Guest author Anne Louise Bannon: The Hard Part of Historical Research

Anne Louise Bannon

One of the things I love most about writing historical fiction is the research. I love reading old newspapers, poring over old maps, trying to decode old hand-writing, trying to determine if I’m getting an accurate understanding of something.

But the toughest part of any historical research is figuring out the day to day minutae of people’s lives. That’s the stuff that seldom gets written down or kept. Even in these days of tell-all social media, we seldom post about the baloney sandwich we had for lunch, the button we sewed back on our shirt, or even bother to describe how we make a baloney sandwich or sew a button on. Why should we? We all know what baloney is. Most of us get the idea of needle and thread going through the holes of a button.

The problem is, that’s exactly the information I need to bring an era to life. When did doctors start using plaster casts? (Doctors in Europe started using them in the 1840s and ‘50s, American doctors knew about them, but didn’t like using them for a long time – no idea why).

That was one of the biggest problems I had when writing my latest novel, Death of the Zanjero, a mystery set in Los Angeles 1870. The medical stuff was reasonably easy to find (my main character, Maddie Wilcox, has medical training). The politics of the then small town? A snap – there are scads of city council minutes I could draw upon, as well as newspapers from the time on microfilm.

However, there’s a lot about daily life in Los Angeles that was not in any of those sources or many others, as well. The story involves the town’s irrigation system, which was a series of ditches, or zanjas (pronounced zahn-ha), that had been dug off the main ditch, or Zanja Madre, which brought water from the Los Angeles River. The opening of the sluice gate to Maddie’s vineyard zanja is a major scene. Could I find anything referencing how the gates opened or what they were made of? Not in the city council minutes. There were several references to monies given to the Zanjero, or Water Overseer, for materials, but zip on what those materials were. Why would they write that down? They knew what those materials were.

One of the primary crops in the area at the time was wine grapes. Yep. The California wine industry actually started here in sunny SoCal (sorry about that, Napa). So, it made sense that Maddie made her living as a winegrower and winemaker. Yeah, but how did they make the wine? I had plenty of information on crop rates, who was making and selling the wine, stuff like that. But even one of the most prominent experts in the history of wine in the city, Dr. Thomas Pinney, couldn’t tell me what the process was. No one had written it down. They knew how it worked. Why should they?

I did actually find the answers, thanks to the doggedness of a couple librarians, one from the public library and the other from the wine industry archive at California State University of Pomona. And you know where both of them found those answers? In the tourist literature of the time.

Of course! Outsiders will write about what we think of as mundane. It’s new and strange to them. The other fun thing about tourist literature is that it goes back a way long ways, even to ancient times. You won’t always find information on cooking and what went on in kitchens and how houses were cleaned. Tourist literature, like most things in our planet’s history, does tend to be written by men and with their perspective. That which was written by women was usually written by women with the means to travel, which means they weren’t paying attention to what the servants were doing.

Diaries remain an excellent source of information. But don’t forget to check the tourist literature when you’re looking for daily life details. It sometimes has what nothing else does – and that’s a lot of fun.

~Anne Louise Bannon

Write What You Know. Except When You Don’t

Write what you know. Really? What if I want to write about what I don’t know? Does Anne Perry know what it’s like to be Thomas Pitt, a police inspector in Victorian London? Does Jacqueline Winspear have firsthand knowledge of the world of Maisie Dobbs, a psychologist/investigator based in England in the early decades of the twentieth century? No. These authors and many like them do research to create their characters and stories. Lots of research.

Even in contemporary times, a sleuth may need to venture into an unfamiliar environment in order to hunt down a killer.

That’s where research comes in.

In Murder at the Moonshine Inn, Hazel Rose agrees to investigate the murder of Roxanne Howard, a high-powered executive who died in a pool of blood outside the Moonshine Inn, one of Richmond, Virginia’s most notorious redneck bars. Hazel immediately has two questions: who killed Roxanne? And why had the woman spent her leisure time sitting on a barstool at the watering hole, having loud fights on her phone with her husband?

To answer these questions, Hazel needs to go to the bar—undercover. Now, Hazel has never set foot in a redneck bar.  How does she act? How does she dress? How does she speak? What does the bar look like?

No question about it, I needed to visit a redneck bar that would become the model for the fictitious Moonshine Inn (not undercover, though.).

My friend Marie served as my consultant. She assured me that she was an expert on redneck culture. She advised me on dress, dialog, and any number of details. She sent me links to databases of redneck baby names. There is a wealth of online sources for redneckiana (not a real word, but perhaps it should be).

Vince, Hazel’s husband and undercover partner, admires his wife’s disguise:

“Wow!” His appreciative look said he liked the redneck me.

“It’s just for tonight. This is way too much work.”

“It’s the top I like. Hair’s for the birds. Literally.”

Vince referred to my Harley Davidson two-sizes-too-small tank top that revealed an impressive display of cleavage. I had a Victoria’s Secret contraption that I employed for the thankfully few occasions when I wanted to play up my assets. The jeans that I’d slashed in strategic places molded my bottom half, and Eileen’s boots fit well with the help of thick, albeit unsexy, socks. As for the hair, I may have gone overboard with teasing and spraying my chestnut waves into something like an exploded mushroom—or a birds nest. But, as long as I fit in, that was the main thing: frosted blue eye shadow and plenty of it streaked across my eyelids, and my nails sparkled with scarlet polish.

Back to me and my research. My own husband and I visited three bars and I combined the three in to one for my story. I tried to capture the essence and Marie helped. Between these visits, Marie, online sources, and my vivid imagination, I put together a passable chapter.

When Hazel arrives at the Moonshine Inn with Vince, she gives an Oscar-worthy performance as a redneck queen, she meets some very interesting people, and picks up information that may prove valuable in nailing Roxanne Howard’s killer.

