Research Can Be Fun

For a writer published in contemporary romance and devotionals, I love research and I’ve had some interesting experiences. I do have a historical trilogy based on old family stories in the works, and I’m a pretty good sleuth—shades of the days when Nancy Drew mysteries were my reading preference.

Free family history sites can be treasure troves of information. Two of my favorites are www.DeadFred.com and www.FindAGrave.com. DeadFred is a database of historical photographs, great for assisting with descriptions of characters and period clothing. FindAGrave includes personal stories and the epitaphs can be a story themselves. For historical newspaper research, www.news.google.com/newspapers, http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/, and http://fultonhistory.com/ are great resources. Free sites like http://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/, and http://www.castlegarden.org/  give information about immigrants. Revolutionary War and Civil War veterans are located at http://www.dar.org/national-society/genealogy and http://www.nps.gov/civilwar/soldiers-and-sailors-database.htm, and there are many, many more.

In researching my North Dakota roots, a local genealogy society assigned a sweet elderly lady to my case. I asked about the hardware store in the now-ghost town where my great grandparents lived. In the meantime, my mom discovered a photograph of the store’s interior with my great grandfather at the counter. When my research helper asked a neighbor, she discovered he bought the building and moved it. She was standing in what had once been my great grandfather’s store.

While posting queries on genealogy message boards about another great grandfather’s murder, I met some distant cousins who came to visit, despite my husband’s warnings that they might be axe murderers. We located a book by Fredric Remington, the famed western artist and writer that includes sketches of my great grandfather sporting a bandage from being shot in a poker game.

I discovered an 11^th great grandfather who was the last man publicly beheaded on Tower Hill in London, a colonel in the War of 1812, two ancestors who served at Valley Forge, and a great uncle who gambled with Billy the Kid. Googling names from an old newspaper article led to finding my great uncle’s fiancée whose mother died in a flu epidemic. When they opened the grave to bury a child with her, there were fingernail marks on the coffin lid.

Research can be exciting when you have the right tools along with tenacity and patience. A personal touch might be just the thing for a sagging story middle and lead to some family fun along the way.

© Copyright by Norma Gail Thurston Holtman, February 9, 2014

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About the author:

Norma Gail is the author of the Christy Award nominated contemporary Christian romance, Land of My Dreams. A women’s Bible study leader for over 21 years, her devotionals and poetry have appeared at ChristianDevotions.us, the Stitches Thru Time blog, and in “The Secret Place.” She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Romance Writers of America, and the New Mexico Christian Novelists. Norma is a former RN who lives in the mountains of New Mexico with her husband of 40 years. They have two adult children.

Connect with Norma:

Website: www.normagail.org

Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/Norma-Gail/e/B00ILHXBAK/

Book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQbZIoC_JSE

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorNormaGail

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+NormaGailwrites

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/normagailth/boards/ 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7874459

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/Norma_Gail

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/norma-gail-thurston-holtman/42/71a/3b2

Book Links:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Land-My-Dreams-Norma-Gail/dp/1941103170

Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas Bookstore: http://store.lpcbooks.com/product/land-of-my-dreams/

 Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/land-of-my-dreams-norma-gail/1119606864?ean=9781941103173

Research Shot

I shot my first gun a couple months ago. And I liked it.

Blame it on a little book research…

I was writing a scene with a cop who takes his girlfriend to the shooting range for Valentine’s Day. But I had no idea what a shooting range looked like. Or smelled like. Or sounded like.

My husband and I wanted to try it anyway. So we made a date and took a lesson. My scene sprang to life after that visit. The feel of a gun in your hand cannot be explained. And I’m not going all NRA or anything. But writing about a woman shooting a gun for the first time comes very easily to me now.

After much instruction, loading, unloading and reloading the gun, I felt ready to shoot. I stood with my feet spread apart, one eye closed, both hands gripping the gun, and a target in my sights. I breathed in and then out. At the bottom of my breath release, I squeezed the trigger. The gun shuddered and a hole appeared on the target. The bullet hit mere millimeters from the exact spot I aimed for. It would be my best shot all day.

I emptied the chamber, put the gun down as instructed, and took a step back. My hands and arms shook, my heart pounded. Even my knees wobbled. I inhaled the scent of gunpowder and rubber, and adjusted my ear protection, which pressed my earring backs against my head, like two spikes digging into my skin.

I looked at my husband and smiled. “That was cool.”

He couldn’t wait to try it. And of course, he shot better than me. But we both learned something new together that day and it was a blast. (pun not really intended-well, maybe a little).

When finished, we looked at different caliber guns, bigger, smaller, some with pink and rhinestones, some covered in camo. I learned the sizes of ammunition in ascending order and what each gun is like to fire, and under which circumstances you might want to carry different firearms.

I’d like to go back and shoot a few different guns, just to see the differences. To feel the differences. Some research is better hands-on, in person, shells flying. With ear and eye protection of course.

Have you been to a shooting range? Have you learned how to do something new that left your knees wobbliing? Leave us a comment for a chance to win our prize of the week!