Research

The original title of this blog: Spider Sex and Other Research Topics. Don’t ask. I hope you have a chance to read it soon enough.

I’m starting a new story for a submission call. It could have been an easy friends-to-lovers romance with a completely fictional setting and plot. That’s not how I operate. If there’s a hard way to do something, I’ll find it.

Of course, I have to set this story in a real time and place, based on a real event. That means research. Lots and lots of research, depending on the timeframe (days, weeks, months, or years) I cover with these characters. 

Some of my friends write strictly historical romance. Real historical romance, mind you. Accurate dress, technology, and chronology. Details so intense you can taste the dust rolling into the stagecoach.

Some of my friends write steampunk, urban fantasy, or historical fiction so bent it might as well be historical urban fantasy. I love it all. I’ve read it all. I’m no history buff, so if I can tell something’s out of place, it’s REALLY out of place. Even so, I forgive just about anything within a compelling story. 

I’m going to do my best to go back in time to this historical setting and plot to do it justice. I have no idea how these characters will overcome their differences. Writing an enemies-to-lovers romance is also new to me. Yep, I’m going all in with this experimental (for me) novella. 

While I have a lot of research ahead of me, this story’s tame compared to the last one. What’s the zaniest Google topic you’ve ever searched?