Description of the Moonshine Inn:

Black-and-white tiles covered the floor, and dark leather booths lined the perimeter of the space. Grime streaked the windows. The ceiling came up short on its allotment of tiles. Apparently the Moonshine Inn had a special dispensation to allow smoking, as a thick fog made the TVs positioned throughout the bar hard to see. I saw a Florida room, all white with ceiling fans and clean windows, attached to the front of the building. A prominent sign proclaimed it a non-smoking section. I looked at it longingly but, as not a soul populated the space, I figured I’d best sit elsewhere so I could get information.

The patrons caught up on the news via ESPN and Fox News amid much yelling and derogatory jokes about Obamacare. For those disinclined to watch the news, one TV offered T.J. Hooker reruns. But we weren’t there to catch up on the news or ‘80s-era cop shows.

So, with a little research, an adventurous spirit, and a vivid imagination, you as an author are not limited to writing what you know. But beware: you may risk leaving your comfort zone!

Murder anyone?

This may sound cynical but I believe that most of us are capable of murder. The question is how far would the average Joe--not a psychopath or otherwise mentally ill person--have to be pushed in order to actually go through with murdering someone?

I'm asking this question, not because I have any plans to commit murder myself, but because I am writing my first murder mystery. I know that there are some seasoned mystery writers on this blog so it's a great place to look for advice.

I love mysteries. Hercule Poirot was one of my heroes when I was a child and I still love a good mystery to this day. In fact, when I recently read eight young adult murder mysteries in a row to get a feel for what's on the market, it was the best fun I've had in a while...yes, I do need to get out a bit more. :-).

For my mystery, I know the how and the who. I have a line up of suspects to keep things interesting, but the thing that I find most challenging is the why. Money, jealousy, revenge, self-defense, to protect a loved one, and to cover up a secret are some of the more common motives for murder, but despite their problems and their flaws, my characters have not quite convinced me that they would be moved to murder by any one of these factors.

This is probably my pet peeve about murder mysteries. There is nothing I hate more than to find out that the murderer killed to solve a problem that 1. could have been addressed in a much less complicated manner, or 2. remained unsolved even after the murder. I also hate if the murderer is suddenly framed as being crazy despite acting rationally until that final reveal. I do think that in some cases the problem is not the motive, but that the character of the murderer has not been developed sufficiently so the reader believes the motive. But other times the motive is the issue. Would someone risk a lifetime in jail to stop a politician from changing a law that would destroy their business prospects? Would a 'sane' person kill their brother to cover up a thirty-year old secret that would cause a ripple across society at best?

I have it a bit easier writing a YA mystery because teens are notoriously self-centered and more likely to think their problems are a matter of life and death. I don't think that gives me a pass on developing a good motive so I am throwing out the question to you. Dig deep, answer anonymously if you must...just in case... What would move you to commit murder?

A Writer's Dream

            I had an opportunity last week to visit a place that authors’ dreams are made of: the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

            I wasn’t going to blog about my visit, but it was so amazing I decided to share my experience and encourage other authors to visit the LOC if they ever get the chance.

            The Library of Congress is tucked behind the Capitol Building in the SW section of the city. The main building, the Jefferson Building, is located next door to the Supreme Court. A pretty hallowed neighborhood, no doubt, and well-deserved digs for one of the greatest libraries in the world.

 

            The LOC is made up of three main buildings: the Jefferson Building, the Madison Building, and the Adams Building. Though I didn’t make it to the Adams Building, I spent a combined many hours in the Madison and Jefferson Buildings.

            I started my day in the Madison Building, where anyone who wishes to do research at the Library of Congress must go to obtain a Reader Identification Card. I registered online before visiting, then all I had to do when I got to the Madison Building was visit the Reader Registration office, present my identification, get my photo taken for my ID card, and pick up the card. I got lost trying to find the Reader Registration office, so I got the chance to walk the halls of the Madison Building and see what kinds of things go on there: there is a newspaper reading room, the Law Library of Congress reading room, the performing arts reading room, a geography and map room, and hundreds of other offices doing who-knows-what to further enhance readers’ and researchers’ experiences at the Library.

            There is a tunnel connecting the Madison Building to the Jefferson Building, and I explored that to get from one building to the other. When I found myself in the Jefferson Building, I headed for the Main Reading Room (after depositing my computer bag and coat at the coat check, since no bags of any kind are allowed in the reading rooms). I didn’t get to work right away once I found the Main Reading Room because there was so much to take in. There are marble columns supporting a magnificent domed ceiling, statues, arched stained glass windows, and a gorgeous skylight. There are scores of wooden desks, arranged in concentric circles, where researchers can work. Each desk is crowned by a brass reading lamp and has an outlet for computers and cell phones.

  

            No photography is allowed in the Main Reading Room, but there is an observation area accessible from the Great Hall where visitors are allows to take photos of the space. I was pleased to see that the Main Reading Room was not at all crowded—since people have to obtain a Reader ID card from the Madison Building to be admitted into the room, only people serious about research generally bother to get the card.

            After I worked in the Main Reading Room for a few hours, I moved my research up to the Rare Book Reading Room, which was a hushed space where the oldest materials can be viewed under the watchful eyes of the librarians (who, by the way, are wonderfully knowledgeable and friendly). I had the chance to look at one of the rare books I was researching, but I was afraid to touch it. Instead, I took pictures of the book while the librarian opened it for me (I could have touched it, but I didn’t feel comfortable doing that), then told her I would find the books I needed in the microfilm collection, where many of the rare books can be found so their contents can be preserved.

  

            I decided a tour of the Great Hall would be my reward for a day spent researching, so I meandered to the Great Hall when I was finished with my work in the microfilm room.

