Stealing History

by Ron Estrada

As I write this, I'm watching Vikings via the magic of Hulu, the binge watching hub of the modern world. I've watched a few of these historical fiction TV series, and while I cannot vouch for their historical accuracy, I can vouch for their entertainment value.

The writers of these shows have done what any good writer would do, historical or otherwise. Take a piece of what is fact and insert a bit of fiction into it. This is how we can "steal" a great segment of our story, all that bothersome background and setting. The writers of these TV shows did just that. We can, therefore, justify borrowing our settings from the TV show writers who have done all the hard work already.

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Making the Most of a Diversion

By Elizabeth Ludwig

I found myself stranded in Bentonville, Arkansas recently, when the plane I was on from Grand Rapids, Michigan to Dallas, Texas, was diverted mid-air, to a tiny regional airport in Northwest Arkansas. Not only was this a little nerve-wracking, it felt a little bit like a “Hotel California” moment, with delay after delay keeping us grounded inside this tiny airport.

You’re singing the song now, aren’t you? Well stop. That’s not the point of this article.

Anyway, I finally decided to go ahead and spend the night in Bentonville and try reaching Dallas the next day. With time—and the keys to a rental car—in my hands, I struck out to see what I could find.

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While Hopping Down the Bunny Trail ~ Lynne Gentry

Rabbit Trail Research

by Lynne Gentry 

When the crazy idea of dropping a 21st century doctor into a 3rd century plague popped into my head, I knew to do this story justice, I would have to expand my knowledge base, and it wouldn’t be easy. I had several strikes against me. First, I didn’t know anything about third-century Roman life. I had never been to Carthage and because of the political unrest, travel there was highly unlikely. Finally, how could I interview a real-life hero who had been dead for centuries?  

But letting this story idea go was out of the question. So, I jumped into the research. 

Using a combination of primary and secondary sources, I was able to build an authentic story world for a man I could never meet. 

Before I tell you how one source lead to another, let’s talk about the difference between a primary source and a secondary source.

Primary sources are diaries, letters, or live interviews with someone who has firsthand knowledge of the time, place, or situation of interest. Primary sources give you a glimpse into the language, slang, and phrases used in the everyday lives of the people on the street so to speak. Primary sources provide you with the sights and sounds, lay of the land, the taste of the food, and the smell of the air. For example, I’ve been to a hospital and even had several surgeries, but going to a hospital is not the same as working at a hospital as a first-year intern. To get a “feel” for that terrifying experience I did several live interviews with first-year residents. 

Secondary sources are written after the fact by someone who either witnessed the events or collected evidence and then wrote a report, biography, or scholarly research article or book.  

Here’s a small sample of how my secondary sources took me on a rabbit trail that led straight to a surprising primary source while researching my real-life hero Cyprianus Thascius:

1. Since I knew I couldn’t give Cyprian a call, I started where you’d probably start: I Googled him. I found several scholarly articles. At the end of those articles were extensive bibliographies. I ordered as many of the reference books or articles as I could find and afford. During the process of combing through these scholarly works, I discovered that after Cyprian was martyred his faithful friend and deacon Pontius recorded the events of Cyprian’s demise in a secondary work entitled The Life and Passion of St. Cyprian. I was able to find pieces and parts of that work on different university websites. The secondary account Pontius left behind gave me great insight into Cyprian’s personal struggle with his faith, especially after he was betrayed (the premise for book #2, Return to Exile).

1. The real gold came when a different secondary source reported that Cyprianus Thascius was one of the most prolific early church biographers. Cyprian had left behind reams of his own thoughts on everything from paganism to how the church should handle those who sold out in order to protect their own necks. I was able to get my hands on a few of Cyprian’s letters to friends, etc. I love this passage he wrote to his friend Donatus: 

“It is a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world. But I have discovered in the midst of it a quiet and holy people, who have learned a great secret. They have found a joy which is a thousand times better than any of the pleasures of our sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They are masters of their souls. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are Christians … and I am one of them.” (Source: Saints and Heroes to the End of the Middle Ages, George Hodges, Henry Holt & Company, 1911, p. 6)

1. By reading Cyprian’s own words (a primary source preserved by a secondary source) it was as if I was interviewing him in person (primary source). His journal gave me a sense of the cadence of his voice, the phrases he used to describe ordinary life, and his way of thinking, especially about matters of faith. I garnered great insight into this man who had been raised as a Roman pagan and converted to Christianity later in life.   

