Research

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?