            The Jefferson Building, and the Great Hall in particular, is an architectural testament to the importance of knowledge and learning in every imaginable field. The Great Hall is a kaleidoscope of color, pattern, and texture. The vaulted ceilings, the mosaics on the floors, the statues, and the friezes all combine to create a sensory experience that highlights the importance of scholarship, history, wisdom, and education and learning. There are tributes to some of the world’s greatest philosophers, scientists, teachers, and writers.  

  

            I wish I had more time and space to devote to my visit, but I want to encourage all of you to visit the Library of Congress if you ever have the chance. The website is https://www.loc.gov/ if you want to browse their collections online. In person, it’s easily accessible by the Blue and Orange lines on the Washington Metro, and you are within short walking distance to other DC landmarks. If you ever find yourself in the nation’s capital, you won’t regret a visit to the Library.

Google--my new best friend

www.macobserver.com

I'm old enough to remember when you had to go find an actual book, preferably the Encyclopedia Britannica, if you wanted to research a topic, but I would be lying if I said that I'm nostalgic of that particular part of my past. I've become a Google junkie and I use it copiously to define words, sift around for the precise word that I need to set a particular tone, and to answer questions that come up in the course of my writing. I'm working on a crime-based story right now and some of the questions I have had to ask have been a little bizarre. Just today I typed into a Google search bar:

• Do identical twins have identical fingerprints
• Which countries do not have extradition treaties with the United States
• An undetectable poison
• How long before it takes effect
• Where do police carry handcuffs

It's one of those times when I really hope that no one (read the FBI) has cause to look into my Google search history. It's comforting to know that I am not alone. Based on the predictive Google hints that appear, I am not the first person to research many of these topics.

Are internet searches a part of your writing process?

What are some of the more bizarre searches that you have conducted?

Spaceship Bermuda

The first week of this past July, for our biennial vacation together, my wife Valerie and I took a cruise to Bermuda for the first time. That I found it a beautiful island and enjoyed myself immensely should surprise no one. For one thing Bermuda's beauty well documented in myriad travel magazines and for another most folk know I've never met an island I didn't like.

But I'm a writer, and when writers travel – or do much of anything, actually – we are always observing, picking up details that will probably in some form find their way into our work. Also, as always happens when we travel together, Valerie resumed encouraging me to write a romance or six – suggesting Bermuda as a perfect location. So I began taking notes on what I was observing, which I usually don't do.
Things I wrote down included:
Grass on Bermuda looks just like the Bermuda grass in our yard, but isn't because American Bermuda grass is African.
The Bermuda Longtail is the only bird I've found as viciously territorial as my favorite Northern Mockingbird. A cage match wouldn't be much fun, though; the Longtail's twice the size of a mocker.
The famous pink sand is ordinary white sand with (really pretty faint) swirls of pink flakes from crushed shells.
Sea turtles do not appreciate friendly snorkelers.
On the other hand, if you hold very still underwater (and are of hirsute eastern European stock) finger-long fish will line up along your arm to nibble your hair.
Wear sneakers in the water! Raw coral beneath the surf is the norm.
Mayonnaise is great for removing tar.
On a related note, everything is spookily clean.
Rude Bermudians are evidently kept in a secure compound far from any tourist areas.

Those last two are particularly significant. In our first exploratory stroll through the Dockyard on Ireland Island we sensed something a bit 'off' – not wrong, but different. It took us a while to realize what it was: no one approached us with discount offers. In every city with a tourist industry we've visited there were always folk on the street offering visitors half price or less on cab rides, local crafts, tours, etc. Here there were none. We'd heard Bermuda was expensive, but the prices in the stores were in line with anywhere else we'd been; what was missing were the street vendors. I even sought out alleys and back streets in Hamilton, testing the theory local entrepreneurs kept a low profile, with no luck. "Deals" were not available.

At seven every morning, as I sat drinking my third

coffee and considering a second Danish, I witnessed something that for me epitomized the aspect of Bermuda's character that struck me most deeply. The pilot of the ferry docked on the other side of the wharf from our ship rode his moped past a row of empty parking spaces to turn at the marked aisle and ride back past the same row of spaces before parking his moped – unsecured – for the day. On Bermuda there is a pervasive sense of orderliness.

Bermuda is not without crime – there are three prisons and we once saw a group of police officers surrounding a man on the street. And listening to a radio talk show in which the female host took calls from listeners debating some political controversy I didn't follow I learned Bermudians can indeed vent their tempers when they want to. (Though a heated argument in British Colonial English pales in comparison to southern talk radio stridency.) But Bermuda is alone. I'm typing this in Wilmington, NC, so Bermuda is about 770 miles east of me; the point of land nearest Bermuda is Cape Hatteras, NC, at just over 700 miles. Even on this shrunken globe of the internet and jets and 6,000-passenger cruise ships, in a very real sense the people of Bermuda have only each other to rely on. Which means that Bermudians need to trust one another to work for the common good, and behave in a manner worthy of that trust. Of course there are individuals who don't – they do have police and courts and prisons – and there are bound to be seven or eight or twenty opinions on what best constitutes the common good, but underlying it all is the knowledge they are all in it together.

What has this to do with writing? Quite a lot. Most of us have had the experience of reading a story set in a place we live or have lived and known by the second sentence the writer has no idea what she's talking about. She may know what street leads where and accurately describe the sunrise/set over the mountain/bay/river/skyline, but it's clear she doesn't "get' the place she's writing about. Every society, every locale, every family has its particular culture. More than any physical attribute a place and a people are defined by their culture – the givens upon which they base their decisions and behaviors. Any story set in Bermuda that vividly captures it's physical beauty, or engagingly depicts sea birds and turtles, or evokes its colonial history with insightful observations of architecture and ruins, but misses the culture of the people will ring false.

