Artistic License

It seems strange that I would even bother worrying about something like realism when I'm writing a novel about vampires and werewolves, but I've always found (and I know it's not just me) that adhering to facts and physics where possible can help the reader / viewer to suspend their disbelief. 

For example, I remember in the first of the Fantastic Four movies from this century, there was a scene where the Thing stops a semi-truck just by leaning his shoulder into it. While impressive visually, this means that the Thing would weigh so much he wouldn't be able to walk without crushing the ground underneath him! Yeah, I know, it's a dumb thing to worry about, but it's little stuff like that the pull me away from the story.

I bring this up because I'm working with a lot of strange elements in my story and, in my short story, I have a lot of historical elements to throw on top of that. That means I have to make sure that historical characters are acting (reasonably) within their personality and that I don't do anything too anachronistic. That means for a story involving Theodore Roosevelt, I've research the Rough Riders, Jesse Langdon, the M1895 Colt-Browning, population density in the US circa 1909, vehicle preferences in London at the same time, Roosevelt's liquor of choice (none, actually, except for the very occasional Mint Julep,) and a load of other things. One of these is got me today. I made a concession.

Forgive me, my readers, I have a small anachronism in my upcoming short story. In it... someone uses a Molotov cocktail. It works for the story! But I couldn't find any recorded uses of such a device prior to World War II. The thing is, it's just a freakin' bottle with a rag in it lit on fire! Clearly the capability to produce such a weapon was available long before WWII, but it just wasn't popular. I mean, I have to imagine someone made one before 1939, but obviously didn't call it a Molotov. Still... this is technically an anachronism. In a story with vampires and werewolves. 

Please forgive me.

​DFTBA