Historical fiction has lots of unwritten rules.

Historical fiction has lots of unwritten rules. One of these unwritten rules pertains to language. If you are writing about ancient Babylonia, the names of people and places should sound Babylonian. Better yet, they should be in Babylonian, or whatever language Babylonians spoke, at the time of the story. Names should be transliterated into an English alphabet. Another unwritten rule is: Keep names short. It is hard enough to pronounce names in a foreign language, even harder when those names are long. Readers have a tough time remembering names in a foreign language. 

In choosing the principle ancient location for Search for The Sacred Scroll, I needed it to be a well-known, historically significant place. Two ancient Babylonian towns were well known in Jewish history, one was Sura and the other was Pumbedita. My initial choice was based on the “short name” rule. I wanted to go with Sura. The only problem with Sura was a lack of information about a Jewish community living there in the 20th Century. That left Pumbedita. In searching for material on the 20th Century Jewish community in Pumbedita, the search was complicated by Pumbedita being known in the modern era by another name. That name was Fallujah. So much for unwritten rules.

Mark L. Shook