Inside The Nation (The wonderful world of research)

I’m sure it is no secret that I love research. I am quite addicted to it if I’m being honest. I love picking a subject, a person, and immersing myself in all the information I can find out about it or them. I look on the internet, I go to bookstores, I make phone calls, any way there is to get knowledge on that subject, I use. Once I pick the subject, my mind homes in on it and I can’t seem to let it go until I have exhausted all of my resources and even then, I look for more. I’m almost positive that I drive the people around me crazy. I’m not above calling Omega at two in the morning and asking her if she’s heard of this or that, if she could bring so and so to the office in the morning so I can look into it further (I am surprised and elated that she hasn’t stopped answering late night phone calls).

Before I started The Chronicles of Sari series I knew that I wanted to write a book about a strong female supernatural hunter. I wanted her to go up against a different creature in every book and I didn’t want to stick with only werewolves and vampires. So, I went on a hunt (pun intended) for different types of supernatural creatures. I made a list of the most interesting five, making sure that they would pose a big enough threat. Once my list was compiled I started doing research on the first one, which was a hybrid. I decided to mix vampires with weres- but not just wolves. I kept asking myself, why is it always werewolves, why can’t it be were-panthers or were-leopards? My answer… It doesn’t have to stop at wolves. That led to another branch in the research, the animals. I looked up how they moved, what their habits were, if they worked well in a pack, etc. I looked online, checked out books, called the zoo, I was relentless. When I settled on three or four different animals, I looked into a scientific way to merge the two. I didn’t want them to use the typical bite method so I had to come up with another way. Of course, that led to more research, I was in heaven!

I had my series idea, my first villain, and how I was going to make said villain, the next step was my heroine. I had watched enough movies and television shows on hunters to fill a small country, but I wanted more. Back on the hunt I went. Internet, bookstores, libraries, repeat. Finally, I had the bones of the first Sari chronical, the only thing left was the writing and honestly she was screaming in my head through the entire research process, that writing her was quite easy.

The one piece of advice I can give you on research is dig deep, don’t just stop at the surface. There is so much information out there on just about anything you can think of. Get on the internet, get physical copies of books, call experts, Dig! Even if you do not love the process, the knowledge you find will be worth the tediousness.

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