wall, to provide enough room for the stairlift to be installed. Sitting on a chair behind the wall was the desiccated body of an elderly woman...she'd air-dried into a mummy. It turned out to be his mum's lodger, from 20 years ago, who'd rented a room from her after his mum was widowed. An autopsy proved she'd died of a heart attack. His mum had hidden the corpse, to go on claiming her lodger's benefits. His mum, who was very frail, was charged with preventing the lawful and decent burial of a body. Punished with a small fine, she died shortly afterwards.

Her son had great problems selling her house!

As Iain M. Banks said:

“The trouble with writing fiction is that it has to make sense, whereas real life doesn't."

We found a Napoleon era sword blade in our basement and thought that was quite exotic. Meanwhile, across the river, they had the builders in. Banging away at the wall they found an entire Napoleonic soldier - fully dressed and armed - walled up. He'd been... duh, duh, duuuuhhh... murdered.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

 

[Rich.]

Shark stolen in baby stroller

Turns out the thief was an activist who felt the shark 'needed help'. Life is certainly stranger...

I'd love to know the truth of it (the shark story, that is -- life can remain a mystery).