Your story details? You Have To Get Them Right!

In my 1928 California historical, this mansion came to play a big part

All story genres take some research for establishing details in the setting. A few years ago, in 1997, I saw a movie called Inventing the Abbots.  It was set in the 50's and they had the houses, the clothes, the young people--all as things actually were in the 50's.  And then, lo, at the end of the movie a suitcase appeared, and it was 1997 suitcase and the mood was totally broken.  Just like when, in About Schmidt, the house portrayed in Denver was frame.  The city of Denver has brick houses--had them for years.  Probably since the town suffered a horrible fire.  It's always been that way.  Someone didn't do his or her homework. 

If the writer has  done her research, her knowledge will inform the story and make it believable.  Correct setting and details will even help the writer's ficticious leaps become believeable, because everything else will be.  The most difficult research I've had to do was in the novel I just finished, one set in 1928 Southern California.  The nineteen books I used for reference are still stacked on the bookcase. The books and perhaps 120-150 bookmarks on my computer where I found information  I needed.  I also had some original letters and my mother's scrapbook and photo album.  Those were pure gold.
BUT IT WASN'T ENOUGH!
My husband and I spent a week in California doing on site research.  I even found the house my mom had lived in the summer of 1928.  I walked the streets of the town, and we poked around Pasadena.  Historical museums are a goldmine of information.  I read a newspaper clipping and the incident it described went right into my book.   We drove into Arroyo Seco in Pasadena and I found a spot where I set a of couple scenes.  A camera is a writer's best friend when doing research, and plain old note cards (I favor the larger ones)  are a close second. In the photo above, I found a layout of the rooms and photos of most of them.  Did I  use the information I gleaned in my story?  You bet I did.


When I researched my novel, Festival Madness, partially set at Burning Man, the blowing alkalai dust was so fericious even the use of  a camera could be iffy, but the note cards were impervious to dust. And of course I put a duststorm into the book.

 I researched World of Mirrors on an island in former East Germany.  I wanted to hear what a big modern windmill sounded like, and we finally were able to park and walk right up to one.  Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!  Like a big prehistoric bird flapping her wings and preparing to fly.  How else would I have known?

The Internet is great, but it can only take you so far. Get out of the house, find your locale and discover everything.  The little details are what make your writing believable.  And, the best part is:  it's fun!.

The bloggers listed below also have some great ideas on researching your story or novel.  Take a look!  

 Rachael Kosnski http://rachaelkosinki.weebly.com

Margaret Fieland http://www.margaretfieland.com/blog1/
Beverley Bateman http://beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/
Skye Taylor  http://www.skye-writer.com/
Rachael Kosnski http://rachaelkosinski.weebly.com/
Heidi M. Thomas http://heidiwriter.wordpress.com/
Marci Baun  http://www.marcibaun.com/
Anne Stenhouse  http://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com/
Helena Fairfax  http://helenafairfax.com/
Connie Vines http://connievines.blogspot.com/
Kay Sisk http://kaysisk.blogspot.com
Fiona McGier http://www.fionamcgier.com/
A.J. Maguire  http://ajmaguire.wordpress.com/
J  Lynn Crain  http://www.awriterinvienna.blogspot.com
Rhobin Courtright http://www.rhobinleecourtright.com/

Well, this is embarassing

This blog has become rather mordant...is that the word I want?  I seem to spend a lot of time on Facebook.  Twitter?  Not so much.  I've been writing, and editing and gardening and recovering from 10 weeks of company.  Trying to get everything re-organized as it were.

My 1928 Southern California book now has over 65  thousand words, and is coming along, very slowly, but the word count is encouraging and I think I see the incidents that will occur before the end of the book.  Even if one plans ahead somewhat, it is still a hard row to hoe, as they used to say, and I don't do a complete outline, as that would take all the fun out of it. 

The Twenties were a fascinating decade and Southern California was one of the most corrupt places on earth.  For a writer, bad things are good things.  One must do a skidload of research.  For example, I was researching Tijuana Bibles for the book.  Not going to tell you what they were.  Look it up.  The stuff I've learned. 

We have two pair of the sweetest hummingbirds.  They are feisty and there are always aerial dogfights that are truly stunning.  One of them comes and perches on the tomato trellis, and we have conversations.  I talk; he listens and sometimes he scratches himself.  So funny.  After ten minutes of so, it's hard to think of stuff to say, so I talk about his migration and how I hope it won't be too hard, knowing that it will be and that I am looking forward to seeing them next spring, and is the nectar to their liking and is it changed often enough.  Where is your nest?  I planted the nicotania just for you.  Glad you like the other flowers, too, especially those tall purple things that bloom in August whose name I have forgotten.

Yes, one-way bird conversations can be kind of awkward, but he listens so intelligently, three feet away, and not a bit anxious.  The clematic are in view on the photo, and those are NOT the tall purple flowers I was taking about.  Sometimes he (or she) is so close I see all the markings of the feathers and it's such a treat to be friends with this little bird.  I think he REALLY KNOWS who puts out the fresh nectar and keeps the feeder clean. 

They'll be gone soon, and I'll worry a bit until I seem them again in the spring.  They are truly a wonder of nature. 

Do You Wear an Apron to Cook?

A practical apron is a cook's best friend

In an article on female fashion designers Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada, in today's New York Times, Prada states, " . . . I love aprons.  The apron is a recurring theme in my work because it is symbolic of women's sufferance . . It's an emblem of women's despair, their poverty, their passions."   Wha?  And all this time I thought it was to keep one's clothes from getting dirty while one stood over the sink or the stove.

Have you ever noticed that most of the "stars" on the food network never wear an apron?  Paula, the Barefoot Contessa, Giada, Rachel--none of them don an apron.  But the "chopped" people always wear aprons.  The only time I don't is if I have a ratty t-shirt and old jeans on.  Then I just wipe my hands on the back of my jeans.  But seriously, if you are standing over the stove or even slicing and chopping, you should wear an apron.  Crate and Barrel had such a cute  one in Tuesday's catalog that I wanted it badly.  I bought the tea towel instead, because I have enough aprons.

Haven't you ever spattered grease on a good shirt?  No?  I have.  I've even  spattered new shoes, my Stewart Weitzman loafers (now vintage),  and it took forever for the stain to disappear.  So don't wear good shoes, either.                      

Right now I have a rhubarb-strawberry crostata forming in the kitchen.  It should have been rhubarb-raspberry, but I had strawberries.   The crust is partly whole wheat, and we're just having a small (very small) pizza and salad tonight, so a fruit dessert will be just the ticket.  Rhubarb and Raspberry Crostata 

Strawberry-rhubarb Crostata with whole wheat crust

I spent all day yesterday working on the new book, and figuring out how in the year 1928 the characters would drive from Pomona to Mexicali, and what number the highway would have.  Got it!  Even found a very old  flax water bag that travelers in the Southwest used to affix to their autos. It is fun immersing oneself in a different place and time.  Learning a lot.  Found good photos, finally, of how the border area of the northern  Baja looked in the twenties.  Not everything is easy to find.  I missed an auction of postcards on EBay.

Onward to the crostata.