Researching

Recent topics Googled or read about in actual books!

• White slavery
• Deduction
• True Crime cases
• Mormonism
• Avenging Angles
• Danites

Point of note: This idea I have is inspired by the the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes story titled 'A Study in Scarlet' where he outlines a "supposed" militant group of people the Mormon's employed many years ago to "recruit" suitable white women. My story will not involve the Mormon people, or any other religious group. My idea is far more seedier and much more despicable than that, but, in the end, it will be a love story. Not a Mills & Boon-style romance, a real love story - it will just be buried beneath a great deal of other stuff...

Think Bourne meets Ashanti with a fair sprinkling of Paperback Hero garnishing around the edges, but there will be no Jason Bourne, or even someone who knows martial arts as our hero. I'm going to drop a pretty nice, but also pretty average, bloke into the middle of a medieval nightmare which takes place in the 21st century.

At least that's the plan as it's playing out in my head. It will evolve and as it does, I'll post snippets of what I'm doing and what I'm researching as I go. Not sure if I'll go into word count updates at this point - I'm not sure that sort of thing will help or hinder, or even matters.

There Was Movement At The Station...

Apologies to Banjo Patterson.

I rewrote chapter three today after a very inspirational visit to the State Library.

I sat for around an hour, in a special reading room, carefully going through notebooks and manuscripts, some around 150 years old. It was awe inspiring stuff. Not "hey-muse-look-at-this-stuff-and-get-the-creative-juices-flowing" type of awe, but simply to be able to touch history, to actually immerse myself in it physically.

I'm a history nut from way back. I love watching documentaries on times past and I love to visit places like museums or National Trust displays. I find it fascinating. To have researched a great deal about a couple of our states pioneers and then to hold their hand written note books in my hand, to see the elegantly flowing ink from the 1800s slanted perfectly across the page. To read the words of a man's memoir (the draft copy no less - including pencilled in changes) was brilliant. When I finally returned the material to the archivist and left the library to find my wife, I couldn't stop talking about it.

In that hour, I had four pages of hand written notes. I've filled in all sorts of blanks I had in my story and my knowledge on the era. In fact I learnt so much that I knew I had to rewrite chapter three immediately because it was wrong. Not completely wrong but it was definitely drifting toward historical blunders.

I'll let the new version sit for a day or two and then reread it to make sure I got it all. It needs to be right to allow me to move onto another point of conflict in chapter four.

All in all, it was a good research day today. Another up on the writing roller coaster.

I hope things are going well with you. Do any of you write historical fiction? Have you got any research tips I should know about? Want to share with the rest of us?

I write this blog as a kind of journal for what I'm doing and the writing process I'm undertaking, particularly my progress through my Diploma. I try to impart any gems of information I find along the way. Do any of you write a blog for similar reasons? I'd be happy to host a link to your blog if you do. Hell, I'd be happy to add it to my feed list if you do, because I want to learn more about all the journeys writers are taking in learning the craft.

Talk to me, let me know.

Good luck with your writing.

BT

Research Trip Bomb

It seems I didn't plan things too well.

On reading the finer details, you know, little things like the opening times, it seems my plan to visit one of my story's sites was a little wrong. Who would have thought that a bustling tourist destination would have it's historical information building closed Saturday, Sunday and Monday! Never having been a tourist, I didn't know the rare species only visited designated tourist spots during the week.

So we didn't end up going. Instead we diverted to rummage through some book stores looking for old tomes to gleam some much needed personal information from the times. Result, nothing! Well, not quite nothing. It's true I didn't buy a single book and became very disheartened as time went on but it has germinated a new idea. I think I will have to move my time frame forward a little. Currently my story is set in the late 1830s but very little detail has been written about the time. There are vast sweeping overviews which one would think allow a fictional writer to have his or her head, but the overviews must be extremely liberal with what they claim. Now I'm not saying that the history books are taking a little "poetic" license but some of the claims of what the original pioneers had or were able to purchase once here, seem a little "out there" would be a kind way of putting it.

