Sunday, October 13, 2019

How Crazy Is Your Research?

Hank Phillippi Ryan:  I'm not even gonna look. But I think if I went into my Google search history, it might say: how to set a spinnaker, drowning in salt water, life vests, how to save a drowning person, what does broad reach mean. Pretty benign, if I'm about to go sailing. Until, you know,  something happens. And then...it might become a bit suspect. So, just as in life, it depends. And the fab Thomas Kies knows if someone looked at HIS search history--well, there'd be some 'splaining to do.
How Crazy is Your Research?
                    by Thomas Kies
             
From nine until five, Monday through Friday, I’m the President of the Carteret County Chamber of Commerce.  We’re right on coast of North Carolina and we’re blessed with beautiful beaches, world class cuisine, and some of the best fishing you’ll ever see. I’m the head cheerleader for one of the nicest places on earth.

Being the head of the Chamber of Commerce comes with a reputation that’s wholesome, upright, and good for the community.  Heck, when the sun’s shining, it’s called Chamber of Commerce weather.  Who else has their own damned weather?

But on weekends and after work, I think about and write things that are dark and, according to my wife, deeply disturbed.  I write mysteries.

That requires certain tidbits of knowledge that others may not have, and certainly nothing that a president of a chamber of commerce should be harboring.  For example, in my first mystery, RANDOM ROAD, a swingers’ club figures prominently in the plotline.

I’ve lost track of the number of people who’ve read the book and asked me how I know what the inside of one of those clubs looks like.  Because I worked in newspapers and magazines for over thirty years, I have the inside dope on a lot of stuff.  It doesn’t mean I was a member.

In my second book, DARKNESS LANE, there’s a creepy scene that takes place in an exclusive diamond merchant’s shop.  It’s expensive, well-secured, hard to find, and by-appointment only.  Yes, that’s based on a genuine jeweler’s establishment.  Full disclosure, in real life, the owner was murdered there.

The theater and haunted mansion scenes in DARKNESS LANE?  Based on real locations in Fairfield County, Connecticut where the book takes place.  I have pictures on my phone. I can share if you like. 

In my latest book GRAVEYARD BAY, that was just released in September, there’s a scene in a professional dominatrix’s BDSM dungeon.  Have I actually seen one?  Oh, yes. Was I a client?  Hell, no.

But then there’s the stuff I don’t know or haven’t seen.

Let me digress for a moment.  When I attended my first Mystery Writers Conference, there were multiple workshops given by authors, publishers, agents, cops, ex-FBI agents, forensic specialists, and physicians. We discussed everything from how to kill someone, to hiding the body, to what the body would look like after being in the water for a week. Questions were asked and answered.  Will someone die after eating ground glass?  What is a fatal dosage of Fentanyl?  When someone is killed and thrown into the water, how do you keep them from floating to the surface?

If you were someone off the street just wandering into one of those workshops, you’d think you’d stumbled onto a coven of psychopaths.  Weird? Certainly.  Scary? Maybe.  Fun?  It is if you’re a mystery aficionado.

So, doing research at home is very similar.  If someone were to look at my browsing history on my computer (my home laptop, not my work computer…oh, no—that would be wrong), they’d be tempted to call Homeland Security or the FBI.  Let’s take a look at some of the topics I’ve Googled or YouTubed:  The Russian Mafia, Los Zetas, M-13, explosives, pill mills, assault rifles, handcuffs, sex trafficking, ice pick murders, samurai sword, killer clowns, theater make-up techniques, Aryan Brotherhood, and hypothermia.   

Some of the headlines of articles I’ve downloaded:
Garage owner charged with selling drugs.
Prominent developer killed by train.
Real estate agent charged with home burglary.
Florida nanny found dead in woods reportedly tortured before her murder.
Body found in floating barrel identified, but name is withheld.
Students mine data to find where unfaithful husbands live.

Those are actual headlines!

So, speaking of data mining, you can only imagine what Facebook has on me.  And the ads that pop up unbidden on my computer screen.  There’s an algorithm working overtime that’s dropping the weirdest advertising possible in my emails and on my newsfeed.