It's always a good idea to obtain as much primary source information as you can. But when you can’t get your hands on an expert or actually go to a location, gathering as many secondary sources as possible will help you get the detail and the perspective that you will need to make your work come alive. Don’t be afraid to take a rabbit trail or two.

What surprising tidbits have you found when you followed a rabbit trail? 

Lynne Gentry has written for numerous publications and is a professional acting coach, theater director and playwright with several full-length musicals and a Chicago children’s theater curriculum to her credit. She likes to write stories that launch modern women into ancient adventures, such as The Carthage Chronicles series (Healer of Carthage, Return to Exile and Valley of Decision). Gentry is also an inspirational speaker and dramatic performer who loves spending time with her family and medical therapy dog.

To keep up with Lynne Gentry, visit www.lynnegentry.com, become a fan on Facebook (Author-Lynne-Gentry) or follow her on Twitter (@Lynne_Gentry) and Pinterest (lynnegentry7).

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Solving Mysteries Through Research ~ by Sally J. Ling

Sally J. Ling, Florida’s History Detective, is an author, speaker, and historian. She writes historical fiction and nonfiction and specializes in little known stories of Florida history.

As a special correspondent, Sally wrote for the Sun Sentinel newspaper for four years and was a contributing journalist for Boca Raton, Gold Coast, Delray Beach, Boca Life, Jupiterand Palm Beacher magazines.

Based upon excerpts from her book Run the Rum In, Sally appeared in two TV documentaries-- “Gangsters” - the National Geographic Channel, and “Prohibition and the South Florida Connection” - WLRN, Miami. She served as associate producer on the latter production.

She has been a guest on South Florida PBS TV and radio stations, guest presenter at the Lifelong Learning Society at Florida Atlantic University and Future Authors of America, and guest speaker at numerous historical societies, libraries, organizations, and schools. 

Sally lives with her husband, Chuck, and her cat, Kitty, and splits her time between Deerfield Beach, Florida, and Wolf Laurel, North Carolina.

Research is Like a Mystery Waiting to be Solved

Sally J. Ling

As a child, I loved putting jigsaw puzzles together. My two sisters and I would spend hours hunched over the card table, fitting the borders together first then finding just the right pieces to make the 1,000-piece puzzle resemble the picture on the box. The hunt for each piece was exciting, like trying to solve some mystery. Perhaps that is why I so like doing research for my books today.

Whether I’m writing historical nonfiction about a fascinating part of Florida history or a novel, I always approach my research as though it’s a mystery waiting to be solved. It keeps me motivated, and I never know where the smallest piece of information will take me. Consider the case of the missing child.

While researching the 1948 Boca Raton, Florida, double homicide of the prominent Italian sculptor and his wife, Leno and Louise Lazzari, I noticed in the police deposition that Margie, the woman who found the bodies, stated that when she came to live at her current home in West Palm Beach in 1934 there were five Constiglioni children. The 1930 Census Report I held in my hand, however, listed six children. One child was missing. Though the missing child wasn’t really central to the account of the homicides, the questions who, what, when, where, and why became an itch that needed to be scratched.

Through genealogical records, I discovered that it was Gloria, the fifth Constiglioni child, who was missing. The mystery became more intriguing when the police report from the homicide stated that in 1932 Gloria’s mother Theresa was committed to the state’s mental hospital. My nose said that the two incidents were connected, that something horrific had happened that sent the mother over the edge. But what?

After obtaining the child’s death certificate from the state, part of the mystery was solved. The four-year-old child accidently caught her clothes on fire while playing with matches. She was severely burned in the incident and died in the hospital two days later. Now I had partial proof of what I suspected—there was a horrendous incident. But . . .  was this really what sent poor Theresa to the mental institution? After all, she didn’t enter the hospital until two years after the child’s death; and, even though I had the deposition, police and census reports, and death certificate, I couldn’t just go on my hunch. I still needed concrete proof of a direct connection between the two incidents. That came just days later.

