A List of Google Searches for The Grove

I have blogged about how I believe in directed research rather than general research so I don’t fall down a rabbit hole of information. If you are curious to see how much research I do for a novel, today I will post my  Google (and yes I do mean Google) Searches I did for The Grove and tomorrow I will post the bibliography.

On the trail at Cape Disappointment State Park, Washington Coast.

Sitka Spruce at Ecola State Park, Oregon Coast

• Sitka Spruce Lifespan
• Photo of Sitka Spruce Cone
• Beaches of Oregon
• Oregon Beach Plants
• Beach Towns of Oregon
• Map of Oregon
• Taxidermy
• Gaff History
• Wicca
• Wiccan love potions
• Wiccan sex magic
• Chinook Jargon / Chinuk Wawa / Chinook Jargon Lessons Seattle
• Indigenous Faiths
• Siletz Reservation
• Siletz Language / Siletz Talking Dictionary / Siletz Dee Ni sentences and new words
• Yiddish words for Old Woman (polite)
• Squirrels of the Oregon Coast
• Paranormal versus Horror Genres
• Define Cosmic Horror
• Sasquatch
• Snallygaster
• Cryptozoology
• Legendary Animals
• Aston Martin convertible
• Sign for Rip Tides/ Ocean

As you can see some of the searches are for specific or general facts for the book, others are me trying to figure out what genre the novel actually falls under. Of course, some facts were found and then deleted such as the Yiddish words for Old Woman.

Writers, what have been some of your search topics?

If these topics excite your reading buds, consider checking out The Grove on E-book or Paperback.

 

 

The Light Side of the Moon Research Topics

The Light Side of the Moon rewrite took a lot out of me. Not only did I feel like I was able to make the characters more lifelike, I did more research in order to make the story sing with science and facts. Or at least so I don’t sound like an idiot. I’ve written before about how I believe in specific directed research.

This is some of the topics I researched for The Light Side of the Moon and some of the books and links I used:

• Lunar Colonization http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_the_Moon
• Lunar Lava Tubes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_lava_tube
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mare_Serenitatis
  
• Map of the moon  http://www.lunasociety.org/atlas/
• Equipment in a medical lab (I was spell checking words like electrophoresis apparatus and ultracentrifuge)
• How do doctors test for radiation poison? http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/radiation-sickness/basics/symptoms/con-20022901
• British terms of endearment (I wondered if Royce should be calling Ian anything other that Ian or Son. And was Dad the most appropriate words for Royce.) http://www.anglotopia.net/british-identity/humor/top-100-most-beautiful-british-slang-words-and-phrases/
• British Swearing — I asked my friend and author Dan Thompson
• German Swearing — I just asked my friend Evan
• French Phrase Book for the word “Help Me!”
• Syphilis 2nd stage http://www.webmd.com/sexual-conditions/tc/syphilis-symptoms
• 1800’s prison treatments http://www.ushistory.org/us/26d.asp

 

What I like best about being an author…

Lady Mira with pistolI have always been an avid reader of any genre of speculative fiction, but I became a lover of  non-fiction after I became became an author. Both short essays and longer books.

I have always been an avid reader of any genre of speculative fiction, but I became a lover of  non-fiction after I became became an author. Both short essays and longer books.

An author has to often be a dilettante. They must learn about something enough to write about it convincingly. I get a lot of joy from encountering the BIG Idea for a manuscript then figuring out what I need to research. As I previously wrote about in this blog post back in ’12: I do not believe in general research, I believe in specific targeted research.

I love the fact that this research builds upon itself with each story. In Other Systems, I learned about astronomy, nautical terms and what flight lessons are like and difficulties that astronauts go through in low gravity. Later, I used some of this knowledge for Unintentional Colonists and even a bit when I described the Expanse in The Martlet. And I am currently working on a short ghost story about orbital clutter that is also using some of the same research.

This is even true with the graphic novels. In Lure, I learned about a stampeder’s journey and hardships during the Yukon Goldrush and in Faminelands, I learned about archery and swordsmanship. All of that knowledge was used  again in the The Martlet‘s manuscript.