When you set your story in a place you don't know, don't just research its history and geography and politics. By all means, visit if you can and between snapping shots of everyday scenes and making notes about scents and sounds pay attention to how folk interact with each other when they're not playing for the tourists. Body language, manners. If you speak the language, listen to AM talk radio. If you can't visit, the internet makes local media scarily accessible. Listen to local talk radio stations, read local papers, read stories by local writers if you can find them. This diligence – which is by no means hard work – will add a depth and texture to your story and a verisimilitude the folks you're writing about will appreciate

Guest author Lesley Diehl: Research in Writing

Lesley Diehl

Lesley Diehl retired from her life as a professor of psychology and reclaimed her country roots by moving to a small cottage in upstate New York. In the winter she migrates to old Florida—cowboys, scrub palmetto, and open fields of grazing cattle, a place where spurs still jingle in the post office, and gators make golf a contact sport. She is author of several short stories and several mystery series: the microbrewing mystery series set in the Butternut Valley (A Deadly Draught and Poisoned Pairings) and a rural Florida series, Dumpster Dying and Grilled, Killed and Chilled (to be released late in 2012).  She recently signed a three-book deal with Camel Press for The Consignment Shop Murders including A Secondhand Murder. For something more heavenly, try her mystery Angel Sleuth. Several of her short stories have been published by Untreedreads including one (Murder with All the Trimmings) in the original Thanksgiving anthology The Killer Wore Cranberry and another (Mashed in the Potatoes) in the second anthology The Killer Wore Cranberry: A Second Helping.  She invites readers to visit her on her blog and website.

How a Boring, Retired Professor Spices up Her Mysteries

(Hint—I hang out in cowboy bars)

Seasoned writers and authors often tell novices to “write what you know.” That’s not bad advice as it assumes what you know will give your writing depth and authenticity. When I began writing mysteries, I took this advice seriously and constructed a mystery about a professor of psychology. I had no luck in finding an agent to represent me on this work. I suspect they found it deadly boring. Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised at their reaction. I had been a college professor and administrator for years and never found much of that experience worthy of reading in a mystery, but it was what I knew. I thought I could spice it up by writing humor into the plot. It didn’t work.

When I look back on that manuscript (still on my computer but not published) it’s clear there were many problems with it. Even though I was writing what I knew, I wasn’t writing it very well. And, to be honest, I was just too close to the subject to get out of my own way and let the story unroll. The writing was catharsis for me, but it wasn’t very creative. The failure of writing what I knew to lead to publication was probably one of the best things to happen to me. It forced me to do research, something I loved, and led to expanding my knowledge on subjects I formerly knew nothing about.

What did I like to read? I loved the fast pacing and plot intricacies of a mystery, but I was also drawn to one that taught me something I didn’t know before I began the book. I found it exciting to learn about law, politics or the unusual occupation or hobby of an amateur sleuth. Sometimes a period in history caught my attention. Cooking, catering, or work on a small town newspaper or running a bed and breakfast or an herb shop taught me about aspects of life of which I was previously ignorant. Settings, too, called to me—the Texas Hill country, a city I’d visited only once like Seattle or New Orleans. There were things to learn out there, and it was possible to learn them through the vehicle of a murder mystery.

I decided to create an amateur sleuth with an unique occupation. My first book (A Deadly Draught) featured a woman microbrewer. What did I know about craft beers? Absolutely nothing, but I found the research not only fascinating but also fun. I took hubby with me to do the research, which often involved not only a tour of a facility but tasting the finished product. I met microbrewers in the craft eager to help me understand what they did. I toured numerous microbreweries and grew to respect the art and craft of brewing and the people who did it. I even liked the beer. The second one in that series appeared this year (Poisoned Pairings). I added to my story by taking on another piece of research, that of hydraulic fracturing, a technique used to drill for gas. I used this controversial technique as a political and economic backdrop for the murder in the brewery.

My other books are similarly infused with research. The second book (Grilled, Chilled and Killed) in my Big Lake mystery series set in rural Florida features my bar-tending protagonist (yes, I had to research bar-tending also) encountering feral pigs and sinkholes. I am fortunate to live in rural Florida part of the year, so I can bring some genuine atmosphere to the bars, cowboys, land and animals such as horses, cattle and alligators found in the story. Hubby and I frequent the cowboy bars to do a little swing and two-step, as do my characters.

My next project strikes closer to what I know well, yard sales and consignment shops. Camel Press will release the first in this three book series in 2013. The protagonist is a woman who owns a consignment shop in rural Florida, and she finds one of her wealthy consignors dead on the dressing room floor. There’s still research to be done here. I’m scheduling a ride on an airboat this week, something I never thought I’d be interested in doing, but I am going to kill one of my characters on an airboat ride, so what choice do I have but to see, feel, hear and smell that experience.

The important aspect of injecting research into a mystery is doing it without lecturing or preaching, but in such a way that readers may not even realize what a wealth of information they are gaining. I think much of the writer’s ability to do that has to do with how fascinated the writer is by the research. The writer’s curiosity should allow her to weave the research throughout the story so that it becomes one with the plot and character development.

Is research for a mystery boring? Not for me. I love learning something new that can be used to develop or challenge my characters or create plot twists that surprise. What do you like to read in a mystery? Do you read close to home, a story about someone who shares your occupation or hobby? Or do you seek out stories with protagonists with unusual occupations, settings unfamiliar to you? And if you are a writer, can you share some of the techniques you use to insert research into your work?

Win a free copy of the second book in my microbrewing series, Poisoned Pairings, if you are the first to correctly identify the flowers on the cover of the book. Go to my blog, website or Amazon link to see the cover.

—Lesley Diehl

The truth, the whole truth and ONLY the truth

A few weeks ago, Dayton wrote about Research and the importance of this task in a writer's work. I've been immersed in some research myself recently. In fact, I have read so much about snakes for my new children's book 'Sea Scapes' that I was really not surprised to find that one had materialized in my garage last week.