But then there’s the old fashioned way of doing your research—feet on the street. This is where I get a feel for a scene or the flavor of the action.  This is where I talk to the experts.  I have friends in law enforcement that help keep me on track (what happens when someone goes missing?)

  Some of them are avid readers so I want to get it right.  There are doctors (so what does that broken arm look like?) and attorneys (walk me through a plea deal) in my Rotary Club who are fans as well.  They don’t mind that I ask them questions, even if their answers never make it into a novel. 

I’ve also spent time in police headquarters, hospitals, prison (not much time), and courtrooms.  It gives you a chance to see, listen, feel, and smell the scene.  I love researching my books.

And while knowing your subject matter is a good thing, Stephen King writes, “You may be entranced with what you’re learning about the flesh-eating bacteria, the sewer system of New York, or the I.Q. of potential collie puts, but your readers are probably going to care a lot more about your characters and your story.”

I try to tell the best story I can, but I also try to make it as realistic as possible I research some pretty strange stuff…just don’t tell my Chamber of Commerce board of directors.

 HANK: So how about your search histories, Reds and readers? What would we find? And a copy of GRAVEYARD BAY to one lucky commenter!


                    Time is running out...
The nude bodies of a corrupt judge and a Jane Doe are found under the icy, black waters at Groward Bay Marina, chained to the prongs of a mammoth fork lift. A videotape points to Merlin Finn, a ruthless gang leader with a proclivity for bondage and S&M who had recently broken out of prison. In the videotape, he's wearing a black leather bondage mask.
With the newspaper she works for about to be sold and her job in jeopardy, journalist Geneva Chase investigates pill mills, crooked doctors, and a massive money laundering scheme in an attempt to identify the murdered woman and find the killer. Along the way, she finds herself working with a disgraced New York cop and a host of other unlikely characters with ties to the criminal underworld.
Geneva is clearly hot on the killer’s trail, but when she is kidnapped and held at the mercy of the criminals she hoped to stop, it looks like her chance to uncover the darkness that has seeped through her hometown may be lost forever.
About the Author:
THOMAS KIES lives and writes on a barrier island on the coast of North Carolina with his wife, Cindy, and Lilly, their shih-tzu. He has had a long career writing for newspapers and magazines, primarily in New England and New York.

61 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your newest book, Thomas. I’m chuckling over the things you’ve Googled to write your books.

    My Google search list is spectacularly uninteresting since most of the time I’m looking for a recipe . . . when I want to know some [usually gruesome] thing about something I just read in a story or heard on the news or saw in a movie, I ask my [retired LAPD] husband . . . I get the best explanations . . . .

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    1. Thank you, Joan. Being married to a retired cop has to be helpful!!

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    2. Oh, instant--and confidential--research! Perfect!

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  2. I'm right with you there, Thomas! My list might not be quite as gruesome (I don't write as dark as you), but I've definitely checked out body decomposition, shallow graves, poisons too many to name, and what a garroted corpse looks like. I love it when I'm out to dinner with my author pals at a conference and those types of topics come up in conversation. The wait staff starts backing away and nearby diners look aghast.

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    1. Thank you, Edith. I've been in a bar with a writer friend and as we've been discussion plots and details, the bartender has been reluctant to refill our glasses.

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    2. The time in a restaurant I said to Jonathan--"well, if you push someone off the bridge, problem is, they might not die." The waiter looked at me....

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  3. Welcome Thomas! My writing group meets at our home and my hub often remarks "it's a good thing you don't meet at starbucks, they'd be calling the cops!"

    I have a lot of recipes in my history, and that shows me I better quit fooling around and get to work! I did Google "is it illegal to brandish a firearm if you feel threatened?" yesterday. the answer appears to be yes--to pull out your imaginary gun, you have to be in imminent danger of physical harm." Great blog today!

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  4. congratulations on your recent release! I live in Cincinnati and use the local PD community resource officer and county coroner's information person for information. And the local pharmacist for some interesting drug interactions. So many possibilities, so little time.

