lishmcbride
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Today's Research and a Question for You
🕑 Added 2023-07-05 23:22:12 +0000 UTCOne of the thing I like about being a writer is getting to research a lot of random things. For example, today I'm editing Red in Tooth and Claw, which my editor has dubbed as an "anti-historical Western horror--with bite and a touch of humor." (Which sums it up better than I've been able to.) Red in Tooth and Claw is 1800's-esque, where I'm going for the flavor of history but not accuracy per se because that's a thing I like to do. But I want it to feel real and like you're stepping into the past, only a very different one. A lot was going on in the early 1800's, though, as we were moving into a lot of the advancements that we now take for granted.
To do that, so far today I've watched videos on what kitchens looked like in that era (I am so glad we have sinks and plumbing), what kind of gear cooks would have, how the food would be cooked, and looked at floor plans for cabins in that era. And before you come barreling in and saying, "But Lish, a lot of those things were around at the time" I will say yes, I know. I ran into this with Curses a bit, too, though where just because a thing exists doesn't mean everyone has it. Since this book is set in a place that resembles the wild west/frontier they won't have some of the innovations that people would have had in some of the east coast cities or in Europe or the UK.
Plus, it's not any of those places at all, but a place I made up. People forget that.
I also looked up what door latches looked like on barns in that area, and whether certain words, like freak, were commonly used at that time. I also looked up slang from that period similar to jerk (I ended up with "buffle-headed").
This is just today and it was only to write what is essentially a paragraph description. Writing is fun. I mean it is, but also that's a lot of work for a paragraph half of the people will just skim past. Ha!
Paragraphs like this one:
I found Miss Moon in the kitchen, and I paused for a moment to marvel at the large stove that I found. I’d seen illustrations of such things at the mercantile catalogue back in New Retienne mercantile, but I’d never seen one in real life. Most folks I knew made do with a hearth. Cabinets held various kitchen tools and dishes, and two poor youngins were off to the side, scrubbing at dishes in a washtub. A large worktable split the middle where Miss Moon stood with another woman, as they went over kitchen business.
Now, a question for you all out there--i've been looking at my Patreon and thinking about adjusting some things to make it a better place for everyone. I still plan on posting chapters and snippets and text convos. But for some of you upper tier folk, you haven't been getting some of the extras I hoped to deliver. (Like copies of books I write on here. I will happily do that when the books actually come out, but the lag time is silly and I feel bad.)
SO, is there anything you'd like to see on here? Posts on research? Back ground on the process? Q&A's? Posts about writing? Writing Zoom meet ups? Posts about spooky creatures and myths? Let me know and I'll see what I can do.
In the mean time, thank you all for being here!
--Lish
PS For those into that sort of thing, here are two videos I found, one is a little earlier than my time period, and one is a little on the outside, but you can get the general idea.