I do a lot of my research on the internet. It is convenient and it can be comprehensive, however, I was interested to realise how completely unreliable internet sources can be. Try to find out whether or not snakes can see in colour and you will find a plethora of experts contradicting each other and even more amateurs commenting although they know nothing concrete on the topic.

Today's writers rely quite a bit on the internet as they research topics to make their characters and scenes authentic. However, we have to be extremely careful about where we get our information. Do a search on the internet and Wikipedia is sure to be in the top ten results on your search page. It is true that this source contains a great amount of information, and it is true that much of it is accurate but consider the description the site proclaims--"the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit"--and you will understand the need to be cautious. The information is provided by volunteers and the site relies on the users to point out errors. The views are often biased and can be inaccurate.

For my snake research I had to do things the old-fashioned way. I headed out to my local library to get the information that I needed. What sources do you rely on when researching for a book? 

Research, Research, Research!

[sarcastic voice] Who doesn’t just love homework research? [/sarcastic voice]

Most writers likely will agree that research is a very large part of the job. I also figure I’m not alone in that I tend to run hot and cold on actually doing the research, depending on the topic. For example: legal matters or politics? Yuck. Military history or blowing up stuff? I'm there.

As one who toils mostly in the realm of science fiction, the research I sometimes have to undertake is of its own special flavor. There are many, many occasions when I have to do a fair bit of science homework, mostly so that I can understand a “real world” concept or piece of technology in order to be able to sound like something less than a total moron when I’m writing about it.

Results on that tend to vary, by the way.

For science fiction writing, that also can mean being able to grasp the concept well enough to then extrapolate from the real information in order to take a stab at where that idea or technology might be fifty or a hundred years down the road. Even if you’re making up a chunk of technobabble, more often than not you still need to ground it in something that’s not a bunch of stuff you just pulled out of the air, or some other place we probably shouldn’t mention here in this more or less family-friendly blog.

When it comes to licensed works like my Star Trek novels, there’s also the requirement to be updated on that universe, its characters and technology and, yes, even the internal “mythology” which spreads across six television series and eleven films comprising a “future history” of hundreds of years. In some cases, there’s more to track, because I might be writing a book in an ongoing series which carries forward story arcs spanning multiple novels written by other authors. And if I get something wrong? There are legions of fans and readers out there, just waiting to pounce. Hey, I knew the job would be tough when I took it, but it’s also a lot of fun.

Of course, sometimes the needs of a project end up taking me in the opposite direction, too. A project on which I’m currently working has a plotline that unfolds over a period of many years, beginning in the 1940s and extending to the late 1960s. My research has caused me to read up on such topics as the Cold War and the Space Race, but also more mundane subjects like how telephones worked, what people wore or the newspaper they might read or the brand of cigarettes they smoked. Everybody smoked back then, right? And it was good for you. What was on television or the radio on a given day? Which day of the week did a particular date fall? Was it a full moon? The Internet makes research like this so much easier than it might’ve been even ten or fifteen years ago. If you can conjure the right search query, there’s likely at least one website out there with all the information you might possibly want.

Naturally, there’s a pitfall here: You risk becoming so fascinated with a particular topic that you end up spending hours reading just for the kick of it, rather than taking notes for use in your story. This has happened to me on my current project, in which I found myself reading about UFO sightings in the 1950s, and the Air Force’s Project Blue Book. I’ve even tracked down books on the subject written during that time period, just so I could get something approaching a genuine firsthand perspective of the era. Of course, another danger comes from getting so caught up in your newfound knowledge that you’re unable to resist sharing all the minutiae with your readers. I’ve caught myself doing that over the last month or so as I write. Danger, Will Robinson!

How about you? What sort of research do you do for your particular brand of writing? Do you like research, or dread it?

Guest Author Mia Marlowe: The Naked Truth about Pirates (or Why Research is So Desperately Important!)

Mia Marlowe writes historical romance for Kensington and Sourcebooks. Her work has been featured in People magazine and one of her novels is on display at the Museum of London Docklands next to Johnny Depp memorabilia. Her books have been translated into 8 different languages. Publishers Weekly has named her Touch of a Rogue one of the Top Ten Romances for Spring 2012! Mia loves to connect with other writers and readers and invites you to visit her cyber-home, http://www.miamarlowe.com ! 



Pirates? Arrg! There’s just something about a man who takes what he wants and makes us like it! When the Pirates of the Caribbean movies came out, with the charmingly spacey Captain Jack and devastatingly attractive Will Turner, I was moved to write a swashbuckling hero with a saucy heroine to match.

In order to make my pirate believable, I had to do more than watch Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom (though I’ll confess to doing a little of that, too!). Getting the facts right is important, so I researched the pirate era and the fascinating characters that sailed the seas in search of plunder. So here’s the naked truth about those Caribbean bad boys.

1. They weren’t all in the Caribbean. Piracy was common to every sea on earth. Barbary corsairs plied the coast of Africa. Malaccan pirates preyed on pilgrims bound for Mecca. Chinese junks join together to form massive pirate navies. Where ever you sailed, there were those with a cavalier attitude toward property ownership.

2. They weren’t all boys. While it was generally considered bad luck to bring a woman on board (and the penalty for sneaking one on could be death or marooning!), there were a few notable female pirates. Both Anne Bonney and Mary Read sailed with Calico Jack and were reputedly fierce fighters. When his ship was finally taken by the British navy, the two women were the only ones who put up any resistance. The rest of the crew was too drunk to fight. But when Anne and Mary were convicted of piracy, they “pleaded their bellies” and escaped the noose because they were pregnant. Calico Jack wasn’t so lucky. When Anne Bonney visited him while he waited for the hangman, she comforted him with, “if you’d fought like a man, you needn’t be hanged like a dog.” Talk about being an “I told you so!”

