Here's a question from one of our readers on the Intrigue Authors blog .
"I'm interested in the research materials the authors use to develop a plot,
to get the details right. How have you used them in your books?
Are there specific books or websites you found useful? "

 

B.J. Daniels: I LOVE doing research and do a lot of it. If I do it right, the research doesn't show in the books though. Right now I'm researching a book for my Whitehorse, Montana series. My hero, one of the five Corbett brothers who have moved to Whitehorse, Jud Corbett is a stuntman for a movie being filmed in Montana so I'm researching movie making.

For my April Whitehorse book, Matchmaking With a Mission, I researched Paint horses, decomposing bodies and terrible stories of state orphanages/boys homes. For my May Whitehorse book, Second Chance Cowboy, it was pregnancy/delivery, cell phones and spy technology.  I'm always learning. It makes writing the books all that much more fun for me -- and hopefully my readers.

Dana Marton: For general things, I use Wikipedia a lot and live web cams to "see" the location if I can't go there. Other than that, my research is book specific. For my April thriller, 72 Hours, I researched news reports of hostage crises. I do as much research prior to writing as possible. Sometimes I find things that spark ideas that push the plot in a new direction.

Mallory Kane: Personally, I hate research! That's not to say that I can't get all caught up in finding just the right weapon for my undercover cop to carry, or the perfect vehicle for my Texas Ranger to drive, or even the exact street (and block!) where the villain ambushes the hero and heroine. Doing research is a great way to avoid writing <g>.

Often, a tidbit lurking in my brain will pop up in one of my books, and I'll use that as a starting point to (hopefully) make my story believable. In Silent Guardian (January 08), my hero builds an indoor shooting range in the basement of his old Victorian home in Nashville. I've seen some comments about that. But I can tell you that it is real. I lived in Nashville for several years, and a friend on the police force took me to an indoor shooting range built under a gun and ammunition shop.

In The Heart of Brody McQuade, Book One of the Silver Star of Texas II: Cantara Hills Investigation, (June 08) there really is a neighborhood called Cantera in San Antonio. For the trilogy, we did a little embellishing, which is always fun.

Delores Fossen: I do a lot of my research on the web, and two of my favorite sites are How Stuff Works and The Lab . At How Stuff Works, I've been able to find checklists used by hostage negotiators as well as specific duties of say a federal marshal or how to conduct a test for gunshot residue. The Lab is a writers' forensic community that has resources and information for just about any romantic suspense plot. I can even submit a specific question.

For my March Intrigue, The Horseman's Son, I also had to do some local research since the story is set in a small fictional Texas town. I exchanged emails with a small town sheriff so I'd know how they conduct an investigation. I got some very helpful answers and used that to plot out the book.

Tracy Montoya: I have to confess, I'm a total research geek. I've taken adult education classes--like the one on FBI investigative techniques taught by an active FBI agent--I read tons of books, I talk with experts whenever I think I need to, and I do a lot of web research. I'm a journalist/magazine editor for my day job, so I have tools like Lexis-Nexis at my disposal, too. And how in the world did people write suspense books without Google?   My April and December 2007 Intrigues centered on a team of search and rescue (SAR) footprint trackers in Washington state. I found a few random SAR message boards and the trackers there recommended two books to get started learning--Joel Hardin's Tracking and Jack Kearney's Tracking: A Blueprint for Learning How. I totally geeked out reading these two books and pretty much wanted to chuck it all and become a tracker by the time I was done. It really is cool.   Anyway, I posted a holiday short story about my Renegade Ridge tracking team on my blog in December, and I was thrilled when I got an email from one of the country's top SAR trackers in Washington State. He told me that not only did he like my story, but it was one of the most accurate he'd seen about SAR trackers. My inner research geek was filled with joy.  
Here's a tip: I find that memoirs or nonfiction narratives are often better resources for learning about certain careers, law enforcement techniques, or criminal psychology than educational or how-to books. How-to books can be too general for what a writer needs, while a memoir or a nonfiction narrative shows you the technique, the psychological disorder, or the law enforcement technique in action. It's the next best thing to being there! (And really, in the case of having to learn about some criminal's mental issues, would you really want to be there?)

Ann Voss Peterson: I've found there are two different kinds of book/website research.  There is background research I need to do before I can come up with compelling plot ideas, and there is specific research I need to make the story or plot work.  I'm always doing background research.  I try to seek out new real-life experiences, and keep my eyes open for new topics in books and research-based television.  Before I sold my first book to Intrigue, I read the line for 4 years.  In my reading, I noticed that no author was consistently writing legal thrillers.  Since I loved legal thrillers, I decided that might be a good niche for me.  So I read every legal research book and memoir I could find, building a base of knowledge I could draw on for many books.    I've also done this for different kinds of stories.  A trip to the local library will land you a list of books on nearly any topic.  The important thing for me is to immerse myself in the type of world I'm trying to create or in the world view of my character.  If I can feel what it's like to be in prison through reading a book or watching one of the many documentary style shows on TV, I can make that world and character my own.  It's impossible to list all the books here, since what I need to read in order to immerse myself in the world changes with each novel I write. 

