Overall my feelings for Edwin have not changed. He was a flawed human being who needlessly took the life of a promising, earnest young man. However, toward the end of the research phase, I realized how hard Edwin worked to rehabilitate himself, and empathized with how difficult his post-prison life way. In a way, I greatly respected Edwin's attempts to simply live an honest life. Simply to tell a true story about a single human being who lived long ago, and whose story might be of interest to many people today.
News stories have a shelf life of about a day, in most cases.
I feel Murder Hill, my first book, will be around for generations for people to enjoy. What's similar in both genres, is the research phase. New stories, by their very nature, require a journalist to utilize primary research, with a chance to use secondary sources for background research. I would sit the laptop on the kitchen counter while dinner cooked, and wrote here and there during meal preparation. After the children were in bed, I would write late into the night, often until the first dizzy spell.