There are no coincidences, and there is no such thing as fiction.

When a writer puts words onto a page, intending to create fiction, he/she is really creating something else. As soon as the words are absorbed by a reader, they cease to exist as fiction, and become a part of that reader. That is, those words have entered the mind of the reader, and now have been given the power and authority to become memories, guide thoughts, and even participate in the decision-making process.

These things left behind by authors, these breadcrumbs, this detritus, lives on, often far beyond the end of the author’s life.