page contents

The Joys of Research

01/14/2012

 
_I don't think I posted this link here before--my blog on Murderous Musings about  The joys of research.  It's some fascinating and amusing stuff I found when I was writing GONE WEST (out Jan. 17th), the next Daisy mystery.

Take a look and make sure you click on the link to the Smedley's Hydro handbook. Health spa a la 1920s!
 

Bloody Tower research

12/29/2010

2 Comments

 
A reader just commented on the research that went into writing The Bloody Tower. I thought I'd share with you what I told her.


Picture
UK edition
Researching the Tower was fun. I picked up a book about the history years ago, just in case I ever needed it. Then I found the email address of the librarian there (Royal Armouries Library--no longer at the Tower). Not only was she very helpful about answering my questions, when I went over she arranged a pass for me and had a whole box of books and papers waiting that she thought might be useful, including the Governor's Day Book for the week Daisy was there!

I took loads of photos, of course (though it was a bitterly cold day and I nearly froze in the process!), but when I got home, I discovered I had none of the place where the body is found. Unbelievably, a friend/reader in Canada just then told me he was going to the UK and asked if he could do any research for me. I said if he just happened to be going to the Tower... He did go, and took great pics of the spot--[Thanks, Gray!]
Picture
Daisy found the body at the foot of these steps.

[one of Graham's photos]
Picture
This is The Queen's House (King's, in Daisy's time), where Daisy spent the night. The arch at the bottom is the entrance to the foot of the stairs.


Picture
The entrance to the tunnel under the Bloody Tower itself.
Picture
Picture
US paperback
2 Comments
 

Historical medical research

12/18/2009

 
Picture
Manual of Artificial Limbs, published 1905: Who knew prothetics were so advanced pre WWI?

My favourite passage:

"[The illustration] shows a young man wearing two artificial legs...; he is a conductor on a railroad, performing his duties in a thoroughly efficient manner. He walks through the train when it is running at greatest speed, collects tickets, and punches them. The cars jolt, pitch, and sway, but he retains his balance with no perceptible effort or awkwardness.

"At stations he alights, watches passengers, gives signals, and boards his train. It never occurs to anyone that his lower extremities are not real, and his actions never betray that fact. With wooden articulating feet it would be extremely difficult for him to discharge such duties. He would feel unsafe, tottlish [wonderful word!], and unsteady, but with rubber feet with spring mattress, rigidly attached, he has sound footing, and is capable of the most difficult feats of balancing."
Of course, one has to take into account that it's written by the manufacturer--and the young man really ought to wear his trousers on the job! But even allowing for exaggeration, I was amazed at the state of the art. My big difficulty with this is that I want my character (in Anthem for Doomed Youth) to be obviously impaired. The librarian at OHSU, who found me this book and another, from the '20s, on amputations and prostheses, solved this for me.

I haven't  yet received the second book (via ILL), but she looked through them both before I requested them and told me that the outcome depends very much on the state of the stumps (I'm really quite glad not to pore over info on amputations!). As my character's legs were chopped off in the middle of a battlefield, it's quite likely the job wasn't particularly well done, so I can give him any degree of disability I want.

We writers can be brutal!