I need to settle my mind on a couple of questions which should be possible once I gain entrance to the historical trust site on location. Tomorrow, I'm spending time in the State Library to see if I can uncover more there. We'll see.

It may seem like I'm pandering and allowing myself to be bogged down in minor details. I don't think so. If I get the flavour wrong, or the setting in one or two of the major settings, it could ruin the whole book. Should a story be able to stand on its own anyway? One should hope so, but I'm not writing a story that could be set anywhere in an imaginary universe, this is set at a specific time and in a specific place. If I propose a hotel existed in a place and find out later that there wasn't one there till 15 years later, then I won't be happy. I'd like this book to have wide appeal when done but I'm realistic to know that its possibly biggest audience will be the folk who live in these places. Some of them are big historians, one of them gave me this idea to begin with. If they start saying how many things are wrong with it, then the bad publicity could ruin things before they begin.

On another bad note: Dark Rose has been rejected again. This one piece seems to be bouncing in and out quicker than any other story. Should I use the old three strikes and you're out philosophy? I'm not sure.

I think I'll print it out and sit down for a good read through before making any further decisions.

Story title: Dark Rose
Market: The Edge of Propinquity
Status: Rejected
Comments: "Thank you for submitting "Dark Rose" to The Edge of Propinquity webzine. I am sorry but this story does not meet our needs at this time."

This is a form rejection sent personally, but I'm worried because I thought this story had all the elements they were looking for. I'm beginning to think parts of it come across as contrived. I think that because I was trying to listen to well meant advice from TPN members. I think I may have gone too far. It may have pleased them but I'm not sure it pleased me.

Next step: The above comments are why I'll now print this out and read through it a few times with different hats on. I may try a couple of beta readers who have asked to read some of my work in the past.

I've written a request to the administration of my diploma asking for a please explain in regards to my grades for semester one. From all the investigations I've done, I think I should have gained 2 Credits instead of the Credit and Pass marks I did gain. We'll see what they say.

No writing and no reading accomplished this weekend which is disappointing. No word on Issue #2 of SA50s+ either, which should have been out for close to a week by now.

I've been asked to help another writer out with short piece they're working on. I've already given them a huge amount of feedback on it so it'll be interesting to see where that goes from here.

So I've printed my story. Time to cast a really critical eye over it and see if I can pin down what's causing it to bounce.

Good luck with your submissions.

BT

Been Slow

You don't know how much you use the Internet until you are restricted or lose access all together.

We are trying to limit our access at home at the moment due to a miscalculation that has made us run over our monthly limit. It can become very expensive if we use too much over the allocation. So I've been trying to do my blogging and research during breaks at work. Today, our Internet connection went down at work.

On the positive side, I got stuck into some work I'd been putting off or waiting for others to do. I even did some work my junior was supposed to do as part of his learning but he has been a little on the slow side. So now I've cut the next weeks work requirements almost in half.

But writing has been very slow this week and research for my articles has been non-existent.

Tomorrow we're going on a research trip so that will be fun except it is supposed to be colder than a polar bears esky. (Esky: An Aussie name for a drinks cooler).

Still, the time of year coincides with my story so the weather should be inspiring.

A friend lent me Stephen King's Thinner to watch which I'm hoping will be good to watch. I've read no reviews so I'm going into this one with an open mind.

I'm investigating my grading for Module 2 in Semester 1. By my reckoning I gained 5 grades of B- or better and 3 C's. According to the assessment guidelines, that equals a Credit pass. I recently received my official grading which gave me a standard pass. As Mr Stone has said to me in the past, a pass is a pass, but that's not the point when I should have gotten a Credit. Maybe I marked off the grades incorrectly but I don't think so. I'll be carefully going through them tonight.

Have a great weekend and stay warm if you happen to be anywhere near here.

BT

Three posts in one day

Don't get used to it.

