RESEARCH: The Fun Part of Writing a Novel



Chicago Temple Building

Digging up facts, reading stories, and traveling to locations (even armchair travel) always gets my blood bubbling -- in a good way. Once the information is boiled down to fit the novel however, the rest goes to waste. (Where food is involved, it goes to my waist!) But rather than filing away all the fun-but-unused stuff, authors can choose to share some of the interesting background facts, as it applies to their novel.

 

Excerpts from For Every Action, a Pepper Bibeau mystery - in red lettering below - take place in the Chicago Public Library (before it became the Chicago Cultural Center on East Washington Street in the Loop.)

 

Flamingo

 

Marshall Fields façade and clock

“Ma’am, can you tell me how to find the books on diseases?” Pepper asked.

After writing the first draft of the novel, I returned to Chicago to brush up on my knowledge of the novel’s setting, mainly the Loop with its fascinating buildings, sculptures, and history.

 

I spent time at the Harold Washington Library Center to do my newspaper research. After printing page after page of old stories about convention riots, sales at Marshall Fields, local strikes, and movie listings (mostly: The Graduate, The Green Berets, and Gone With The Wind,) I was told the library didn’t charge for printing. What a boon for writers and genealogy researchers

Before long I had several books laid out on a hardwood table ready to refresh my memory about sickle cell anemia.

I recalled those old hardwood tables scattered around the public library floor, probably the same tables that furnished the library upon its completion in 1897. Continuing my research for the novel, I read about sickle cell anemia to learn not only the signs and symptoms of the disease, but also the cause of the disease.

The first book folded open to an article on gas gangrene. Among the symptoms listed was acute anemia. An illustration of a gangrenous patient fired my memory and I envisioned a different scene, a lifetime removed. 
 

If you have seen pictures of advanced gangrene, you can appreciate why my protagonist experienced a flashback to someone suffering from napalm burns.

The flashback included in the scene:

 

It is the first morphine injection I administer since arriving here, ten milligrams. The ulcerated areas remind me of the moist gangrene of an advanced diabetic. I detect a putrid smell present in the discharge.

His body heat is palpable from three feet away. His entire body appears affected. Mercifully, he remains unconscious when they unload him from the helicopter. His chest isn’t moving but as I lean closer to check for respirations, a keening howl shatters my concentration.

Conscious now, he suffers extreme pain. I quickly give him another ten milligrams, this time without orders. 
 

The final six lines of the excerpt:

 

I closed the library book and inhaled deeply, trying to clear my sinuses of phantom odors. For the next few hours, I studied medical articles that explained the difference between disc-shaped, normal red blood cells and the crescent-shaped cells of sickle cell anemia.

According to one article, doctors agreed heredity affected the birth rate of babies born with the disease. Another article stated sickle cell was not only an African disease, but was also found in the Middle East.

I reminded myself I wasn’t gathering information to compile a dissertation. I only needed enough facts to ask relevant questions about the insurance claims - if Dr. Patel ever made himself available for an interview.

It was an eye-opener to read about the areas where populations were affected by high frequencies of sickle cell anemia: West Africa (though not South or East Africa), Greece, South Turkey, and India. Another surprise was learning that a person having the gene for sickle cell trait resisted malaria better than others. 

Not all my research focused on the symptoms of diseases. There were also “el" train rides, a Cirque Shanghai performance in the park, and wine!
 

 

 

 

Please take a moment to visit my Amazon page: 

Pepper Bibeau Mysteries (6 books) Kindle Edition (amazon.com) 

*****

 

Pepper Bibeau Mystery Series Continues with Homicides

Pepper Bibeau novels

Blood Red Homicide at Amazon.com along with all the Pepper Bibeau mysteries

or click on a book cover to the right.

  

Left Coast Crime Conference comes to Honolulu, the setting: Hilton Hawaiian Village at the Ewa end of Waikiki. I'll attend many of the the panel discussions, participate as a panelist in one, as moderator in another. Also of special interest to me is socializing face-to-face with all the other participating authors and readers - not tweeting or face-booking! I look forward to everyone stowing their electronic devices for the duration of the conference and carrying on actual conversations.

Along with all the socializing will be sales and giveaways of books and other marketing items. With so many people flying in from the mainland for the conference and hauling lots of baggage, I decided some of them might appreciate a bargain that didn't involve lugging or mailing an abundance of heavy books back home.

An ebook sale seemed like the perfect answer.

(To take advantage of the 99c sale: click on a Pepper Bibeau cover to the right.)

No reason for others to miss out, so I am offering all of my Pepper Bibeau mystery novels for the sale price of #99c for the duration of the conference, starting March 14 and ending March 20.

Blood Red Homicide at Amazon.com along with all the Pepper Bibeau mysteries

  

A to Z CHALLENGE - ART: Picasso's BLUE Period

 

Thank you to Arlee Bird,

Alex J. Cavanaugh, and all the co-hosts

of the 2014 A to Z Challenge,

for your tremendous efforts

to 'make it happen' each year.

 

 

 

 

The theme of my 2014 A-to-Z Blog Challenge is BLUES, PUPUS, and REVIEWS.

Tuesday & Friday - BLUES: Art, Movies, Music, and Police;

Thursday & Saturday - PUPUS: Hawaiian snacks to whet your appetite;

Monday & Wednesday - REVIEWS: mini-style book reviews

When I worked in the Chicago Loop, my interest in Picasso was fueled by a daily lunchtime rendezvous with Picasso’s unnamed sculpture. Donated to the city in 1967, it dominated the Civic Center (Daley Plaza).

 

I also spent an inordinate amount of time at the Art Institute of Chicago (now The Chicago Institute of Art) in Grant Park. Picasso’s most popular ‘Blue Period’ painting, THE OLD GUITARIST, was displayed prominently there. I purchased a poster of the piece, framed it, and hung it on my apartment wall. Years later, the poster still triggered images of the original painting’s genius brush strokes. Far from feeling blue, the obvious message of despair Picasso projected, I felt my spirits soar.

 

I especially like the elongated fingers of the old guitarist in the painting. They reflect the influence El Greco had on Picasso. His blue period, from 1901 through 1904, was dominated by themes of loneliness and poverty, possibly sparked by his friend’s suicide.

 

Some say it was not poverty that led Picasso to paint the impoverished outsiders of society: beggars, prostitutes, drunks, and outcasts, but that he painted them made him poor himself. If this is true, does it follow that subject matter also determines a writer’s spiritual wealth?