Non objective cultural expert....

[KevinEvans]

Sigh,
We have a contracted Alt history story, added into the mix is an expert on the culture in question, the problem is our expert is not objective. In other words the expert can not accept any view, except perfection for one of the historical people we need to use. It is not so much that we are reluctant to white wash a despot, as much as, the story needs the personage to be the bad guy.

A side problem is that our expert is a really nice guy, just he has a blind spot, and we don't want to offend him.

Ideas?

Regards,
Kevin

[Zolt]

Since it's an alt history, isn't it possible to change the names while keeping the characters recognizable? Else your story will offend a number of people, no matter how nuanced your write it.

Another possibility is to write in an evil Advisor / Grand Vizier/ General /Butler/ Grand Moff or whatever is relevant to the culture and period, and have him be the real bad guy, whereas said historical person is full of good intentions but is being deceived/manipulated by the bad guy. Of course that will make him look like a moron, which might or might not be worse than being the bad guy.

It would help a bit if you told us what culture and period you have in mind.

[Apocrypha]

Zolt offers a valid alternative which could work. 

The only other alternative I can think of is just sitting down and explaining the need for this character to be different in this timeline.  If he still doesn't agree then perhaps he can suggest another person to take that character's place, either as the main bad guy or who may have killed who you intended to be the bad guy and took over in his place thus creating the alternate history.

For example, instead of using Hitler as the leader of Germany in WWII using Himmler.

[meg_evonne]

Oh, I'm going to sound so evil here.  All ideas above are great, but will require a great deal of time on your part to change, maybe majorly killing some great scenes?

It's your story and authors take creative license all the time.  If you like it the way it is--keep.  Then do a little thank you following with a disclaimer... "Our sincere thanks to so-and-so for his/her expert advice.  S/he is not responsible for what we did to it."  You can also put in a disclaimer explaining the reality of the character from the normal timeline if you like.  I think...  No living relatives can sue, right?

Ask the question, "What would Jim do?"  LOL  It is alternate history right? 

I attended a small writer's group at a weeklong workshop with Michael A Stackpole.  We spent, I swear, hours on one woman's story arguing that you CAN NOT make a curved, flaked bone knife.  Get over it, fix it, or accept it and move on folks.  Can you tell that true history buffs or extreme tech science guys are not going to read my stuff? I research like hell, change what other's find wrong that I can, but the story being told is what I have to use in the end if there is a conflict between those. 

Best wishes.  meg

[Apocrypha]

The disclaimer is actually a great idea.

I've read a few alternate history books, the most recent was a light read:  Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, which at the end has a disclaimer explaining the liberties he took to create the story; such as Darwin unlocking the secrets of DNA allowing for genetic manipulation making World War I a battle between Darwinists (England and its allies) and Clankers (The Austro-Hungarians and Germans, etc with steampunk devices).

Meg really does have it right.  Overall your story should be done your way and the liberties taken are yours to take.

[KevinEvans]

Thanks every one,

You all have confirmed what I felt. It will be hard not to hurt feelings, but I think we can do it.

As for the specifics, it is non disclosure stuff, for a book that probably won't be out for 2 or more years. We need the expert because we need to create a believable story that fits in the culture group. The fans will sharp shoot any mistake. (Grin)

Thanks again,
Kevin