Inside information?

I am intrigued to hear about the recently discovered Gospel of Judas. This New York Times article (link probably time-sensitive) tells a bit about the history of its discovery and long road toward becoming public. It will likely feed religious scholars and graduate students the world over for quite a while. It's so rare in that field to get fresh material, eh?

But consider also this recent novel by Simon Mawer: The Gospel of Judas. It's a story about a priest who discovers a long-lost gospel of Judas that ends up leading him on a troubling path of self-doubt and self-discovery. It sounds like a great story, actually, especially since I know Mawer is quite talented with character creation from reading other things of his.

But it's a bit too coincidental, isn't it? It seems likely that Mawer actually heard about the real Gospel of Judas before it became public-- ie, sometime during its twisted path from discovery by farmers to landing in the hands of those who could properly protect it (a path it is still on, by the way). And then he wrote the book around it. Having the gospel go public ends up being great marketing for Mawer.

So that's good advice for authors: Dig around and find some obscure bit of truth that most people don't know about, or don't know about yet. Then base a novel on it!