3. They weren’t all bad. Or at least, they didn’t start out that way. Like Gabriel Drake in How to Please a Pirate, some honest seamen turned to piracy because they had no choice. Black Bart Roberts began his career as a naval navigator, but was pressed into piracy when his ship was taken. He went on to become one of the most successful pirate captains in history.

4. They weren’t all naked. Though pirates went barefoot at sea, they enjoyed dressing well on land. Since they often took prizes of silk bales or rich brocade, pirates delighted in devising flamboyant costumes to wear once they hit port. Buccaneers had plenty of free time during long days at sea to sew. Since women were not welcome aboard ships, what else did they have to do?

5. They held to their own code of conduct. Pirate crews practiced a rough form of democracy, electing their captains and signing articles defining their goals and expected behavior. In How to Please a Pirate, Gabriel Drake’s first mate reminds him that according to the articles he drew up himself, ‘meddling’ with a woman of prudence is strictly forbidden. Good thing my heroine isn’t the prudent type.

6. They took care of their own. Pirates were often maimed in the course of spreading mayhem. As part of the articles they signed, payment for loss of an eye or a limb was agreed upon ahead of time. What a way to fund your retirement!

7. They were only deemed pirates if they stole from the wrong people. A privateer—one bearing a Letter of Marque—might commit the very same acts as a pirate, seizing goods and ships, with the blessing of his Sovereign so long as he shared the booty with the Crown. However, if he made the mistake of attacking the wrong ship, even a Letter of Marque couldn’t save him. Captain Kidd mistakenly attacked a British vessel and though he possessed a Letter, it wasn’t enough to save him from the noose and the gibbet.

8. They didn’t just hang a convicted pirate. They made an example of him. First, he was hung with a short rope, so his neck wouldn’t break. Death for a pirate was a protracted public strangulation. His body was left to be covered by three tides, then tarred and put on display in a gibbet as a warning to other seafaring men who might be tempted to piracy. Pirate hangings were treated as holidays by the public. When Gabriel Drake is led to the gallows in How to Please a Pirate, there’s much jostling to secure the best place from which to view the spectacle. These people seriously needed cable TV.

9. They didn’t all fly the Jolly-Roger. Each pirate captain devised his own version of the skull and cross-bones in an effort to appear as fearsome as possible. But if he really wanted to scare the living lights out of his prey, he’d run up a solid red flag. It was a signal that he’d neither give nor accept quarter. He intended to kill every soul on board.

10. Pirates didn’t bury their treasure. A few pirates might cache their goods from time to time (and in How to Please a Pirate, a treasure is rumored to be hidden somewhere in Dragon Caern, Gabriel Drake’s castle). But pirates would never leave a map to indicate where their treasure lies, lest it fall into the wrong hands. Besides, they were more likely to spend their ill-gotten gains in riotous living than to salt it away for their unlikely retirement. There were very few old pirates. “A merry life and a short one” was their motto.

Which just goes to prove what I suspected all along. Pirates just wanna have fun! And as a writer, my way to have fun is uncovering all these facts. Do I use everything I learn in my stories? No. What reader wants an info-dump? But a thorough research of the period lends a flavor of authenticity to a historical romance that readers are looking for. Disappoint them at your peril.

I'd like to offer a chance to win a How to Please a Pirate in the winner's choice of either Kindle or Nook format. All you have to do is leave a comment or question for me to be entered in a random drawing.

Blurb: After earning a royal pardon for his wicked ways, Gabriel Drake decides to play the prodigal and come home to the life of a gentleman. But a change of station doesn’t change his pirate’s heart. And what a pirate wants, a pirate takes.

Mia loves to connect with readers and other writers. Find her at MiaMarlowe.com, Facebook & Twitter!

Parawriting

What activities count as part of writing a story or novel?

It's not such a silly question. I often spent all day, every day, in my office and not get any actual writing done that week. But not anymore. I recently decided to reserve 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. four days a week to actual writing.

After only a couple of days, I realized I needed to define "writing." Does revising a draft count? (Yes, I decided.) Does reading a general writing book not specifically related to any current works? (No.) What about everything in-between, which I named "parawriting" because it's related to current projects but doesn't involve doing something with an actual manuscript?

To keep myself honest and make sure I put in at least 20 hours of  working on a manuscript, I defined the following as "writing" when keeping track of my 20+ writing hours per week:

• writing, rewriting, revising, or polishing a manuscript
• submitting stories to markets
• researching subjects directly related to a manuscript
• blogging at the book-related blog "Meal Times"
• designing book covers, bookmarks, and postcards
• brainstorming
• preparing manuscripts for self-publication
• uploading manuscripts for publication

The following, however, got defined as "parawriting" and don't count toward my minimum of 20 hours a week:

• booksignings
• nagging magazines that published my stories but didn't pay me for them
• critiquing other people
• attending critique groups
• attending professional conferences
• reading background for a actual or potential book or story
• reading books about becoming a better writer
• blogging at my personal blog, "For Love of Words," or here at "Novel Spaces"
• preparing a schedule for my writing week and writing month
• updating my account book
• writing reviews at GoodReads or Amazon.com
• all marketing and promotion (except for designing bookmarks and postcards)
• straightening my office

Now I'm moving my drafts forward, and I'm getting new words down. Best of all, I'm no longer baffled by not knowing where the time I spend in my office goes. I was devoting too much time to parawriting and not enough to writing.

Parawriting tasks are essential and they are legitimate to do during working hours. But they shouldn't squeeze out actual writing. And now they no longer are for me. Goodbye, frustration! Hello, high productivity!


What is your relationship with parawriting? Are you able to balance parawriting and writing? Or does one squeeze out the other, leaving you unable to proceed?