But there are certain classic books that I own.  If you want to learn about serial killers and the people who study their behavior, for instance, check out books written by John Douglas (very readable, though disturbing).  A protected witness plot?  WITSEC: Inside the Federal Witness Protection Program can give you a feel for your topic.  For my March Intrigue, Wyoming Manhunt, I used a two-inch-thick travel handbook published by Moon Handbooks, Wyoming, by Don Pitcher.  It served to refresh my memory of trips I'd taken to Wyoming and pointed out details about the state I didn't know.   Specific research is as easy as Google.  Nearly all the states have a searchable database where you can look up their state statutes.  If you're looking for gun laws, there are many websites that compile the laws of all the states.  The FBI has a great site as do nearly every law enforcement agency, federal, state and local.  I've even used baby name websites and ethnic surname websites to name characters.  It's all just a click away.  Whether you get your facts online or from a book, remember to make sure the information is as current as possible.  Check dates on websites and copyright dates on books.  You don't want your novel to be outdated before it's published!  

Rebecca York: I do a lot of research for my books.  For example, I'm writing a Berkley single title now called Eternal Moon.  The heroine is the reincarnation of an ancient goddess.  But in this incarnation, she grew up in Costa Rica.  I took a trip to that country to find out about her childhood environment.  I took a ton of pictures while I was there.  Well, dh took them for me!  I ate native foods.  I went to as many parts of the country as I could in two weeks.  Then when I got home, I took out a stack of library books on Costa Rica so I'd get the details right.  And I went to web sites on Costa Rica to refresh my memory on some of the places I visited.    The hero of the story is a werewolf who can "speak to animals."  So I also did some research on dog training.  The heroine is posing as a real estate agent to catch a man who is killing female real estate agents at isolated properties.  I did the research for that part of the story on HGTV.  <g> I watch that channel a lot, and I've picked up tons of information about updating houses and checking out properties from their programs.   Then there's mythology.  It's always been an interest of mine, so I know a lot of the ancient myths.  I did look up some information on the web.  But, since my goddess is not from any religion you've heard about, I made up the myth that tells her story.  But I did also want my heroine to think about the symbolism of what was happening to her.  For that I used two books: Dictionary of Symbols, by Jack Tresidder and Dictionary of Symbolism, by Hans Biedermann.  And I also did some research on the web.  I looked up the symbolism of stones, flowers and fire.  And of course, when you start thumbing through those books, you come across a lot of interesting stuff.   www.rebeccayork.com

Patricia Rosemoor:  I have taken many memorable trips with the express purpose of using the place for a future book. One of those places was a working ranch in New Mexico where I helped move cows and saw them trample a fence to get across the river. And came across an electric fence which gave me an idea of how I could kill my hero--don't worry, the heroine brought him back. I've had other great travel/research experiences. Hiring a private airboat in Florida to figure out a chase scene in the Everglades. Taking a wolf ecology workshop to know more about tracking and managing wolf populations. Driving along the Louisiana coastline and going into bayou country and visiting the Eastern Shore with authors Rebecca York and Ann Voss Peterson for two of our series suspense projects. My new Intrigue In Name Only? is about to be released. I visited Ireland about ten years ago. When I saw the Cliffs of Moher, I knew someday I would set a big finish in an area like that. Which I did in this book. I used the internet a lot for details about Ireland. I called up maps and googled everything under the sun. I find Wikipedia particularly useful for all kinds of information.

Julie Miller: I don't sit down and do research per se. Since I write about them so much, I have used KCPD's website at  and other specific police/sheriff department sites for information on how they're set up, what ranks they use, what uniforms and badges look like, protocols, etc. Google can get you to the individual sites. Wikipedia.com is a good general source of info when I need to do a quick look-up--it will direct me to other sites. I also love the "Howdunit" series of books from Writer's Digest--I have everything from police procedure to poisons to crime scene practices in those books. Generally, I use them as a reference as I'm writing.

My research style is more about learning new things every day--so I read, I travel, I listen to people who have interesting jobs, I attend workshops and classes, etc. I internalize all kinds of information (I'm pretty darned good at Trivial Pursuit <g>) and then draw from that when I'm putting together story ideas, creating characters and writing books. I've had a variety of jobs over the years that have put me in contact with experts in many different fields--and those friendships and acquaintances have remained valuable contacts to consult when I need info from a Marine or attorney or trauma nurse or undercover detective or DEA agent, etc. for a story. I'm much more likely to stop and look up or call someone to verify a detail as I'm writing than I am to look up information before I start a book.

For my upcoming Intrigue mini-series, The Precinct: Brotherhood of the Badge, which launches in June with Protective Instincts, I used several locations from a trip I took this summer through Kansas and Missouri--including a beautiful historic church that has been remodeled into a lovely home that became my heroine's home in Armed and Devastating (July 08), a visit to the historic Raphael Hotel and J.C. Nichols Plaza in Kansas City, which I use in Kansas City Christmas (Nov. 08), and the Greyhound Museum in Atchison, KS, where I met a very special dog who plays an important character in Private S.W.A.T. Takeover (Oct. 08).