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| Image: Robert Scoble |
Today was all about completing my research for the novel I’ll begin writing as a NoNoWriMo participant in November. Blood Ties will be my first full DI Lennox novel (Slick was really about Ronnie Glover), the idea for which has been simmering and growing since October 2006, i.e., before I even wrote Slick.
The research needed has seen me searching the Internet and now, today, scouring the book shops. It is much harder than I realised to dig out the specific information I need about the Great Plague of 1645. Waterstones on Princes Street only had two books on the subject generally, one of which was a fictional account of what life would have been like in Edinburgh 363 years ago. Very interesting, but I need facts at this juncture, nothing else.
I also needed specific information about Catholicism, the Reformation, general Edinburgh history, and Polish immigration. The latter of these two subjects, once again, was extremely hard to locate. Can you believe it’s so hard to find out about detailed Edinburgh history in the local history section of a local book shop?
I came away with some good reading material though, and spent a large part of my day reading.
I don’t think I’ve enjoyed researching this much in a long time.
Next stop before I start, or maybe even during because I foresee some referring happening during the book’s writing, will be the Polish immigration centre in Leith, and the National Library.
Stella (final draft by chapter)
The Scruffy Dog Review – Autumn Issue OUT NOW!!
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Freedom from the Mundane 
Look in the acknowledgment section of the fiction book. The author will list the sources — both books and people — that were helpful in the author’s research.
Make a list of those and THOSE are what you want for your research.
The acknowledgment section in fiction set in the same era as yours is one of the BEST resources you can find to point you in the right direction and cut your own search time by about 70%, because there’s already a list of people and sources.