Solid research is the foundation of any good book, whether fiction or nonfiction. It makes the story believable, it gives the author credibility, and in a novel, provides enough truth to allow the mingling of fiction with fact to draw the reader in and make the entire story credible. In my latest biblical novel The Cloak, several readers actually asked me if the story was real. If the reader cannot separate fact from fiction, the author has accomplished his or her goal and received the ultimate compliment.

Gloria’s mystery was solved when, through a combination of research and luck, I found two of her sisters. At ages 88 and 92, they were able to confirm my hunch and provide the rest of the story. Their mother was so distraught by the unfortunate death of Gloria she literally lost her mind. Her admittance card from the Florida State Hospital stated she was “chronically insane.”* There was my proof.

As I mentioned, you never know where your research will lead. It was because of Gloria’s mystery and the fact that Theresa wound up in the Florida State Hospital that my latest nonfiction book, Out of Mind, Out of Sight, was born. It is the first book to give a complete history of the mental facility at Chatahoochee, Florida, after more than 135 years of existence.

So, you see, research really is like a mystery waiting to be solved.

*This is not a standard term used in today’s mental health field.

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Research ~ the Fun Way

S. Dionne Moore resides in South Central Pennsylvania with her family. She is a weekly contributor to The Borrowed Book blog where she offers tips on the writing life, posts recipes, and teaches on various writing-related subjects. She has a passion for history and obscure fact that can be spun into a story and also enjoys gardening, piano and wants everyone to know that if you get to Sharpsburg, MD, you MUST stop at Burkholder's Bakery and try the best chocolate covered, cream filled donuts on the face of the earth. No exaggeration. You're welcome.

One of the reasons I write historical romance is that I love conducting the research. For my May 2013 release, A Heartbeat Away, I traveled to Sharpsburg, Maryland, the setting for the bloodiest battle of the Civil War, the Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg, for you southerners).

Sharpsburg is a very small town, unscathed by commercial development, a true gem of history frozen in time by the town's refusal to allow commercialism to mar what they have worked so hard to preserve.

I was taken on a private tour by Bob Murphy of RCM History Tours (RCM Twitter). His prices are very reasonable and he accommodated my desire to walk some of the tour. I stayed at the snug and very clean Mary Hill House.

Now for the pics...

Outside of the church. This is the church Gerta Bumgartner would have attended if not for the battle raging on the top of South Mountain that Sunday.

The inside of the famous Dunker Church

Piper Farm was the model for the house neighboring Gerta’s fictional home. This farm became the headquarters for Confederates Longstreet and Hill during the battle.

Mumma Farm was the only farm burned up during the battle. The springhouse didn't burn and was my inspiration for Gerta’s spring house where the reader first encounters the injured Joe.

Roulette Farm--in my story, the Roulette's are escaping to the caves along the Potomac. 

Caves that are real, I might add.

Bloody Lane, called Hog Trough Lane before the battle

Burnside Bridge from the Confederate side. 

With only 300-400 soldiers holding off over 2K because they held the higher ground.

Antietam National Cemetery

Grove House, Lee's Headquarters in Sharpsburg during Confederate occupation

Do you see the shell stuck in the side of this house? 

Every house in Sharpsburg was used to shelter the wounded. 

McClellan's command was centered at Pry House. Not open for tour at the time of my trip. :(

Uh, this wasn't part of the tour, but was part of the recovery. 

Nutter's Ice-Cream. 4 scoops for $2.95. I was sold!

Have you visited a Civil War battlefield or historic site? If you could visit one historic site anywhere in the world, where would it be? Please join the conversation below in the comment section.

A Heartbeat Away

When a band of runaway slaves brings Union-loyal Elizabeth "Beth" Bumgartner a wounded Confederate soldier named "Joe", it is the catalyst that pushes her to defy her pacifist parents and become a nurse during the Battle of Antietam.

