Author Blair McDowell has graciously agreed to share her insights into her research. I hope you enjoy reading her post as much as I did.
There is always a significant body of research involved in the writing of any of my books. There is on-site research on settings, historical research through books, museum visits, interviews where possible, and yes, Google, although I always double check the latter. Sometimes and in some areas there is as much misinformation as information on Google. It’s a valuable resource as long as the information on it is checked in other ways.
Research on people and their jobs or professions I do by interviewing people in those positions. The Vancouver Police were wonderfully forthcoming with information when I was writing Sonata. Much of the research needed for the island culture in Delighting In Your Company came directly from people in that small island community. If possible, I research locales first hand. A friend who sings with the Vienna Opera gave me a backstage tour for the setting of a scene I wanted in Romantic Road. Friends in Hungary gave me a tour of their Lake Balaton vineyard for another scene in the same book. I realize not everyone can visit book settings first hand. I am fortunate. I’m a retired university professor. I’ve traveled all my life as a part of my job, and the travel habit is still with me. Now, when I visit a place, as often as not, it’s because I am setting a book or a part of a book in that locale. People are wonderfully forthcoming about the places in which they live, about their work, about even their political, religious, and philosophic views. On the small Greek island of Hydra I sat on a stone wall next to a musician who was playing on a beautiful old stringed folk instrument. When he tired of playing I was delighted to learn he spoke fluent English. (Greeks and Italians often do. The French, almost never do.) We talked for an hour, and some of the opinions and philosophy in The Memory of Roses came directly from that Greek musician. This kind of experience is happenstance. It isn’t something I planned. But it was very important to the book I was working on at the time. My trip, two years ago, though Germany Austria and Hungary was specifically to trace the path my heroine, Lacy Telchev, was fleeing down, in Romantic Road. Last Fall I visited the Amalfi Coast specifically to make sure of my facts when writing Where Lemons Bloom, (to be released later this year). Of course place is only one aspect of writing. History is a necessary component background to me, even when writing a contemporary work, because history impacts on characters. Someone who lived through the Russian occupation in Hungary would likely have very different views than someone born two generations later in the U.S. Hungarian Dr. Zsuzsa Szilard’s views of history vastly differ with those of my young American heroine’s in Romantic Road. Zuszsa’s are almost verbatim from a conversation I had with an elderly woman in the Matra Mountains of Hungary some time ago. I have a good memory, aided by a collection of notebooks that go back many years. It is a wonderful gift given to authors that we can express opposing viewpoints through different characters. Research. It takes time and patience. But I believe solid research always makes a more believable book.
When Lacy Telchev buries her husband she finds herself in treacherous waters. Igor, much older than Lacy, had secrets. Suddenly Lacy is being chased across Europe by men who believe she can lead them to those secrets. Evading her pursuers with the aid of a chance acquaintance, the handsome and mysterious Max Petersen, Lacy travels across Germany, Austria and Hungary, to a shattering discovery in Budapest.
Along the way, she meets three women from Igor's past. As Igor's story unfolds through them, Lacy is less and less certain who her husband really was. Who can Lacy trust? Will she survive to find out? Excerpt: Her head was pounding. Aspirin. Surely she must have some aspirin in her purse. She rummaged through it to no avail. Maybe Max had some. When she opened her room door, he was leaning against the wall. In one hand he had a small glass filled with a clear liquid. He handed it to her. “Drink,” he said. “Think of it as medicine.” She looked from Max to the shot glass, back to Max. “You have a headache?” he asked. Numbly Lacy nodded, the very action hurting. “Drink.” She took the proffered glass and swallowed the fiery alcohol in one gulp that left her gasping for breath. When she stopped sputtering, she asked, “What on earth was that?” “Schnapps. Just sit down for a moment and let it do its work.” He led her to an ancient carved wooden bench placed along the wall of the large center room. “You had quite a bit to drink at lunch time.” As she revived, it began to come back. Lunch. Apple fritters and mulled wine. And after lunch… “What happened after lunch?” she asked, afraid of the answer. “You mean you don’t remember?” He sounded hurt, as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “How could you not remember?” He leaned into her and kissed her insinuatingly. Lacy pushed him away and put her head in her hands. “No. Oh, no.” Max took her hands away from her face and looked into her eyes, dead serious. “Nothing happened between us after lunch, Lacy. There are rules about that sort of thing. I promise you when…that is…if we make love, it will not be when you’ve had too much to drink.” “You beast.” Lacy pummeled him with her fists. “You let me think …” “Feeling better now?” he asked, laughing, catching her hands in his and holding them. Lacy realized indeed she did feel better. She felt fine.