Even so my research got really focused when I was working on The Martlet. So much so that my husband said it was creepy to come in our apartment and find Cause of Death : A Writer’s Guide to Death, Murder and Forensic Medicine on the the bathroom counter and On Killing and Poisons (Howdunit Series) on the kitchen table. Now there is a shelf full of books about killing, poisons, and early medical research.

 So that’s my favorite part of being an author: freaking my husband out with strange facts that I have learned.

Productive Research Part 2: Favorite research sources

As I said,  directed research is very important in both novel writing and graphic novels so I thought I would list some of my favorite research sources.

Books:

I picked up a copy of the Sears Catalogue circa 1897 when I was working on Lure. Now anytime I am looking for information on wagons, butter churns, etc. I have the perfect place to find a picture of one.

The How to Draw Manga Series. While some of the titles have a bit of drawing instruction, these are mostly design books. They have a book for every general manga subject: Robots, Occult, Ninjas or whatnot. The book on ninjas has information on sword fighting, throwing stars, the correct costuming, etc.  I also like that certain moves are drawn in sequence.

The Big Blue Book of Grammar : this book is a very straight forward grammar rule book.

Websites:

Thinkbabynames.com : This is my favorite site when I’m going to work on naming characters.

Wikipedia

For my current project an epic fantasy novel with the working title of  The Martlet, I am also using these websites.

Castles of Wales

The Medieval Bestiary

Productivity: General versus Directed Research

I have noticed (and blogged before) about how people sometimes allow facts to get in their way when writing a story. So this post is specific to how I use resources to learn about certain subject matter, so I can write about it, because while I believe general research is a waste of time, I do believe directed research is important.

So let’s say I want to write an epic fantasy about a young girl in the faux middle ages who is going to buck tradition and go off and do X.

The non-writer who wants to write will say: we need to know what challenges she will face. Surprise! No you don’t. YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE WRITING FICTION!

Nothing evolves in a vacuum. Everyone old enough to write a novel should have seen enough television, movies, read other fantasy books to realize that in the middle ages there were jobs based solely on gender and society told women to be subservient to men. Okay, so we all have this idea, it is amazing how often I see people doing YEARS of research in order to verify this fact instead of writing their fantasy epic.

The first pitfall is not knowing what to research. So how do I know what to research?

I have made an outline of my story which includes 
1) The Hook: the main point of the story which will draw the reader in to the world you are creating. Let’s say in this fantasy epic, the protagonist wants her name to live on forever in stone and she imagines herself building castles.

2) The Plot: this sort of adventure will be coming of age story as the protagonist moves from starting point to being a master herself (or at least far enough in her journey that the story ends satisfactorily.) We know she will face:

• disapproval from her parents (which will be shrugged off fairly quickly, since she is going to leave them and go build castles)
• disapproval from the church establishment. (which may or may not be an issue depending on how large of a church presence you have at the building site.)
• disapproval from established masters of Stone Masonry (but at least one person who will train the strange girl who will also be a protector of sorts until she can protect herself.)
• Optional: disapproval from the other apprentices of Masonry

Find Your Topic. It’s okay to start large, then narrow it down.

For your historical research, you decide you want to write about the European dark ages. Awesome. But that’s over 1000 years, so how about focusing on a when and a where? Now that you’ve picked Wales during the Edwardian Castle Building Era. Why? Because you figure you need her working in a time when there was lots of castles being built.

Make sure your topic relates to back to what you are writing. So check out the Stone mason guilds of the Medieval times is probably a good idea, but looking up a woman’s place is irrelevant. Why?

Because you are supposed to be writing a story about a girl who is not going to stay in her prescribed place! She should leave it within the first few chapters if not the first chapter of her story. 

She might choose to dress like a boy, in fact, it is probably required since gowns would get stuck between the building materials. So once again, you are looking at the stone masons what they wore, how they behaved, etc. Were they cosseted by the gentry because of their skills or were they just educated peasants?

So with this probably won’t take me more than two weeks to do. Now to add a bit of the correct flavor I would do quick internet searches on: Welsh recipes of that era, Peasant houses

With those four topics, I should have enough to get started and even add a few details to my story.

And then if while in the course of writing the story another topic comes up–lets say the duties of a Household Priest–I can just do a search, spend a day or two researching it, and then move back to writing.

How do other people accomplish their research?