Comments on: The Surprising Places Research Can Lead You

By: Jerold H. Tabbott

Jerold H. Tabbott — Tue, 15 Aug 2023 12:27:42 +0000

Despite your losses, a wonderful journey… research enriches you and, in turn, enriches your stories. And, I agree, often leads to new lines of imagination.

By: Lissa Johnston

Lissa Johnston — Mon, 14 Aug 2023 15:49:04 +0000

There's nothing I love more than a research rabbit hole!

By: Ellen Buikema

Ellen Buikema — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 05:41:08 +0000

Hi Diana,

You certainly have some fascinating stories. It must be hard to have lost these people from your life.

I hope you decide to continue with the book. It will be a wonderful one.

In researching the early 1900s USA I learned just how wild the Wild West really was! It was super easy to fall down all kinds of rabbit holes, but the information to be found helped bring those scenes to life.
Thank you for a glimpse of your work.

By: Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt

Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 04:15:01 +0000

What unexpected and extraordinary places has your research taken you?

Uttar Pradesh in India, County Galway in Ireland, and the town of Plzen in the Czech Republic, in the last book.

Secret marriages of celebrities in California, and the family courts where their children are awarded in custody battles in the current one.

Rabbit holes in the lives of Lewis Carroll and pioneers on prairie schooners. Historical fiction and fact during the American Civil War.

It's always something.

My system is to follow the research and facts deep enough and far enough from the story so you can't tell that's all I know. Most of it doesn't get used, but I need to know it so what I DO write is as real as possible.

I get all the fun. Yeah, it takes up time, but I don't mind.

By: Denise

Denise — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 03:01:57 +0000

This is fascinating since I knew someone who escaped Chile as the coup was happening.

By: Lisa Norman

Lisa Norman — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 00:39:17 +0000

Diana, what a beautiful story. We all have those moments of sidetracks in our research where we fall down the rabbit hole, but you instead fell into a beautiful story world full of stories that needed to be told. I'm so sorry for the loss of your friend, but it sounds like you have a great way to honor his memory.
I seem to be always researching something. This last month it was chicken intelligence and peanut growing procedures.

By: Lynette M Burrows

Lynette M Burrows — Wed, 09 Aug 2023 13:49:28 +0000

First, I am sorry for the loss of your friend. Losing people we were close to is one of the hardest things we do in life. Give yourself grace on that project-on-hold. You'll get back to it, if and when you're ready. And that's okay. You're still writing about it in other ways. One of the "strange places research took me," was during a tour of a location I wanted to use in the first book of my Fellowship Dystopia series, My Soul to Keep. I stumbled across a historical marker that led to tons of research about the Eugenics movement in America. To say it is a dark moment in our history is an understatement. But it fit into my story like I'd planned it from the start.