Atlanta Art Gallery Many Sisters One World Strong Sisters in a New World Joan Dett

Please welcome guest blogger Pepper O'Neal today, sharing on the challenges -- and rewards -- of research. Y'all can read more than nigh her book Expressionless Men Don't on her website or buy information technology at Black Opal Books.

I'thou often asked why I base and so many of my characters on existent people. And my answer is two-fold. Outset, I've met some extremely interesting people in my travels—people with amazing stories to tell. They've been at that place, washed that, and have the scars to prove information technology. So, while my imagination is pretty good, I doubt I could create characters as interesting and complicated equally the people I actually know. It's the fiddling things almost those people that make them so special. And secondly, because I know them then well, and because of the stories they've told me, it saves me tons of fourth dimension on research. They've likewise been virtually of the places I want to write about, so if I haven't been there myself, I can ask them. Most of them are honored that I'thousand impressed enough by them to put them in my books, fifty-fifty when I make them villains. When my get-go book in the Black Ops Chronicle series, Black Ops Chronicles: Dead Run , started winning contests, Levi, who was an of import secondary grapheme, was delighted. "Y'all're an award-winning writer at present, luv," he told me, "so I guess that makes me an award-winning character. So when do I get my own book?" How could I resist? When I wrote the second book in that series, Black Ops Chronicles: Dead Men Don't , which came out in June, Levi had a starring function.

Characters and dialogue come easy for me considering I know the real-life counterparts of my characters very well, adept points and character flaws, and can guess what they would most likely say in any given state of affairs, which gives my books a ring of truth they wouldn't otherwise take. But unless you are fortunate enough to have friends like mine who've led some extremely interesting lives, yous're going to take to do a lot of enquiry on any subject or character trait you lot want to portray in your fiction. How can you lot tell the difference betwixt a writer who'southward done his/her homework with some good solid enquiry and one who hasn't? Easy. The writer who'south done the homework makes you feel like yous're actually there with the characters, experiencing what they are. They also have all their facts are correct and accurate.

So how do you lot practise it? The reply to that is complicated. Start you accept to do hours of research, on the net, or contact organizations in the target state that deal with tourism, or—if you're lucky plenty to have them—ask friends who have been at that place. And secondly, you have to know what questions to enquire.

Call up about what you might know about a place after you've been in that location that you wouldn't know before. For example, if you are writing almost a place in a third-world country, what might y'all learn by traveling to that country that y'all wouldn't know if you hadn't been there? Some examples of this might be what the sanitation systems are like, how garbage is collected, what the markets and stores are like, how the people in the cities go their water—does it come from a central h2o supply reservoir like in the The states or is it perhaps delivered by truck to a cistern on the roof of the house and then gravity-fed through the pipes when someone opens a faucet. What are the rural areas of said country like? How do the people wearing apparel, get to and from work, secure their homes, etc.? For example, I was amazed when I outset when to piece of work in Mexico that many houses didn't have closets in the bedrooms similar we have in the U.s.. Many people who live there, at least in the more rural areas or in older homes, used armoires, giant chests that you hang clothes in. And I was shocked to discover that, at to the lowest degree in the small town where I get-go lived while I was at that place, the garbage truck didn't pick upward at a person'south house. The numberless of garbage had to exist carted to the corner of a designated street on garbage mean solar day and handed to the homo on the dorsum of the truck. Little things like this are what make you recollect a place when other memories about the trip take faded. Those little things are also what make your readers feel like they're right there in the scene with the characters. The same is true of your characters. If you're writing virtually an ex-CIA officeholder, like I was, and don't know one, you need to research not simply the type of person you want to portray, simply likewise the "store-talk" or trade words that would be common in their everyday spoken language. For example, did y'all know that CIA employees are never called agents by those in the know? CIA personnel in the field are called officers or field officers not agents. Authors who call them agents haven't done their homework. Facts similar this are crucial to authenticity.

So practice yourself and your career a big favor and bank check your facts. There is no quicker style for a writer to lose brownie than to use wrong data or facts. Whether information technology is a novel or a blog, if you put it out there, brand sure you do your inquiry and that your facts are authentic. Let me give yous an example of what I mean. I am not going to mention any names because some of you may accept read this writer, enjoyed her work, and never realized her facts were incorrect. And I don't want to spoil anyone's enjoyment of an writer. But…

First allow me say that I've had a number of jobs in my life—it took me a while to discover my niche—and in one case upon a time, I trained racehorses. So when I saw a new novel about equus caballus racing from a well-known author, whose work I had read and enjoyed before, I bought it. To say I was disappointed is an understatement. Not because the plot or the characters were not up to this writer'due south normal quality. They were. But her racing terms were wrong. Her term for young horses versus older ones, male versus female person horses, etc. were as well incorrect. For example, a female horse, no matter the historic period, should never be called a colt. A colt is a male, un-neutered horse under the age of four. After the age of four, he's a horse or a stud if he'due south convenance mares. If he'due south neutered, he's a gelding, regardless of the historic period. A female horse nether the age of four is a filly. Over the age of four, she'southward a mare. This author seemed unaware of facts that anyone who'south spent any time around horses would automatically know. And every bit someone who does, this bothered me to the indicate that I didn't enjoy the story as much as I otherwise might have. Information technology wouldn't have taken this author that much more time and/or effort to check her facts and make sure they were right.