I've just finished chapter 2 of Newland. At around 2000 words a chapter, it's coming along nicely.

Marty Young seems happy with the market stuff I've sent him and I'll start on a new list for competitions over the next few days (maybe next week).

Now I've got some time to blog about my research trip.

Victor Harbor

On Monday the 14th (Bastille Day), my wife and youngest child accompanied me to a local coastal restort town called Victor Harbor.

We live a little north of Adelaide, pretty close to here ----->

Victor Harbor is located almost directly south of this point at the very bottom of this very small map. A round trip of over 200km if we include the driving I did while in Victor itself.

So we set out at a respectable mid morning time, determined to take a leisurely drive to avoid gaining any more speeding fines. Paying $500 in the last few months is more than enough to make me slow down.

We arrived safe and sound.

The weather was a little on the cold side with passing showers in the area but as my story also began in July, some 160 plus years earlier, so I thought it good to get an idea of the prevailing conditions. I had a number of things on my to do list. Unfortunately we had no idea where the local library was and the National Trust Museum was closed at the time of arrival.

So we went for a slow walk across to Granite Island. As we crossed the causeway, the South-South-Westerly picked up. This wind comes straight off the Great Southern Ocean from Antarctica so you can imagine the icy fingers it trailed across any forgotten piece of bare skin. Luckily we had big coats on and managed to stay relatively warm.

The island is exactly the same as I remember it from previous excursions. We wandered through the kiosk and tourist shop but the prices were pretty steep so we didn't buy anything. We set out for our trek around the Kaiki Trail--the trail that allows passage around the perimeter of the island without disturbing the natural wildlife. The first section is a huge stairway made from old hardwood and likely to last longer against the ever-present wind and salt spray than I would.

After scaling this solid stairway, we are led out onto a shale path along the south eastern or windward side of the island. In most places there is little to protect you from the full force of the icy gales but looking down on the huge granite boulders that give the island it's name is a spectacular sight.

That's my wife and youngest you can see peering out from the lookout point.

The foliage is very hardy native types with a permanent lean away from the wind. Two types of lichen grow on the island. Lichen is a fungus/algae mix which is normally found spreading over rocks in highly salty areas. On granite Island though, you have a bright yellow type predominantly on the leeward or North-north-westerly side of the island and a vivid orange coloured variety on the colder more wind blown windward side.

Huge rock formations take on weird shapes as the wind and water wear away the softer parts, leaving the age old granite to stand isolated against Mother Natures unstoppable forces. The orange on the rocks above is the lichen discussed earlier, not local teenagers going nuts with spray cans of paint.





After spending a couple of hours wandering all over the island and giving the calf and back muscles a good work out, we decided to catch the horse drawn tram back to the mainland. At a very slow and steady pace, a single horse (a Clydesdale) pulled us and a tram full of tourists, local adults and all the accompanying children, back to the slightly warmer mainland.



Then it was off to lunch in one of the local pubs for a reasonable fee. I can't cast glowing phrases around about the quality of the food because it wasn't that great. Mine was slightly over done, the wife's wasn't particularly tasty and the little one only ate the chips. The cold beer was refreshing.

We then moved into the national Trust Museum where my camera started to play up. I managed a couple of shots depicting period dress at the time and some background information but that was about it for the photo-journalism part of the trip. It was also here we stumbled across a stack of SA50s+ issue 1. Rightly so, our distributor believes our target demographic of "baby boomers" would frequent such places. On the back page in all its glory was my first article. It took a bit of will power not to point it out to the people behind the counter accepting admission money--but I managed.

It began raining a little heavier and a little more often so we went to the library (after gaining directions) for some book type research. The local book store has an impressive range of period history tomes but not a lot of personal day-to-day type stuff that I needed. Still I did gleam a few facts that were important for authenticity so it wasn't a total loss.

By now the rain had set in and night was coming on early and fast. We took a casual drive home and arrived in the early part of the evening, all very tired but happy at having a nice day out at Victor.