WRITER'S RESEARCH
As a writer I think it's really important to get all the details in a book right, even if it's a work of fiction. Subsequently I spend a lot of time researching all sorts of odd and esoteric things, many of which never get used. But, it's something I really enjoy doing. In the past I would have had to spend a lot of my time in the library doing this research but, now we're in the 21st century, most of it can be done online. As they say, 'Google is your friend.' Also, Wikipedia is a resource I turn to frequently.
Canadian Club
In the book I'm currently writing the skeleton of a Canadian soldier is revealed in the dunes after a violent storm. Later a bottle is found nearby and Lewis, the forensics man, is tasked with identifying it. Turning to Wikipedia I was able to discover the distinctive shape of a Canadian Club bottle, which Lewis was able to establish as being the one found in the dunes.
Stonepit Lane.
Later in the book, Detective Inspector Sonny Russell and WPC Nettie Sharpe are travelling in a police Wolseley. They are trying to track down a boy missing from a children's home and are looking for a farm where a woman who had visited him at the home is said to live. I decided that this is located in a little hamlet near Benenden called Standen Street. Before we moved to the coast we lived there for 10 so I decided that's where the fictitious farm would be located. We been here, in Pett Level, for nearly 11 years, so in order to remind myself of the lie of the land I've been looking at the surrounding fields and woods on Google Earth. This will allow me to accurately describe the journey through the lanes to the farm and landscape they travel through.
It might sound like a chore but I see it as part of the privilege of being an author.
