Flashes of Light

I collect photos in a folder titled 'Story Ideas'. Some are scenery, others are just pictures that satisfy some inner need or a research reference. At the moment there are about four hundred in the folder.

This morning I scrolled through them, looking for a little flash to jumpstart my second chapter. I wasn't looking for some huge idea, but something small. And I noticed a thumbnail titled 'living under a rock'.

I always have to preview the pics because I usually can't make out the thumbnail. Anyway, I clicked on it and it was picture of an enormous rock with a home--really just a bricked up space--beneath the rock. Now, how secure could you possibly feel living in that bit of space?

Then that expression--Where have you been living? Under a Rock?--came to mind. Hmmmm. How can I use this idea in my story?

Readers often ask writers where they get their ideas. The answer is 'everywhere'. Some are quick scenes we see in our daily lives. Or something we read that leads to a new idea. It might be a picture. It could be a dream. More than likely, it's a 'what if?' moment.

What are your flashes of light?

anny

Top 10 Research Facts

Research is an on-going by-product of writing. Sometimes you learn something unexpected when you trot off for a bit of impromptu research. My philosophy is all knowledge makes your life more interesting. I like knowing things for the sake of knowing them, which can make things difficult when I get side-tracked from writing by the research.

Take that little jaunt having to do with processing acorns. I started out just looking up information about how to process acorns so they would be edible. Then one thing led to another. If you'd like to know more about the great acorn hunt, check out the tab on my blog that has that story.

Anyway, I thought I would tell you about the top ten things I've learned through research (other than the Great Acorn Hunt).

1) Before there were archeologists, there were antiquarians. Back in 1812 the American Antiquarian Society was established in Massachusetts. It's still ticking along as a fabulous place for research. Check it out by clicking on the AAS above. Since my current book takes place in the 1830's, I needed to know what an archeologist was called back then. And I discovered the AAS by happy accident.

2) In the book before my current one (Shadows on Stone) I needed a medium sized cargo plane. After extensive research, I settled on a Skyvan for it's size and maneuverability. And then I stumbled on THIS IMAGE which gave me a wonderful idea for the Skyvan in my book. But aside from the way I painted my own plane, I also learned all sorts of interesting things about this very versatile airplane.

3) Before packaged yeast, how did people make bread and other yeasty products? Did you ever wonder? Well, I discovered a wonderful book titled Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz. Until I started delving into the subject, it didn't occur to me that yogurt was fermented. You learn the most amazing things sometimes.

4) In a particular survival scenario, I wondered if regular Superglue could be substituted for medical glue. I happen to belong to a SURVIVAL FORUM. I tossed the question out there for general discussion and received a picture via e-mail from one of the members showing a very long slash on his leg which he'd repaired with regular Superglue when he was injured while hunting. Several other members directed me to appropriate sites for other discussions on the same subject.

5) For another book I wondered what kind of house could you build with minimal tools AND minimal wood? For much of the world, the answer is mud. But where to go to find out about making such a dwelling? One of the finest books I found on the subject was The Hand-Sculpted House by Ianto Evans, Michael G. Smith, and Linda Smiley. It's a great book about how to build a cob cottage. And just for your info...there are cob dwellings from the 1500's that are still in use in Great Britain.

6) While researching RV's and other small homes, I stumbled on a site for the TumbleweedTinyHouse. And I instantly fell in love. This was a house I had to use in a book. I even knew exactly which book I would use it in--Phantom's Rest. I don't own a tiny house myself, but someday down the road, I would like to live in one. In the meantime, I enjoyed working out how to use it in my story.

7) In our extremely water-wasteful, germaphobic culture we've moved away from the realities of dealing with human waste. We use that nice shiny toilet and flush, using zillions of gallons of potable water to deal with the end result. But for most of the world, that isn't the way life works. In the process of writing several different books, I've acquired quite a library of books dealing with how to dispose of or use human waste. I have everything from books on waterless toilets to composting human manure. One such book is The Humanure Handbook by Joseph Jenkins. For those of you holding your nose with your lips curled back in a "Ewwwww," I would remind you that one of the first things to breakdown in a disaster is the plumbing.

8) Do ya wanna know about guns? Shooter's Bible will tell you everything you ever wanted to know. Of course, there are things you'll never know (how heavy that weapon is in your hands or what kind of kick it has when you pull the trigger) unless you shoot it yourself. There isn't any other way to know that. And I have to tell you, it's nothing like on TV or the movies.

9) Speaking of guns--there is a rifle peculiar to the American frontier--sometimes called the Kentucky or Pennsylvania long rifle. I needed some very specific information regarding this rifle. The American Longrifles site was one of many I utilized for my questions. I must say every single man I spoke to about this subject--whether from this site or another--was a patient gentleman. They answered the dumbest questions without lifting an eyebrow.

10) Finally, early clothing and weapons utilized leather. That involved tanning--so called because of the use of tannin. For a nice comprehensive article on TANNING I turned to Wikipedia. Surprised? Oh, I didn't stop after that, but I found it to be an excellent starting point.

So what have you learned inadvertently while researching? What's your most interesting research adventure?

anny

The vagaries of research

First of all, Jenyfer Matthews awarded me the "Blogging with a Purpose" award. It is an excellent award! Thank you, Jenyfer!

Next I must award it to five blogs I feel are worthy and since Jenyfer has already been picked, I can't choose her even though I thoroughly enjoy her glimpse of life in Cairo. If you've never checked out her blog, please do so now! http://jenyfermatthews.blogspot.com/

I am going to take another day to consider my choices carefully. Please tune in tomorrow to see who I pick.