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Blair McDowell wrote her first short story when she was eleven and has never ceased writing since, although only recently has she been able to return to her first love, writing fiction. During her early years, she taught in universities in the United States, Canada and Australia, and wrote several highly successful books in her field. Her research has taken her to many interesting places. She has lived in Europe, Australia, the United States and the Caribbean and Canada, and spent considerable time in still other places, Iceland, the Far East, and the Torres Strait Islands off the coast of New Guinea. Now she travels for pleasure. Portugal, Greece and Italy are favorite haunts. Her books are set in places she knows and loves and are peopled with characters drawn from her experiences of those places. The Memory of Roses takes readers to the Greek Island of Corfu, where a young woman finds her future while searching for her father's past. In Delighting in Your Company, the reader is transported to a small island in the Caribbean, with a heroine who finds herself in the unenviable position of falling in love with a ghost. The setting for Sonata is the city of Vancouver, with its vibrant multicultural population and its rich musical life, and the heroine is a musician who finds herself in unexpected danger. In her most recent release, Romantic Road, Lacy Telchev, is pursued along Germany’s famous Romantische Strausse as she follows clues left by her late husband in order to solve a mystery that she doesn’t understand, while being chased by dangerous and cunning adversaries. She hopes her readers will enjoy reading these books as much as she enjoyed writing them. Blair is a member of the Romance Writers of America, Romance Writers of America (Greater Vancouver Chapter), the Romance Writers of America (Women's Fiction), and The Writers’ Union of Canada. Contact, Website, etc. Website: http://www.blairmcdowell.com/ Blog: http://blairmcdowellauthor.blogspot.ca/ Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5807790.Blair_McDowell Visit my Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/BlairMcDowellWriter Visit me at Twitter https://twitter.com/mcdowell_blair Visit my Google+ https://plus.google.com/b/105171661057794970957/+BlairmcdowellAuthor/posts
Giveaway
Blair will be awarding a $15 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour, and a $15 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn host. Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here: http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2015/03/vbt-romantic-road-by-blair-mcdowell.html
Marlow
5/20/2015 04:45:06 am
My pleasure.
Mai T.
5/19/2015 10:13:15 pm
What book do you wish you could have written? 5/20/2015 08:58:22 am
I WISH (oh how I wish!) I had written Outlander. I think Diana Gabaldon's writing is brilliant. 5/20/2015 03:54:03 am
Thank you so much for hosting my blog, and my latest novel, Romantic Road! It looks great. I hope your readers enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Marlow
5/20/2015 04:44:42 am
Blair, thank you for the wonderful post. I loved reading about your research. You brought up some interesting points. Although I enjoy history I hadn't considered how it impacted my characters. 5/20/2015 09:04:22 am
to Marlow: Thanks so much. My travels impact on my writing in a major way. My next book involves theft at the Louvre -- I hope my investigation of how that could happen doesn't land me in a French jail!
Rita Wray
5/20/2015 04:33:29 am
Great excerpt. 5/20/2015 04:59:45 am
Thanks, Rita! So glad you enjoyed it. I like adding a bit of humor to my stories.
momjane
5/20/2015 06:22:52 am
What fun it must have been traveling over parts of Europe. This excerpt was great. 5/20/2015 09:09:35 am
My work took me many places and I guess it gave me the travel bug. Now that I retired I travel through the fall every year, and my stories are born from the places I visit. I realize I'm privileged in this. But I still work as a B&B owner/operator all summer. This is what pays for the travel.
Betty W
5/20/2015 08:34:46 am
I loved reading about the author! I can't wait to read it! Thank you for sharing and for the contest!
Blair McDowell
5/20/2015 08:59:16 am
Thanks so much, Betty! It's so nice to know that readers like to hear about my writing. Good luck with the contest!
Eva Millien
5/20/2015 08:55:40 am
Enjoyed the excerpt! Thanks for sharing
Blair McDowell
5/20/2015 09:00:25 am
Thanks Eva. I'm so glad you enjoyed the excerpt --- I hope you get the opportunity to read the rest of Romantic Road! Good luck with the Gift Card!
Glenda S. Hefty
5/20/2015 09:10:32 am
I did enjoy the little article about how you do research and also the blurb and excerpt. This is the type of book I enjoy. I really appreciate it when authors really make an effort to make the settings and backgrounds of their books as accurate as they can be. Helen McInnes comes to mind...she is no longer with us...but I've heard her descriptions sounded so real were so accurate that the Nazis used her books as sources in their espionage "games". 5/20/2015 10:00:20 am
Glenda--Thanks for your comment. I, too loved Helen McInnes. I grew up on that era of writing and I miss it in today's fiction. I love reading a good setting of scene. McInnes excelled at that. Dibdin comes close today and of course Donna Leon. And Gabaldon's Scotland of two hundred years ago is incredible. These are all models for my writing. But each of us sees in a different way -- my France in my upcoming romantic suspense, Fatal Charm, is very different from McInness' written so long ago.
Mary Preston
5/20/2015 11:40:46 am
A great excerpt thank you.
Blair McDowell
5/20/2015 12:56:18 pm
And thank you so much for your comment, Mary! And good luck winning the Gift Card. Comments are closed.
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