I know it’s been a while since I last wrote, so let me wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year! There, now we’re up to date.
I’d like to talk today about modern technology and how it
affects research. I do a lot of research for my historical novels and if it
weren’t for today’s technology, I’d be writing books more like the Dick and
Jane series. See Spot run.
If I had to go to the library, as great as libraries are, I’d
be spending a majority of my time driving to the library, trying to find a book
that answers my questions, and driving home again where I would then get back
on the computer to pick up where I left off.
Thanks to Bill Gates and others, I can stay sitting at my
computer, open a tab to look up something, and get right back to my manuscript.
Just since writing my current novel, Testing Michael,
I’ve learned about powder monkeys, gunwales, clothes, toys, food and medicine
during the time of the Civil War, the Civil War itself and it’s various battles,
and the weapons used at that time. Without the internet, I might as well set up
my bed in the library because every day I’m researching two or three topics.
And while I’m reading about one topic, I generally find interesting tidbits I
didn’t know I didn’t know.
For instance, did you know, that urine was collected to make
black powder for the muskets? I didn’t either. That was something the women at
home could do to help with the war effort. Did you know General Grant was on
crutches during the battle of Shiloh? Or that some cannon balls exploded while others
just plowed into their target and did damage?
Or that one-fifth of all the soldiers in the war were under eighteen and
many only thirteen and fourteen years old? And that there were women disguised
as men fighting alongside the men? Do you know what a pike weapon is? Or that
very few bugles were used to announce assembly, reveille, or taps and such;
instead, they used drums, something young boys could be enlisted to do?
Research is so easy now with the internet and far more
encompassing than looking up one thing at a time in a book. I keep three or
four tabs open at once from various sources and can refer back to a particular battle anytime I
want. Viva la internet!
I am past the half-way mark in Michael and I’ll let
you know when it’s published and available. Stay tuned. In the meantime, I’m
having a ball writing this book and I hope it shows in the finished product.
Quote of the Day: Dear
God, Thank you for another day, my health, and the internet.
