research – The Debutante Ball

Interview with Jody A. Forrester, author of GUNS UNDER THE BED

Wednesday, November 18, 2020

I’m so excited for this week’s interview with Jody A. Forrester, whose memoir GUNS UNDER THE BED tells of her transition in the late sixties from love child to peaceful Vietnam War protester to joining a communist organization whose ideology embraced violence against the ruling class! Read below for more about Jody’s incredible background, the story behind her book’s startling title, and her path toward writing. Thank you Jody! …

I’ve never had research come in handy like this before.

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

0 comment

When you’re a science fiction author, you spend a lot of time with your head in the clouds. While other authors are researching down-to-earth events and happenings, we’re wondering just how long it takes to get to some unknown star across the galaxy if we’re running one’s warp-engine jets at three times light speed, or what an advanced alien society might look like if its planet developed off silicon instead…

Researching Mundanity: The Details in Contemporary Fiction

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

2 comments

I wrote my first novel about a world I’d been living in forever: the large public school. As a teacher for nearly 20 years, I was intimately familiar with the settings, the procedures, the schedules, the conflicts, and the characters that typically populate an illustrious institution of learning. In fact, at one stage in my revision, I was asked to make things less realistic. “What’s with all the armpits and…

Researching Dreams

Friday, April 5, 2019

0 comment

I have to admit, the research for The Dream Peddler wasn’t particularly intense, and that’s probably just because I chose not to do tons of research. Despite the historical setting, I had read enough books from the time and learned enough in school to at least sketch out what the world of my characters would be like. I stopped writing now and then to google things like images of…

How To Love Researching Your Novel

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

1 comment

Most of the time—to my surprise—I look forward to writing my weekly post for The Debutante Ball. This week, however, I dreaded it. This was for two reasons: first, last week’s post on the differences between the expectations and realities of publishing a novel completely drained me; and second, on today’s topic, I got nothing. Well, almost nothing. We are supposed to be writing about research: how much we did,…

Finding the Details that Fill a World

Monday, July 23, 2018

0 comment

I. Love. Research. I mean, if you’ve read From Unseen Fire, you could probably guess that. As much as I’m a writer, I’m also a historian. It was my second major in undergrad, and my Master’s degree certainly relies heavily upon it as well. I live with my head as much in the past as the present, and while it’s not always the Roman past, for the past seven years,…

Writing Historical Fiction – My Process

Monday, February 27, 2017

0 comment

This week the Debs are writing about technology. What do we use to help our writing, what couldn’t we live without? What do we love and hate about technology? How do we use social media? Do we stress over it? I have written a zillion articles on social media since I work in community and social media for my day job, so I’m going to skip that and talk about…

Deb News Flash: Past and Present

Sunday, October 23, 2016

0 comment

Congratulations to Elle G. for winning a copy of THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES by Mindy McGinnis! News from former Debs 2016 Deb Louise Miller is “thrilled, honored & crazy-happy” that THE CITY BAKER’S GUIDE TO COUNTRY LIVING was in last Sunday’s NYT Book Review!!!!! – Check it out: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/16/books/review/female-protagonists.html?_r=0 2014 Deb Lori Rader-Day, author of LITTLE PRETTY THINGS and THE BLACK HOUR will be a keynote speaker at the 2017 Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Colorado Gold Conference. Congratulations, Lori!…

8 Things about My Life and My Novel

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

1 comment

Fun facts abound this week! Which is kind of a lot of pressure. What if my facts aren’t fun? What if the fun* parts aren’t facts? I’ve told you all so much already. What is there possibly left to spill? Normally this is where I’d retreat to my bourbon and gummy bears to find my inspiration, but husband and I have decided to try to modify our diet in hopes…

History, Politics, and Sequels: An Interview with Jennifer (and a MODERN GIRLS Giveaway!)

Saturday, April 9, 2016

6 comments

Ooh, how fun! I get to be the guest author this week. I’ll just make myself cozy here. Why, yes, those cookies look lovely. I’ll have twelve. How could I say no to a cup of tea? Sure, go ahead and splash a dash of bourbon in there. Now, let’s settle in for a nice chat. For each of our launch weeks, we will be interviewed by our fellow Debs….

1 2