The next book I read from this same writer was set up in my abode land of Oregon, and I can but assume that she has never been there. Imagine my dismay when the heroine stopped for gas at an Oregon gas station, got out of the car, and filled up her ain tank. Why? Considering Oregon does non and never has allowed self-service gas stations. Period. Pumping your ain gas in Oregon is against the law. Had her character washed this in real life, she would have had to pay a $10,000 fine. Needless to say, that was the final time I bought one of this author'due south books.

If yous are unsure of your facts, practise the inquiry and observe out the correct terms and facts, or else keep your terms and facts vague and generic. These kinds of mistakes may not hurt you too much if yous are a all-time-selling writer (and not everyone is as picky nearly proper terms and correct facts in fiction as I am—probably comes from being a researcher), simply if you are just starting out, this tin can scuttle your career. So why hazard information technology? If you're going to take the time to practise research for a novel and aren't writing about something you know inside and out, go the actress mile and brand sure that the facts you put in your books are right.

When I wrote the first book in the Blackness Ops Chronicle serial Blackness Ops Chronicles: Dead Run, I had a scene in it where the hero stopped breathing but withal had a faint pulse. So my heroine, who was pretty clueless virtually medicine, was going to endeavor to practise CPR. Well, my critique group at the time had a registered nurse in it and she objected to the scene because you don't perform CPR on someone who has a pulse. She pointed out, and rightly so, that someone reading my book might, yet unlikely, take that scene as fact and practise harm to someone in an emergency situation. I had never thought of that, simply once she pointed it out, it made sense. And so I changed the scene to where the heroine gives him artificial respiration and bypasses the CPR. Not that I call back I would have gotten sued had I left it in, just the book was amend because I changed it. It was not only more authentic and, therefore, more believable, but I also wouldn't take readers who were registered nurses, EMTs, or other medical professionals throwing the book confronting the wall considering I didn't have my facts correct.

And information technology taught me a valuable lesson. Check your facts! If yous're writing about something you are unfamiliar with and are not 100% certain of your facts, check, check, and recheck. Believe me, your readers will cheers for information technology.

*         *          *          *          *

A foreign man has come up to save her...but is he friend or foe?

Anderson Merritt's been kidnapped, simply when a stranger comes to rescue her, she isn't sure he is who he says he is. He claims to work her father's boss. But someone shut to Andi set her up, and now she doesn't know who to trust. Every man she's ever known has seen her only as a tool to become to her father or his money, so why should this one be whatsoever different? As the sparks between them ignite, and the danger escalates, Andi has to choose—become off on her ain, or trust that some men really are what they seem.

He doesn't want to hurt her…but he may have to if she doesn't come willingly.

Ex-CIA black ops specialist Levi Komakov doesn't believe in pain women, but when the place is set to blow and Andi won't cooperate, he has no option to but toss her over his shoulder and behave her out of danger, determined to go on her safe in spite of herself. Merely the beautiful little spitfire doesn't make it like shooting fish in a barrel for him. With her abductors seemingly always one pace ahead of him, Levi suspects there's a rat in the woodpile, but who? Could it exist someone shut to Andi'southward father, someone in the FBI, or someone in the family Levi works for? When a new threat appears, and even the CIA tin can't assistance him keep Andi safe, Levi puts everything on the line—but will information technology exist plenty?

*         *          *          *          *

Honor-winning author, Pepper O'Neal is a researcher, a writer, and an adrenalin junkie. She has a doctorate in education and spent several years in Mexico and the Caribbean working equally researcher for an educational resource business firm based out of Mexico Metropolis. During that time, she met and befriended many adventurers like herself, including onetime CIA officers and members of organized crime. Her fiction is heavily influenced by the stories they shared with her, as well her own experiences abroad.

O'Neal attributes both her love of gamble and her compulsion to write fiction to her Irish and Cherokee ancestors. When she's not at her figurer, O'Neal spends her time taking long walks in the forests most her abode or playing with her iii cats. And of grade, planning the next run a risk.

wheelerfonse1951.blogspot.com

Source: https://tinawhittle.blogspot.com/2014/

Share this post