In the meantime, back to the research. The world of the internet is a wonderful thing. However, it does have a couple of drawbacks. One of those is the large number of people who copy information from other sites, slap it on their own site without any acknowledgements, and then twist the facts to their own purposes. Sigh. Groan. Yawn.

After several hours of surfing, I'm convinced that I'm looking at the same two or three pages...at least the same information. I've queried as many different ways as I can think of and still I encounter the same stuff. Anyway, it's certainly been an eye-opening experience. Anytime you research the origins of tradition, you find out things that you might not have wanted to know. For instance, did you know that Christmas wasn't widely celebrated in the United States before the Civil War as it was considered a PAGAN holiday? In Massachusetts it was even against the law for a period of about twenty five years. Very interesting.

Tonight I was talking to my friend Jane. She was describing her experience with teaching a young teen how to iron. Then we started reminiscing about what it was like when we were young. Does anyone else remember wetting the clothes with a sprinkler and rolling them up. You kept the un-ironed clothes in the drawer in the refrigerator so they didn't mildew. Before there was spray starch you could either starch the entire article of clothing or you could add a little powdered starch to the water in your sprinkler bottle.

How about bluing? Anyone else remember the little bottle of bluing that you used in the rinse water? Any of you do wash in a genuine wringer washer? We started out with really hot water for the white clothes. Then the same water (a little cooler by then) for the light colored clothes. After that came the sheets and towels (same water!) and then finally the dark clothes. I wonder how we ever got them clean?

I had a "squaw" skirt made out of a turquoise crinkly fabric. My mom would wash it and then hang it outside to dry in the inside of a nylon stocking so that it retained it's crinkly self. Then when I wore it, I had a crinoline underneath so that it poofed out all around me. How many of you remember wearing crinolines? You had to be careful when you sat down. Otherwise you shared all your "good bits" with the boys without meaning to.

Do you remember when we were taught to sit like a lady? How about wearing a slip? Or a girdle? Or horror of horrors a garter belt. The only thing more uncomfortable was (TURN AWAY MEN) a sanitary napkin belt. Ah, the mysteries of womanhood.

Heh. I remember ironing day! It was endless. One of the first chores I shucked was ironing. The only thing worse was taking all the rugs outside so that I could "beat" the dust out of them. Can we talk about asthma?

Well, enough of walking down memory lane. Until tomorrow...

Anny

Don't forget to check out the ladies!!! Amarinda, Kelly, and OhGetAGrip!

The Research Road

Any writer worth her or his salt will do research. You might think that there really isn't much to research in a world we're all familiar with, but you might also be wrong. What would you do in the name of research? How far would you go?

I've done all sorts of things from the Great Acorn Hunt to a brief exhilerating ride in a two-seater ultralight plane. Wheeee! Now that was a rush. I've researched planes--kicked a few tires and watched them fuel them, helped to roof a house (and replace the siding on the same house) in the winter, changed a toilet, replaced a muffler in an ice storm, and rode along with a student driver for a tractor-trailer lesson. I've played a hammered dulcimer and a bowed psaltery and a lap harp and a harmonica. Did I say I played well? No, but the experience of holding the odd hammers in my hands and striking the vibrating strings while they hummed under my hands is one I won't forget.

Some facts can be easily checked over the internet. Others can really only be experienced by doing. Actually changing a tire in the rain is very different from reading about it. Only by doing it "for real" do you find out how slippery the rubber tire and jack get when wet. Until you've tried to loosen lug nuts while dressed in heels and stockings, you don't really have a decent perspective on the difficulties.

Actual experience cannot be beat for that ring of authenticity in your writing. I lived through the turbulent sixties. I have a video tape with the "highlights" of the sixties. When I sat down to watch it with my kids it was hard to articulate just how paltry the tape was compared to the real deal. There was little comprehension when we talked about the events on the tape. It was as remote to them as if I was talking about the Medieval Ages.

Walking through the wilderness is different from reading about it. Living survival is a much more terrifying experience than most people can imagine. Standing on a mountain top you've climbed with that first rush of accomplishment zinging through you is exhilerating in ways that are difficult to explain. Encountering your first rattlesnake or scorpion or gila monster releases all those childhood memories of the boogy man in the dark. Tumbling out of control down a raging river marks you forever with the respect for out of control flash floods.

Some of my research was involuntary--to say the least--but if I refuse to share my past experiences then I have failed. Do I need to go to the moon to write about it? No, but I can use my experiences with unexpected accomplishments to convey how I would feel it I reached the moon.

I embarked on a time-travel novel set in 500 BC America. It has been a worthy experiment for me. Almost every page has required me to step back and look at the story line. Nothing is simple. How to purify water? How to build a shelter? How to harvest food in the wild? How to defend against hostile animals and people?

Even a contemporary setting has a stage set. Where does the action take place? What kind of building? What kind of car? In a shopping mall? All of those require fact checking. I once critiqued a story for a friend several years ago. She set the story in a city in the south. And in one sequence she had her characters shopping at a grocery story that is popular in the northeast. That chain has no stores in the south. When I pointed out this error she declared that I was too picky... that no one would notice. Well, I suspect that readers from the south would notice pretty quickly!

The next time you read a book, notice the details. Because none of them were free.

Anny

Don't forget to stop by Amarinda's blog at www.amarindajones.blogspot.com to check out the covers and excerpts she has posted. And thn pop over to Kelly's blog at www.kkirch.blogspot.com for her Sunday Quote.