Tuesday, March 17, 2009

My reading research list!


I promised a post free of whinging and one that was more interesting than the last... well, think I can come good on the whinging, but don't know if this is actually THAT interesting.

Thought I'd share with you the books in my reading pile at the moment:
*Ghost Hunting with Derek Acorah
*The Mammoth Book of True Hauntings
*Ghosts: The Ultimate Guide for Ghost Hunters
*21st Century Ghosts

And I'm not writing a paranormal... at least I don't think I am. One of the proposals I sent to M&B featured a celebrity ghost hunter as a hero (am fairly certain, now I think about it that MH won't go for this but I still wanna write this story one day). Obviously ghost hunting won't be a HUGE part of the story but I want to sound legit, so I'm reading up on the occupation and trying not to scare myself witless in the process!!

What is the most interesting thing you've ever had to research???


9 comments:

Jackie Ashenden said...

You never know re what MH will go for and what they won't. Never say never, Rach.

Most interesting research? Um... Mountaineering. In one the stories I'm rewriting, the hero is a mountaineer. I've already read heaps of climbing books so I've been dying to write about a climber. They are SUCH alpha males (and alpha females)! But it was very, very interesting. Now the real trick is to NOT put too much detail about belays, jumars, friends, and fixed ropes into the book. :-)

Anne McAllister said...

Hard to pick a topic, but one of the most fun times I had researching was going to bull-riding school!

Checking out the professional sand castle builder wasn't too boring either. Or the professional beach volleyball players.

I have to stop writing about lawyers, though. Either that, or go to law school!

Christina Phillips said...

Oh LOL! Jackie has just said what I always say - Never Say Never!!!

Anyway, I don't suppose this will sound terribly interesting to anyone else, but I'm currently neck deep researching the Roman period and I'm finding it endlessly fascinating! Of course they were horrible chauvinsts but that's ok because my heroine isn't exactly a pushover!!!

Lucy King said...

Most of my research seems to be geographical and mechanical. Like what sort of private planes there are, how far can you get in one, and what side the pilot would sit. Interesting stuff, eh?!

Professional sand castle building - how cool is that!

Rachael Johns said...

Yeah... and even if MH do say NEVER, I'll write it and aim for another line! I have one in mind :)

Anne - so excited you popped by. Will have to research what story of yours has a professional sand sculptor because I had an idea a while back featuring a heroine as a sand sculptress.

Felicity Roger said...

I am currently researching 'Agony Aunt' columnists as my new heroine has to fill in for one in her new role. My first heroine was a geologist/directional driller on an oil rig off the coast of Brazil...okay, I cheated as that is my husbands profession...but the research was fun.

Lorraine said...

Funnily enough I was researching ghostwriting rather than hunting as I have a story in which the heroine is a ghostwriter...

Cathryn Hein said...

I once had a trip into the oddly fascinating world of semen production in cattle.

Among other things, it involved the nitty gritty of how to manually manipulate a bull into producing a sample for analysis.

And then the was the bit involving auto-ejaculators...

Very rural!

Anne McAllister said...

Rach, The book was Marry Sunshine, a Harlequin American that was reprinted in the Here Come The Grooms series from Harlequin as well. Hope you can track down a copy. In the course of it the hero and heroine built an 11 ton sand sculpture of a San Francisco Victorian house -- which my professional sandcastle builder talked me through.