This is what my desk looks like.

This is my research.

There are days when writing is the worst job in the world.  When your inbox is a mine field of rejections or dead silence.  When you get notes from your editor that rip your plot to shreds and leave it bleeding.  Or notes on your grammar and technical issues that leave more red on the page than black.

When you sit and stare at your screen knowing in your mind what you want to write but the line of communication to your fingers is broke.

Of course – then there are the days when you hate everything you have written and want to throw it all away.

Then there are days like this.  When you have ideas brewing so fast you can’t keep track.

Or – when you have to research those ideas.

Reading fairy tales as research?

Native American Mythology?

Hells yeah.

Most of my research in the past has centered around the 1800’s.  The Wild West. I love that period and research is almost secondary now to knowledge (although there’s always more to learn) I have been so deeply enmeshed in that time period since my youth.

To research new ideas, and go into new genres that don’t get close to my original genre – it’s a daily bit of excitement.

It’s in those moments that I really do just love this job.