Her mother's mysterious good-bye gift is filled with quilt blocks that bring comfort to Beth during the hard days and lonely nights, but as she sews each block, she realizes there is a hidden message of faith within the pattern that encourages and sustains her.

Reunited with Joe, Beth learns his secret and puts the quilt's message to its greatest test--but can betrayal be forgiven?

Sandra D. Moore is a transplanted city girl and glad of it! She enjoys ferreting out little-known historical details and crafting a story around them. Her new releases include Promise Brides (3-in-1 historical romances set in PA) of which two stories are ACFW Carol Award Finalists. In May 2013, A Heartbeat Away, Book 7 in Abingdon Press’s Quilts of Love series, releases. Murder on the Ol’ Bunions released from Smashwords as an ebook in March 2012 followed by Polly Dent Loses Grip and for the first time ever, Your Goose is Cooked, the third and final book in the LaTisha Barnhart Mystery series. To learn more about Sandra and her cozy mysteries and historical romances, visit her website here, Twitter or Pinterest. 

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Five Tips to Writing a Great Historical Novel ~ Susan May Warren

Susan May Warren is the RITA award-winning author of over forty novels with Tyndale, Barbour, Steeple Hill and Summerside Press. A five-time Christy award finalist, a three-time RITA Finalist, she’s also a multi-winner of the Inspirational Readers Choice award, and the ACFW Carol award. A seasoned women’s events speaker, she’s a popular writing teacher at conferences around the nation and the author of the beginning writer’s workbook: From the Inside-Out: discover, create and publish the novel in you!

She is also the founder of www.MyBookTherapy.com, a writing craft & coaching community for novelists to help them get published…and stay published.

A full listing of her titles, reviews and awards can be found at: www.susanmaywarren.com

 

Video Notes: 5 Tips to writing a great historical.
 
I love writing historical novels. I love diving into the research of the era.  I do crazy things like get dressed in the right attire, and listen to music from the area.  It’s so important to get it right. 
I wanted to quickly give you 5 tips on writing a great historical. It’s all about knowing your Era! That means Research baby!

How do you understand the culture?

• Get books and articles written in the era to understand the lingo, the culture concerns, the political issues.  You need to get your head in the mind of your character by diving into that era.

• Rent movies and read books set in this era!  You can’t always rely on other people’s research, but you can get ideas to confirm later on.

• Read biographies about people set in this time.  It’s another great way to get in the head of your character.

• Visit – either in person or virtually the area you are setting the story so you can understand the world of your character.

• Listen to the music of the time. It’s a great way to really get into your character.

I had a great time writing Duchess, my newest novel set in 1930’s Hollywood.  I researched it with my buddy James Scott Bell, who is the perfect Hollywood tour guide.  The book comes out soon – thanks for reading and Happy Writing!

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Researchng History ~ Melanie Dobson

Melanie Dobson has written twelve contemporary and historical novels. In 2011, two of her historical novels won Carol Awards:  Love Finds You in Homestead, Iowa (for historical romance) and The Silent Order (for romantic suspense). This fall her latest novel, Where the Trail Ends, will launch American Tapestries, a historical romance series based on significant events that have shaped our country.Melanie and her husband, Jon, enjoy exploring their home state of Oregon with their two daughters. When Melanie isn't writing or playing with her family, she enjoys exploring ghost towns and cemeteries, line dancing, and reading historical fiction. To learn more about Melanie and her books as well as more information about her research trips, please visit 

Researching a Historical Novel

By Melanie Dobson

My favorite part of writing a historical novel isn’t the actual writing. It’s the research.  I love exploring old houses and museums, tracking down experts, and reading diaries. With each discovery of information, my story begins to take shape. There are five specific ways that I research to both develop my plotlines and add authenticity to my historical novels.

