Research I Didn't Even Know I Did

I have a new beta reader. She is kick-ass.

A series of complications meant I had 72 hours to review the galleys of Freudian Slip. This weekend. When I am driving 15 hours with shingles and one Demon Baby to visit my parents for 10 days. So I asked Oldest Daughter to beta read it for me for typos and continuity. And she has caught dozens of errors the copy editor missed. Amen for Oldest Daughter.

But the interesting thing is she has expertly asked me about little details. "Is this store really on 5th Avenue?" "Did Einstein really listen to that concerto?"

And in each case, I double-checked because it has been a while since I'd worked on the manuscript, but I did have the details correct. Then I realized with the advent of Google, I do check so many little items that I don't even think about as I'm writing. What concerto pieces were Einstein's favorites? What flagship stores stand next to each other on 5th?

I realized, too, that even if you don't do research-based writing, like this writer who recently spoke to my book group, you have a thousand little details to confirm. (By the way, if you ever get a chance to hear her speak, she was marvelous.)

So how do you do research--all at once before you begin? As you're working in almost-forgotten little items you quickly check? (Obviously, I'm the latter during the process.) Do you take notes? Bookmark items on your computer?

Share your process. WHat are you researching right now? (I'm researching Magickeepers II . . . lots of Edgar Allan Poe background notes in a spiral notebook.)

It's Research, I Swear

My first Magickeepers book intertwines historical figures with my fictional clan of Russians. Jules Verne and Houdini are two of the main characters--but there are others. After a while, my fictional characters interacting with real historical ones made me feel that somehow my Magickeepers family really HAD been there at important junctures in history.

Book II of the series has Edgar Allan Poe in it. And tonight I am going on a haunted walking tour featuring some stoires about Poe, including a reception at the museum honoring him in my adopted city.

Research!



Yes, it's supposed to be 30 degrees out tonight. So . . . it will be cold in the face of research, but nonetheless, it's not every job that you can go hear ghost stories and chalk it up to your new book.



In the name of research, I have watched autopsy DVDs (not for when you are eating lunch at your desk). I have traveled some. I have asked a lot of questions of a lot of people. I have eavesdropped (research, I swear it!), and I have spent more hours on Google than I can count. I have tasted weird food.

What have you done in the name of research lately?

Strangest Thing Ever-CONTEST`

Okay writers (that's anyone who writes . . . pubbed or not) . . . a little contest. A copy of BLOOD SON to the writer who has done the "strangest thing ever . . ." in the name of research.

Yes . . . it's research time for me. I am researching plants. Nothing too strange there.

But . . . the strangest thing ever? In the name of research?

Watching an autopsy CD complete with slicing, dicing, and weighing the liver. I think that's the strangest thing I've ever done. Though I have recently been Googling "cyanide" so I hope I don't ever get arrested for murder as it will look might suspicious to the police if they check my Google searches (Big Brother is alive and well).

So..........spread the word. And share. What's the Strangest Thing Ever . . . .

I'll Take Darwin for $100, Alex

I am flying high writing because of a happy accident. The short version is while researching eugenics for a plot, I discovered the work of Francis Galton . . . which perfectly ties into my book's storyline. Total accident--and it totally works to give a darker, deeper back story to the Gemini Conspiracy. And turns out Galton was Charles Darwin's cousin. Even better!

I love when that happens.

As such, I would be a great Jeopardy contestant. As an author, I know a little bit about a lot of things. All in the name of research. You know when they have a murder trial, and as "evidence" the prosecutor points to Google searches? As in, "One week before the husband was murdered, his wife was searching the Internet for cyanide poison and faking suicide."

Well, if that's evidence, everyone around me better stay pretty damn healthy because I know how long it takes maggots to appear on a rotting corpse, how much a human liver weighs (2.4-3 pounds), and assorted other weirdo facts.

I can tell you how to make a boilermaker and nearly any other cocktail or how cremation works, exactly and in great detail. I can tell you more medical facts than the average doctor (true story . . . whenever I have to take someone to the hospital E.R.--kids with broken bones or high fevers or whatever--I am usually mistaken for a doctor or fellow nurse by the triage nurse on duty).

Yes, being a writer means I am a repository of totally useless information. Sometimes USEFUL information. But trivia nonetheless.

So what are some of your weird areas of knowledge because of what you're working on?