Book Research Taken to Extremes

I've done some strange research for my books in the past. For instance, when I wrote WICKEDLY WONDERFUL, I had to Google "locations of nuclear plants in California." For weeks I waited to see if the FBI was going to show up on my doorstep...

But this weekend I got a little more, um, hands on, with my research than usual. In the manuscript I'm working on right now, the protagonist--who knows nothing about farm animals--has to milk a goat. I had a pretty good idea of how it was done from looking at youtube videos and talking to a friend who used to have goats, but I wanted to make sure I got it right. (If you get info wrong in a book, I assure you, people will tell you about it later. Repeatedly.)

Luckily, one of the artists at The Artisans' Guild shop I run happens to be a nun who is in charge of the animals at the Holy Myrrbearers Monastery where she lives in nearby Otego, so she invited me to come milk one of her goats. My friend Ellen went along to watch, take pictures, and no doubt laugh quietly to herself.

It's not as easy as it looks.

 I had a great time, even if initially I got as much milk on my pants as I did in the bucket.

The goat was very patient with me.

Mother Katherine with another one of her charges

Where the milk ended up!

 There were three adorable little kittens in the barn that had been abandoned across the street not long before. (People do that in the country all the time, alas.) They were happy to clear away the milk I got out of poor Claire. The rest went to her kids, who took it directly from the source.

Lots of goats!

Ellen with her new friend Caliban

 Mother Katherine also tends to many sheep (whose wool is made into the yarn, scarves, and felted insoles she sells at the shop), chickens, and the working dogs who live there.

So tell me, what did you do with your Saturday? And if you're a writer, what is the strangest research you've ever done?

Belated Feline Friday with Sierra, Queen of Research

I realized I didn't do a Feline Friday this week (when people started yelling at me), so I'm adding some "guest cat" photos to my Thursday post about the lovely Sierra, Queen of Research. These lovely creatures are Ploof and Elwing :-)

Some authors love to write books that involve a lot of research. Not me.

Don't get me wrong--I do plenty of research, especially for particular books. I own a gazillion (approximately) books on magic, witchcraft, and the like, for use both when writing the Llewellyn nonfiction and my paranormal romance/urban fantasy fiction. And I spend a fair amount of time online doing research as well.

Therein lies the problem, of course. Research takes time. Online research not only takes time, but offers lots of opportunities for distraction. You know what I mean, if you're an author. Say you put in a search for "movies with brooms" for example. This takes you to a Wikipedia site that shows you info on a particular movie. But that site also contains interesting links to about twelve other things: actors, the book the movie was based on, clips from the movie...three hours later, you still don't have the information you were looking for, and you haven't accomplished a thing. GAH!

Which is why, when I was writing my last Llewellyn book, A BROOM FOR EVERY WITCH (title tentative), I called on a friend for help.

I needed to do an unusual amount of research for this book, including things like the history of brooms (both as a household tool and a magickal one), brooms in popular culture, how to make one from scratch...all sorts of things. But I only had two months to write the book, and I knew perfectly well that I couldn't do that AND do all the research.

Enter the amazing Sierra M.

Sierra is a pal of mine, and online research is her super power.

I gave her a list of information I needed, and she came back with exactly what I needed, including links to where she found it, so I could go look further if I needed to. It was AMAZING. Saved my butt with the book. And I will definitely be using her for this service again.

In fact, she was so amazing, I suggested she take her show on the road, so to speak. I know lots of writers who love to do research. But I also know plenty more, like me, who simply don't have the time and energy to do it all. So here is my official recommendation, should you need someone to help with online research. Her rates are extremely reasonable, she's fast, and she's GOOD.

If you need someone to help you out with research (or know a friend who does) you can contact Sierra at sierrakatresearch@gmail.com

Just tell her Deborah sent you :-)

My Holiday Weekend

How was your holiday weekend? Did you do anything fun?

Saturday was mostly spent doing gardening and housework, but Sunday was a relax and have fun day (although it was, in part, research for my current series, which features a hero who is a Seneca Indian). My best pal Ellen and I went to the Fenimore Museum in Cooperstown, NY--they have a fabulous collection of Native American art, including, at the moment, the Thaw Collection, which has been traveling the country. If you live anywhere near there, I highly recommend it.

Ellen and I went for the day's event, an Iroquois Festival. (The Seneca are one of a number of tribes who are collectively known as Iroquois, in case you didn't know.) There was amazing Native singing and dancing

And the folks doing it were lovely and friendly, besides being talented. In case you can't tell, I'm the one second from the right, with my arm around the cute guy :-)

I got to see a genuine bark longhouse, one of which I used in my book, SEEDS OF CHANGE. And was happy to see I got all my facts right :-)

And there were a lot of Native American vendors selling truly beautiful crafts and art--including this barrette, which I couldn't resist. (Because I have long hair, I tend to collect cool hair doodads...and this not only was my colors, but it had stars!)

Not only did I get to enjoy the museum, the Festival, and do research at the same time, and spend the day with one of my oldest friends, it was one of those rare *perfect* upstate NY days...low 80's, not too humid, sunny, and hardly any bugs. All in all, a wonderful day.

Then on Monday, I came back to reality, and spent some time in the hot & muggy morning, pulling massive amounts of weeds to reclaim the sort-of flower beds at the front of the house. I should have taken a "before" picture--but it would just have looked like a mess of overgrown unidentifiable greenery. This is what it looked like "after."

As you can see, once the heaping wheelbarrow full of weeds was removed, there wasn't much left...guess I need to buy some perennials to plant there. It gets full sun, and of course, it is Zone 4, so not much survives the winter. Any suggestions?

I hope you had a lovely weekend too. Anything you want to share about what you did?