Visit the Location

My first historical novel was about a Quaker woman who ran an Underground Railroad station so I spent days exploring hidden places that had once been used to harbor runaway slaves. In one home, I climbed the secret staircase hidden in a closet and crept over the exposed nails and boards to the room where the Quaker homeowners once hid runaways. At night I stepped out into the surrounding forest, when the cloud cover masked the stars and the only sound was the hoot of an owl. My heart raced as I wondered what a runaway slave might have felt like in that horrible blackness, pursued by a slave hunter and his dogs. How would she find a safe place to hide for the night? While the terrain and photo features on mapping websites help tremendously with geographical details, it is invaluable for me to experience my main setting as well so I know a bit of what my main characters would have seen, heard, and smelled.

Interview Experts and Locals

Because I’ve written both historical and contemporary fiction, I’ve interviewed experts about everything from how to sell stolen goods online to the technicalities of delivering mail in the late 1800s. I’ve spent hours interviewing about the inner workings of the Mafia, what it was like to grow up in a religious cult, and how a family could travel for six months across our country in a wagon. I’m always surprised by something I discover during these interviews, something I hadn’t been able to uncover in the books I’d read.

The most important interview I ever did was with an Amana woman named Emilie. I asked her a simple question—what were Amana women passionate about in the 19^th century? The answer to that question—friendship—shaped my entire novel.

Explore Museums and Landmarks

Living farms, museums, and historical villages like Williamsburg or Old Salem offer a unique and educational window to the past. I learned how to run a printing press in Ohio’s Roscoe Village, cook on the open hearth at a National Historic Landmark in Indiana, and drive an Amish buggy at a museum in Walnut Creek. Many of these museums and historic landmarks will give private tours to writers, and the friendly tour guides are often a seemingly endless source of information.

Invade the Library

One of my books was inspired by a beautiful mansion in Ohio that had been built before the Civil War. I couldn’t find information about this house, but the town’s librarian unearthed a research paper written sixty years ago that included pictures of the mansion, historical detail, and folklore about a secret tunnel that ran—and maybe still runs—underneath. This one paper gave me the information I needed for the details of my fictional house and helped form my plot.

Newspapers, magazines, diaries, archived research papers, and of course, books provide basics like how people dressed and what they ate during a specific era as well as more abstract concepts like how they approached life and what world events shaped their thinking.

Surf the Web

How did writers write before the Internet? I ask myself this question almost daily as I search for specific words or facts online. One of the most effective ways I’ve been able to use the Internet is to establish contacts where I can get additional information about a difficult research topic. In one novel, for example, I needed specifics on how a telephone would work in 1890, but I couldn’t seem to find this info anywhere. Then I found someone online who sold phones from this era, and we dialogued via email until I had my answers. Without him, I’d probably still be wondering.

It’s hard for me to stop researching, but after a month or two of work, I finally organize what I’ve discovered and input it into Scrivener. Then I use this research to begin writing my story.

Love Finds You in Mackinac Island, Michigan is Melanie’s latest novel.

As the Gilded Age comes to a close, Elena Bissette’s family has lost most of its fortune. The Bissettes still own a home on fashionable Mackinac Island, and they spend summers there in hopes of introducing Elena to a wealthy suitor. Quickly tiring of the extravagant balls at the Grand Hotel, she spends her days walking along the island’s rugged coastline. There she meets Chase, a handsome laborer who invites her to watch the ships from an abandoned lighthouse. The two begin to meet there in secret, hoping to solve a mystery buried in the pages of a tattered diary. As Elena falls in love with Chase, her mother relentlessly contrives to introduce her to Chester Darrington, the island's most eligible bachelor. Marriage to the elusive millionaire would solve the Bissettes' financial woes, and Elena is torn between duty and love. 

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Getting from First Page to Last

LIZ CURTIS HIGGS is an author with three million copies in print, including: her best-selling historical novels, Thorn in My Heart, Fair Is the Rose, Christy Award-winner Whence Came a Prince, and Grace in Thine Eyes, a Christy Award finalist; My Heart’s in the Lowlands: Ten Days in Bonny Scotland, an armchair travel guide to Galloway; and her contemporary novels, Mixed Signals, a Rita Award finalist, and Bookends, a Christy Award finalist. Visit the author’s extensive website at www.lizcurtishiggs.com to view her complete bio.

