When I do travel, I always check out museums. Artifacts at museums are a WEALTH of information. Clothes, costumes, sculptures, fabric paintings are all oodles of happy goodness when researching a particular era. I just whip out my camera and snap shots of what I need. Sometimes it’s not just the works of art that inspire, but also the subject matter. In some carvings or paintings, you can get a sense of the customs, beliefs, or ideology of the time or the tools and materials needed to make that art. That’s so valuable when writing historical fiction. It’s not uncommon for me to spend hours researching the sound of gongs when, in actuality, the scene I’m writing might only contain half a sentence about gongs. But it’s so worth it since I like to be as accurate as possible when it comes to history. (I’m such a Capricorn Rising sign!)

I used to think I’d HATE research. That was years ago when I had to drive to a library with pads and pens and a gallon of tea plus quarters for the pay-phone. Once the internet came into my life I caught the ‘search engine’ byte and boy oh boy, did I catch the fever. It’s an art to peruse articles and images that can help me define when a fabric was designed or what kind of tree was used to make an instrument. I always keep a composition note pad around (remember those from grammar school?). Well, you can get them in different colors now so how cool is that? For “Aries Fire” of course, I used RED, baby! I’d scribble notes to take to ‘the google’ to refine my searches.

But as soon as I do I’m ready to channel some words. Of course, this is something that took a while to set up and actually implement with a child, husband, and dog. Somebody always needed food or walking. Once I set my schedule, I put it into three calendars: igoogle, dry erase board on the wall, and in my appointment book. THEN I make the announcement to the family, “I’m writing as of 9am!” Doing it that way keeps me accountable. I see it in every calendar I have and my family will remind me in case I slip into housewifery syndrome where 27 pancakes just doesn’t feel like enough to feed my daughter. Really, what it comes down to is not overcommitting elsewhere in my life. I love to write and can get so lost in it that I’ll forget to shower and pay bills. So I schedule my writing time when it suits me, not anyone else. (Yeah, right.) I find that working with my rhythms gives me a freer vocabulary, too. Then I’m not distracted by whatever else is ongoing in the day.

Sometimes when I’m writing a scene in a particular era and I need more inspiration, I go to Itunes and search for music of that particular era. For more ethnic type music I’ll visit ‘Magnatunes.com’. Many of the scenes written in ‘Aries Fire’ were written whilst sporting headphones piping in mediterranean belly dance music and Israeli or Balkan women chanting or crooning in harmony.