In my next "Novel Spaces" post, I'll tell you about Conquest, the science fiction and fantasy convention held yearly in Kansas City, which I'm attending this week and weekend. See you on June 6!

—Shauna Roberts

Research By Happenstance

A little over two weeks ago I mentioned I was going to Dominica for a family function and to conduct research for my current WIP set in the Nature Isle. I also promised to tell you how it went next time I blogged. Well here goes....

A lot of my research was centered on being in the right place at the right time.
1. The time was ideal for experiencing the culture of the country
October to November is the height of Dominica’s cultural celebration. October is Creole month and November is their independence celebration. Quite a bit of history is recapped at this time and the people wear their national dress and eat their local and traditional foods at this time. I attended cultural pageants, ate a whole lot of breadfruit, green fig, and dasheen, calalloo, and Titiwi Accra

2. I spent a lot of time at the local library
Because my 8 year old missed almost three weeks of school I had to do a little home schooling to keep her on track. I found it best to go to the local library and let her do her lessons. While I was at the library I was able to look up books written about the history and lives of the indigenous people, the Kalinago people or the Caribs. One book in particular, written in 1971, was written from the perspective of a young, preteen Carib. He spoke about their daily lives, their lost language and religion, their interactions with the rest of the island and most importantly the cultural changes as the push to educate the local population increased.

3. Through family gatherings and outings I was able to scout out areas where I would like my romantic settings
When people think of romance in the Caribbean, they think of a sunset on a white sand beach with coconut trees. Well when a book is set in the Nature Isle, white sand beaches is not an option. But of their many rivers, streams, crater lakes, hidden waterfalls, and beautiful mountain vistas, I was able to find way more romantic settings than I ever would need for my book.

4. I got to experience the island like a local
I was able to visit the Carib Territories, see the crafts made there and enjoy the cassava bread. I spent time in the quiet countryside in the mountains where banana, coffee and cocoa are farmed. I engaged people in discussion about the changing culture, new ethnic diversity. Most of all I was able to see the development and compare the island now, to the island I visited first in 1993 and every few or so years since.

5. I got to relive some romance of my own
I was able to visit the beautiful Peninsular at Scotts Head, that separated the Atlantic Ocean from the Caribbean Sea. Why is this area sentimental to me? It was on this peninsular that my husband proposed to me over a decade and a half ago. I was able to share this with my three children.

Overall, it was a successful research trip and an even better family vacation. And in all this how much actual writing did I get done? Exactly two pages.

Research in motion

Researching for a novel today is much different from a few decades ago. Back then an author had to travel to the physical location. He/she had to learn the cultures, customs, and language of the people where the novel was set. Researching involved spending days in the stacks at the library combing through books and papers, or reading several different encyclopedias.

Today, with the easy access of the internet, research is much different….easier, cheaper. A simple Google search can gain an author access to many things the encyclopedia could not. With Google Earth, an author could get a street view of a location with amazing details—no travel necessary. Pictures could provide settings with one click and blogs and local radio broadcasts via the internet can give a realistic assessment of the day to day lives of people in many places. Yes the possibilities are endless.

In spite of that, there are times when research is needed. Dan Brown, author of blockbusters like “The DaVinci Code” and “Angels and Demons”, does painstaking research for his books. The internet cannot fill in the gap for the types of books he writes. There are many books that deal with topics that require much more than an internet search can provide … even romance books.

For me, a romance writer, I have kept my research rather simple by writing about contemporary people in contemporary settings. I have stuck to familiar occupations and cultures, and kept settings in places that I have lived or visited for extended periods of time. My reason for that is simple: I have read novels set in the Caribbean that just did not ring true for me, a native of the Caribbean. They didn’t capture the spirit of the place and were filled with stereotypes.

So for my current WIP I chose a place that I was already familiar with. It is set in a Dominica, a Caribbean island that I have visited on numerous occasions for extended periods of time. Being married to a native of that country, I am familiar with the customs and cultures, and even though I cannot speak the local language, I am familiar with it.

I began writing that novel late this summer, though I’ve had the outline for almost a year. My timing was no coincidence. It was carefully planned to coincide with my pending visit to that country. You see, I am going to do some research on location. No Google Earth or blog sites or tourist sites for me. I intend to verify locations, places, and capture the essence of the island … the feelings the place invokes. Now my trip wasn’t designed for research. It was simply a visit to my husband’s home country to celebrate his parents’ fiftieth wedding anniversary. But the timing is ideal for this current WIP, and by beginning the novel before I visit the island I can identify the voids and shortcomings in the manuscript and fill them in when I get there.

So yes, in a short while, I’ll be making that journey to do “research”, the type of research that’s best done on location. In my next blog post, I’ll let you know how my research went.

How do you conduct research for your novels?

Relationship Saturday: Novel Spaces

I find contemporary relationships to be absolutely fascinating. After all, we're all here on this earth to love and be loved. Most of my books revolve around family, parents, children, etc., but mainly love and life issues between a man and a woman - some type of boy meets girl, boy loses girl, shifting to boy meets the girl next door scenarios.

Though my first title, May December Souls, was classified as romance, my books are now far from romance and are very unconventional. I'll take on the everyday dramas of real life that involve taboo topics, and twist them into couples's lives. I feel passionate about tackling the edgy characters who take a shot at things that make folks just a little uncomfortable, even the wife who physically abuses her husband - you hate her to no end, yet by the end of the story you understand her dimensions enough to feel sympathy and cheer on her success. And actually cry at her demise. Or the woman who dates her best friend's son, and the payback is for that best friend to date the friend's father.