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    1. Oh, yeah, the pharmacist..and the/she will tell you?

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    2. I've never thought of using my pharmacist as research. Thank you, Margaret.

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  5. Thank you, Margaret! I have a retired cop, a judge, and a medical examiner on my instant message list!

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  6. WELCOME, Thomas! Your books sound fascinating... and well researched. I get my cop insights from my next-door neighbor and try to set books where I've lived or visited. My search history would bring up declutter, hoarding, storage unit pricing... No guns or poisons or weapons to speak of. I once wrote a book about a man who made improvised explosives... hopefully that research trail is long overwritten.

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    1. Hallie...yikes, improvised explosives...that kind of research can get you on the Homeland Security watch list, LOL!!!

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    2. I just burst out laughing, Hallie. Is that a knock at your door??

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    3. Hallie, I'm off to bake a cake with a file in it for your upcoming needs. Hahaha! And, speaking of research, I, of course, had to look up escapes from prison/jail using items inside baked goods. Here's a link. https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/columns/straight-dope/article/13044725/do-people-really-use-baked-goods-to-smuggle-things-to

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  7. Love this topic! My search history would bore anyone to tears. Yours is certainly more interesting!

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  8. Years ago, when I was working as a reporter, I started research on a mystery novel that involved a body stuffed into a 55-gallon barrel. She'd been there a while when she was found, and I wanted to know what that looked like. I called the coroner's office, explained what I wanted, and wound up talking to a delightfully chatty guy who was in charge of picking up bodies no matter where they might have been found. He'd cleaned up a couple of barrels in his time, and we talked about the difference between wet and dry decomposition, the parts of the body that last longest, and many other interesting aspects of his work. I'm not sure I would have been able to find information in that kind of detail, no matter how long I searched on the internet, and I certainly would have missed the experience of talking with the expert. Plus, I think he liked knowing that somebody out there understood and appreciated his work.

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    1. Perfect! Work is work, and knowledge is knowledge, no matter what the topic, right?

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    2. I think doing the research can be the most fun...if not a little icky.

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  9. My search history is usually about hooking. The occasional recipe search occurs, especially around the holidays for something special. Thanks to Jungle Red there is a great deal of searching for people (authors) and places (locations) so I don't get board plus it's a nice breaking from hooking. Lately I've been trying to obtain my parent's birth certificates. Found Mom's but having problems with Los Angeles county's site.

    My hooking searches have found weights, reverse twists, hanks, steels, wood, polycarbonate, aluminium, patterns. There has been basketweave, zig-zag, motifs, single, doubles, half-double, chains, slip.... Crocheting, people, crocheting. ��

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  10. My google history is pretty benign - books, recipes and Midsomer Murders ~ I enjoyed reading and learning about your books and the research that goes into them. I can only imagine the Facebook ads!

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    1. Oh, right, pretty scary! I haven't gotten sailing ones yet...hmm. Wonder when that will start?

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    2. You should see some of the crazy ads that pop up on my screen...yikes!

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  12. Congrats on the new book Thomas! I'm going to grab up 'Random Road' ASAP.

    And yes, I'm sure if I was writing a book my Google search would be the stuff of dark dreams/nightmares. And I have known or know various people in real life that I could put together the viewpoint of law enforcement and a couple of things that Thomas mentioned in talking about his books. My dad was a cop and he had stories.

    The Q&A at an author event would be hilarious/squirm-inducing as I tried to explain how I knew came up with some things that I could write about.

    But that's a good thing because it would all be in service of writing the best story you possibly could.

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    1. Jay, thank you for your comments. And I hope you enjoy Random Road!!!

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    2. Exactly! And I bet you heard some good stories from your father! Fascinating!

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    3. Thomas, congratulations on your latest book, Graveyard Bay. It sounds thrilling. And, your day job sounds quite rewarding, too. One of my dear friends who lives in North Carolina loves Topsail Beach and goes there every year.

      I have a wide variety of topics in my computer's research history, but I'm sure it's not as dark as those who write crime and mystery. Of course, now, after looking up how to get Hallie out of jail (see above post from Hallie), I may be on some sort of watch list. Hahaha!

