A historical novel can surface people, places, conflicts, bibliographies, and research questions, but invented scenes and dialogue cannot support factual claims without independent evidence.
Some authors closely anchor fiction to records, which can make the leads unusually productive.
The Mary Dowling novel should feed a verification queue and cultural-reception section, not the factual timeline directly.
Created from verified full-source Literature Notes and locator-level evidence. Reassess when independent corroboration is added.
A Zettel is one durable idea in your own words—not a quotation, source summary, or draft-book claim.
Atomic idea
State one complete idea. It should be understandable on its own and specific enough to connect to other notes.
Reasoning
Explain why the idea is true or useful in Rationale and Implications. Record meaningful objections or exceptions in Counterpoints.
Provenance
Connect one or more Literature Notes. Direct source relations are legacy-only; trace evidence through the literature-note and excerpt chain.
Connections
Apply approved Tags for retrieval and one or more Themes only when the note genuinely advances those interpretive threads.
Maturity checklist
Mother of Bourbon — September 29 review
Copyright sheet 5 explicitly fictionalizes scenes, while the prologue on 13–14 reports no personal diary or preserved words from Mary. The chant giving the book its title (238–239), Capone meetings (221–225, 252–254), and household/private decisions are literary reconstructions. They can prompt archival questions without becoming factual claims. Family-tree and narrative disagreement about Helen (9/271) offers a concrete source-criticism exercise.