On my Facebook page, I gather relationship dilemma questions from FB friends who inbox me in confidentiality, and post the questions for my other FB friends to lend their advice, instead of me lending advice (well in some cases I do). It absolutely fascinates me that while you would think most women would feel outrage over a new husband who still pays his ex-girlfriend's son's cell phone bill (not his biological son), you'll find other women who understand the bond between a man and a boy from a supportive mentoring standpoint and think it's okay, suggesting the woman not be so insecure. You might have a man who is upset that his wife won't take his last name once they're married, yet other men would have no problem with it. Every time I think I can predict the responses, someone posts an opposing view that makes you think. I even asked women what they would do if while making love to their husband, he told them it would be their last time together. The responses were shocking, hilarious, and passionate - some simply asking "why" and others ready to Lorena Bobbitt him in a heartbeat.

Love and relationships are complicated and what one person does in one case will be the complete opposite in another. I think that's why writing stories can be so entertaining to readers, yet frustrating as well. We have an opportunity to show them what can happen, and introduce them to the lives of people they otherwise would not have had an opportunity to experience, who might not think like them, but who are dealing with their drama based upon their own make up, issues and experiences. It's like getting dirty virtually without having to play in the mud.

I still believe that true life is stranger than fiction. What we write about has been done before somewhere, and some things we hear about we probably couldn't have made up in a million years. But the blessing comes once we create three-dimensional characters (knock on wood) and allow them to experience the friction of their journeys, even when we don't know how it will end.

Relationships - the heart of our works and the pulse of our passion. Seeing other sides and hearing other views, even on Facebook, has enriched my writing and my outlook on love and life, encouraging me to stay open-minded. On this Relationship Saturday, I just want to say, thank you to my FB friends for their invaluable feedback, and thank you to my readers, for reading the stories of my drama-filled, flawed characters who are just trying their best to, relate.

Yikes! Writer Bloopers

"What are you cooking?" she asks, looking into the pot he stirs.

"Pesto," he answers.

It's been years, if not decades, since I saw the movie in which that exchange occurred. I no longer remember the name of the movie or the stars or any of the plot, only the huge mistake the writers had made and the scorn I felt for them. It would have taken only a few minutes to look in a cookbook to find out how pesto is made—only seconds if the Web were already around—but they didn't bother.

I work hard not to make factual mistakes in my stories that will lead to readers ridiculing me and possibly never reading my work again. Even so, I had the humbling experience this week of almost sending out a short story with two mistakes in a single sentence in the first paragraph.

This story takes place on an Indonesian island in 1598. To describe the setting without an info dump, I have one of the lead characters, a Portuguese sailor, admiring a few features he can see from his ship. One of the features was a vast sprawl of flowers, and in my final round of polishing, I decided to add a smoking volcano.

I checked online to see whether any of the volcanoes were live; a smoking volcano would be silly if none were. Yikes! It hit me then for the first time that volcanoes erupt and I had not checked any on the island had erupted in or shortly before 1598. Luckily, none had. But an eruption could have changed the look of the island considerably and possibly forced a relocation of the story to a different part of the island or a different year.

Second yikes! To make the description of flowers more specific, I went Google-surfing to find out what colors the flowers the island is known for are. That was when I discovered that the "flowers" were in fact the many species of brightly colored corals that the Portuguese saw in the clear tropical water under their ships. I not only had to take out the reference to flowers in the lead paragraph, but also add a mention of sharp-edged corals in an underwater scene.

I thought of the pesto-cooking writers then and felt a little sympathy. If I had skipped researching these two important points, I wondered what else I hadn't researched enough. The story is on submission now; if it gets accepted, I may find out from alert readers.

What is the silliest mistake you've ever made in a story or book? Did you catch it before it got published? Did any readers write to you?


I'll be blogging again on March 21, the second day of Spring. May you make no factual mistakes in your writing between now and then!

—Shauna Roberts

Worldbuilding: Political and Economic Systems

It may be the lasting influence of George W. Bush's confused utterances. It may be due to students paying less attention in social studies class. Maybe I'm just more aware of it now that I experience books as a writer as well as a reader.

Whatever the reason, more and more often I see people conflate three very different concepts: capitalism, democracy, and liberty.

Capitalism is an economic system based on private ownership of the means of production and the means of distribution. Workers are paid wages, and individuals and companies aim to make a profit.

Democracy is a political system in which the people govern, either directly or through representatives they elect.

Freedom is a philosophical concept. It has had many different meanings over the millennia, but at its essence has to do with the arenas in which people can behave as they choose and the arenas in which people are protected from oppression.

The United States is a representative democracy whose economy is rooted in capitalism and whose Constitution and its amendments guarantee certain freedoms and protections. Democracy, capitalism, and freedom are constantly evolving. For example, two hundred years ago in the United States, slaves and women could not vote, and poor children worked long hours for pitiful wages instead of going to school.

I'm not leading up to an attack on the Tea Party movement, although its members do seem quite confused about these concepts and their history. Rather, I want to encourage people who write historical and speculative fiction to think carefully about their extrapolations into the future or past. Too often, the stories and books I read don't hold water because the author takes as given the idea that capitalism and freedom are defaults, natural and good, rather than social constructs viewed differently by different people. How often have you read fantasies with a Bronze- or Iron-Age civilization with an apparent free-market economy with no explanation of how such an economy could have developed? How often have you read a fantasy or sf story in which a slave wants to be free, with no explanation of how they got such an alien idea in a society in which slavery is accepted and free people are in the minority?

I've barely skimmed the surface of the problem of American beliefs about democracy, capitalism, and freedom infecting fiction set in other places and time periods. I'll leave a fuller treatment to a grad student in need of a thesis topic.

I'll stop here by restating an argument I've made before in my NovelSpaces blog posts: Writers need to be well versed in many subjects, including the social sciences. Poor fiction results when people don't research or examine their personal beliefs and prejudices before worldbuilding.


I'll be blogging here again on October 21. Until then, may your writing be true to your world.

—Shauna Roberts