Going over the first pass of Blackstone, I’ve accumulated a twelve-page list of random facts and revisions I need to research and address. This is fewer than I thought I’d have; some books take less back-end research and some require a lot more. The rough draft of The Shadow Wolves, for example, netted twenty-five pages.
Here are ten things I culled from the list to give you some teasers of what’s in the book. Some are integral to the story, while others are merely mentioned.
1 — Requirements for inclusion in the National Register of Historical Places
2 — Names of Indiana newspapers
3 — The training and cost of service animals
4 — Architectural terms and specs, particularly the Gothic revival style
5 — How long it takes someone to die in the electric chair
6 — Macro- versus micro-PK
7 — Double-slit photon test
8 — Project Stargate
9 — The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
10 — Richard Lovelace’s poem, ‘To Althea, from Prison’
In writing the novel I drew inspiration from an article published a year ago in the Denver Post. Check out the book The Ruins of Detroit because these pictures will haunt your imagination long after you stop viewing them. I mean, who just abandons a public library and leaves all the books on the shelves?