Anytime people ask what my typical writing day is like, I try hard not to burst into tears. Or laughter. When I’m deep into a book, I write from the time I get up until the time I go to bed, and even so, I seldom hit my word-count goal for the day.

Why? Because I am an absolute nut about research. I can get lost in books like Three Centuries of Scottish Posts or Scots Gardens in Old Times, and emerge an hour later without a word written, yet with ideas for three new novels spinning in my head.

Still, after 30 published books I’ve developed a few methods that help me get to The End—if not efficiently, at least eventually.

I’m a firm believer in having a workspace dedicated to writing, whether it’s a card table, a spare bedroom, or the old garage we have behind our farmhouse. Inside you’ll soon discover I have two desks. In my first-floor office I handle correspondence, chat with my publisher, create marketing pieces, update Facebook and Twitter—all that 21^st-century stuff. On the second floor is a room lined with bookshelves, where I do nothing but write. No food, no phone calls, no kidding.

Surrounded by the Scottish mementos that inspire me, I can quickly immerse myself in another time and place. A cup of Earl Grey tea, a fragrant candle, and some Celtic instrumental music help usher in the proper mood. I have a fairly detailed plot outline in hand, but my goal is to climb inside my characters’ hearts and let them tell their story. I’d rather observe and listen, writing down what they say and do, instead of forcing them to follow my lead.

Each book takes me about a year to write. I have a daily target word count, which is quite low at the start of the book—750-1,000 words a day—and grows with each chapter until I’m hitting 2,000 words a day. Exactly once in my writing career I hit 5,000 words between breakfast and bed. The next day I couldn’t rub two words together. So, I try not to get too obsessive about how much I get done, and instead focus on the storytelling.

For my Scottish novels I comb through my historical resources for relevant customs, traditions, and folklore that suit both the story and the setting. I’ve visited Scotland fifteen times to date, tramping through the villages and over the hills and glens, snapping photos, asking questions, and taking copious notes. I’ve met the loveliest people since my first visit in 1996, and hope the cadence of their speech comes through in the voices of my characters.

I edit and rewrite as I go, printing off the day’s work, editing those pages before I go to bed, then making all my scribbled changes the next morning. I try never to quit at the end of a chapter, because it takes me forever to get the wheels turning again. Instead I quit mid-scene, with a few notes about what I imagine coming next. Then I can hit the ground running.

Anytime I think writing is hard work, I remind myself of the years I spent waiting on tables, cleaning houses, selling wigs, or changing diapers, and suddenly a day parked in front of a computer telling stories sounds like a piece of cake. With tea, please.

A Wreath of Snow

Christmas Eve 1894

All Margaret Campbell wants for Christmas is a safe journey home. When her plans for a festive holiday with her family in Stirling crumble beneath the weight of her brother’s bitterness, the young schoolteacher wants nothing more than to return to the students she loves and the Edinburgh town house she calls home.

Then an unexpected detour places her in the path of Gordon Shaw, a handsome newspaperman from Glasgow, who struggles under a burden of remorse and shame.

When the secret of their shared history is revealed, will it leave them tangled in a knot of regret? Or might their past hold the threads that will bind their future together?

As warm as a woolen scarf on a cold winter’s eve, A Wreath of Snow is a tender story of love and forgiveness, wrapped in a celebration of all things Scottish, all things Victorian, and especially, all things Christmas.

"A Wreath of Snow is a wonderful story of redemption and restoration that will warm your heart during the Christmas season—or any time of year!”—Francine Rivers, author of Redeeming Love

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10 Tips for Effective Research Trips

Vickie McDonough is an award-winning author of 24 books and novellas. She is the author of the fun and feisty Texas Boardinghouse Brides series from Barbour Publishing. Watch for her new books from Moody Publishers, Texas Trails: A Morgan Family series, in which she partners with Susan Page Davis and Darlene Franklin to write a 6-book series that spans 50 years of the Morgan family. The first three books release this fall. Also, next year brings the release of another new series from Guidepost/Summerside, Pioneer Promises, set in 1870s Kansas.

Leave a comment for Vickie and be entered in a drawing for any book on her website. U.S. residents only, please.