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    4. Kathy, Topsail isn't very far from us. It's a lovely spot. If you ever get to our neck of the woods, look me up. Our phone number is on the Chamber of Commerce website. Or Facebook us.

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  13. Thomas, congrats on the new book! It must be terrific if it's half as much fun as your browsing history. Mine is quite dull in comparison. There are lots of recipes and a good bit about poisons--always a good combination:-)

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    1. I don't know, Deborah. Recipes and poisons sounds pretty darned dark to me!

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    2. Deborah, you travel to England for the research before writing your books, right?

      Diana

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    3. Ah.....that's VERY suspicious, if you ask me, Debs...xxo

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  14. Thomas Kies, welcome to Jungle Reds! Was your mystery writing conference at Book Passage in California?

    It's too easy to conduct research on the google search engine. I like the idea of old fashioned research, which means going to the libraries and looking for books. When a family friend was doing research for a novel, the main character was Deaf so they asked me a lot of questions. I also encouraged them to take Sign Language class to get a glimpse of what the world looked like from the shoes of the Deaf character. I noticed that when I communicate in Sign Language, I think in a different way from when I communicate in English. To me, Sign Language is a Foreign Language with one distinction - it is a visual language.

    Asking Jungle Reds, do you still go to the library and do research? Or use search engines for research?

    When I was in college, the library was starting to use the computer system. The Internet and the World Wide Web did not start until AFTER I graduated from college. I still have the habit of going to the library to do research. Now I will do research on computer search engines too.

    Diana

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    1. Diana, the conference I wrote about was indeed Book Passage. How on earth could you have known that?

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    2. It was just a guess because I was at the mystery writing conference at Book Passage in 2014. :-) .

      Diana

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    3. I was there in 2016. Kimberley Cameron is usually on the faculty there and she's my agent.

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    4. OH, gosh, I don't go to the library for research--it's usually in the middle the night that I need something, anyway!

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  15. Congratulations! I use google for travel, cooking, household help and many more important and necessary searches.

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    1. Traveler. What did we do before google? Earlier someone mentioned the library. I still get to ours but not nearly as often as I used to.

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    2. Isn't that the BEST question? I guess...we talked to people?

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  16. Your book is on my TBR list. My google search history includes geographical information. When I read a book set in a real town or city I like to see the actual streets. I get in trouble when authors use a real setting, but then add to reality with imaginary streets or businesses.

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    1. Teri, I sidestep this a little. My books take place on the Gold Coast of Connecticut, just outside of Manhattan. But in a fictional town. That way some of it is real, but a lot of it comes from my imagination.

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    2. Yes, Teri, I just created a fictional town, too..after doing research about what's really there. It's a balance..which is more dangerous, making something up? Or getting something wrong?

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  17. My library was my haven and then there were encyclopedias. Remember those days. Now a click and you are everywhere.

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    1. Yes, I read the whole World Book. LOVED it. Did you?

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  18. Petite, I still love the feeling I get in a library, surrounded by all of those books.

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  19. "BRAVEYARD Bay" sounds like a fascinating book. Looking forward to reading. I'm sure my internet searches are quiet full compared to an authors internet searches.

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    1. dianneke: I hope you enjoy Graveyard Bay!!

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    2. Oh, but a good imagination can make anything suspicious, right? And that's what we do! xx

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  20. FINALLY off the airplane! But seems iike you all did fine without me..xoxo

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    1. We missed you Hank!!!! I'm glad you got to where you were going, safe and sound!!

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    2. Minnesota! And yes, exhausted but fine. xoxoxo

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  21. AND THIS WEEK'S WINNERS ARE:
    Of Vanessa Lillie's Little Voices: Judi
    Of Tracey Phillips' Best Kept Secrets: Katharine Ott
    Of Catriona's Stranger at the Gate: Reader Kay
    Of Graveyard Bay: Joan Emerson

    CONGRATULATIONS! Email me at h ryan at whdh dot com!

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