Research

I'm not a huge fan of research. When I'm interested in something, I'll read all about it, but I don't want to have to learn about something just so I can use a line or two of it in a book. That's where Robert comes in handy. Besides knowing something about practically everything, he loves to do research. I can ask him for one bit of information about a topic, and he'll get that for me, and even highlight it in the reams of accompanying info he gathers "just in case."

So of course I get this idea for a book -- maybe even a short series -- that I love, with a heroine who's a computer whiz -- viruses, codes, programming -- all that kind of stuff. And I'm about as computer illiterate as they come. I can handle WordPerfect and Print Shop and email, but that's about it. My computer gives me any grief, I put down the hammer and back away slowly. All I know about viruses is they're bad, and everything else is magic.

Now, there's no way I can write this heroine realistically without knowing something about her particular talents (which, in the beginning, pretty much consist of "borrowing" people's identities). Anyone who knows anything about that stuff would snort before throwing the book. (I honestly read a book once where the hero/pilot "did the things he had to do" to take off in a plane. Either I'm reading too much or too many of the wrong books.)

But learning enough to sound knowledgable just seems so incredibly boring. I mean, come on -- if I was interested in computers to start with, I'd already know at least something. Why couldn't she be into candy making? Woodworking? Raising buffalo? Cake decorating? At least those I already have some knowledge of and interest in.

Oh, well . . . I've got several more murder attempts to get Selena through before I can start about this book. That will give me time to either slog through the sort of information I need . . . or find someone to sit beside me and feed me the words as I write. {huge grin here}

And the next heroine after that will have a job I want to know about! Rachel8:40 AM