Ten Tips for Effective Research Trips

I’ve just returned from my first cruise to the Caribbean. I never dreamed a sunset could be so beautiful or the color of the water so vivid. There was such an amazing difference in the houses of the poor, made from tin or only partially built with people still living in them to the lavish mansions of the wealthy with their beautiful flowers and fancy locked gates. 

When I visited Charleston several years ago, I was awed by the 300-year old homes and buildings, especially when you consider I grew up in Oklahoma where we just celebrated our centennial five years ago. The only thing we have that’s 300 years old is the land. 

In North Dakota, I was amazed by how the flat lands, which seemed to go on for forever, suddenly turned into hilly mounds and then the rugged, grassy Badlands.

Research trips are one of the best perks a writer enjoys. Traveling to a place you want to write about makes your story more realistic and alive. You’ll discover tidbits that you probably wouldn’t if you never visited the area, and seeing it for yourself is so beneficial to learning the lay of the land, the culture, flora and fauna of the area, and how the local people of the speak and live. These this make your story authentic.

So, how do you prepare for a research trip?

11.     Know what information you need and make a list. The last thing you want is to get back home and realize you forgot to get info on something crucial to your story.

22.     Research the town or locale before you leave home.
            *View online websites
            *Study the history of the area
            *Decide in advance which places you want to visit. Museums and tourist sites in small towns are sometimes only open on certain days and for a few hours at a time, because they are often staffed by volunteers. The last thing you want to do is to make a trip somewhere and not be able to visit the sights you want to see. Do I sound like the voice of experience here? Make a list of the sites you want to visit, with addressees, phone numbers(so that you can call if you need directions) and hours.

             *If you’re a AAA member, get a tourbook of the state. They have some good historical information as well as a listing of the main places to visit with contact information, hours, and prices.

33.   Take Good Notes. Document everything. Even though you think you’ll remember things, once you get back home, minute details and impressions will slip your mind. Most phones have a video recorder, which can be handy for places where you’re not allowed to take photos, like some museums. If you tour a historical home, you might want to record the tour guide, who usually gives lots of great info about the family who lived there and the town’s history.
 

   4.   Be sure to write down contact info and the names of the people you talked with (get the correct spelling) in case you need to contact them again or want to acknowledge them in your book when it comes out.          

  5.   Don’t forget your camera. I take tons of pictures on research trips.(All the pictures in this article are ones I’ve taken) Pictures of buildings, houses, waterways. When I can take photos in a museum, I snap pictures of furniture, dishes, guns, wagons—anything that represent the time period I plan to write about. Also take pictures of the landscape, trees, birds, and flowers.

  6.   Talk to the locals. They love to chat about their town and its history. Ask them questions and ask if they can refer you to someone else in the know. If you make a good connection with someone, you might also ask if they’d mind giving you their email address is case you have questions later.              

  7.   Don’t overlook college research centers. I visited the Carroll Library on the campus of Baylor University in Waco to view part of The Texas Collection while researching my books for the Texas Trails series. The workers their were extremely helpful, and I found lots of fodder for my stories.

88.   Take an envelope with you to keep all your receipts in. Those tiny buggers can easily get lost and then you’ll lose a tax deduction. I also like to take a letter size plastic envelop with a Velcro closure when I travel. I put all my organizational papers, hotel reservation info, and maps in it so I can find them easily.

99.   Visit tourist information centers. You can find great maps there, information on local sites, and sometimes historical info. The people who work in the centers are often a wealth of information too.
 

110.  Have fun. Take some time to do something just for fun. Don’t work your whole trip. Visit a tourist site, see a local show, and enjoy yourself.

Did you know that if you’re actively working toward becoming a published writer that you can deduct a chunk of your expenses when you take a research trip? Be sure to check the laws in your state to know exactly what you can and can’t deduct.

Long Trail Home

A weary soldier returns from the War Between the States to discover his parents dead, his family farm in shambles, and his fiancée married. A pretty, blind woman reaches through his scarred walls, but will the secret she holds ruin all chances for a future filled with love, faith, and family?

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