: Re: Replacing a historical figure with a fictional one In a fiction novel with a strong historical foundation, can you replace a public figure with a fictional one? For instance, replacing the mayor

@Goswami879

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This is a fiction novel. Other than the restrictions you put upon yourself, there is no problem in changing some historical characters, dates, etc.
The limitation would probably be that you want to strictly follow historical events, or that you were afraid of an astute reader noticing that and thinking you were wrong / no longer enjoying the story (however, most readers will have no idea at all of the actual historical events around that).
Typically that could be explained as a slight deviation in your world vs ours. Mr Historical Character may have lost a tight the vote for the city council, leading to a different mayor. Or he could have lost a previous election inside his own party, being replaced by Mr. Fictional Character that nobody heard of in our world (but could perfectly have existed). That could even be mentioned inside the story where a character mentions that "Mr Historical would have been a better mayor in my opinion, it's a pity that shortly before the election he ended up in the hospital / escaped with his girlfriend / was mourning the loss of his father..."
It's also not unheard of to have an epilogue where the author acknowledges (excuses himself of) the licenses that were taken on writing the work: "I had to made J.Doe mayor of the city three years before he actually took office"
Although it may seem a big issue for you, these creative licenses aren't a big deal.

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