Date: 2008-05-08 11:44 Subject: Maria V. Snyder, Guest Blogger Security: Public

Hunting for the Perfect Detail

                              


Hello!  I’d first like to thank Jen for inviting me to be a guest blogger today.  I’m thrilled to be here J

I’m blogging today about the research I needed to do in order to make my Study series realistic.  Many of my readers have asked me if fiction writers research or do we make it all up.  Well…we make it all up.  Okay – that’s the end of my blog, please leave a comment on your way out…. Sorry – I couldn’t resist. J 

The real answer is YES, fiction writers do a lot of research.  In order to maintain that “suspension of disbelief” for our readers, we need to have certain details correct or else risk jolting the reader out of our stories.

Even in fantasy, where the setting and inhabitants and magic are all created, an author can’t make things up willy-nilly.  In the first book of my fantasy series, Poison Study my main character learns how to pick a lock.  The world of Ixia is a complete fabrication, but in this world there are metal locks with keys that work just like on Earth.  Now, I can write she used her magic to open the lock, which is perfectly fine if I set up that she has that particular magical skill, but if I’m going to say she “picked” the lock, well – I better know how you pick a lock.  And not cheat and use that Hollywood booby pin nonsense – any good locksmith would scoff at that!

So I learned the proper way to pick a pin and tumbler lock (ones with keys), using tension wrenches and diamond picks.  And just for the record, I am NOT responsible for that rash of strange break-ins in our neighborhood last year ;>  Really – not me – and besides, nothing was stolen – so it’s not really a break-in……  er…..yeah….back to my topic.

Which is research.  Another subject I needed to research was how to taste foods.  My main protagonist, Yelena learns how to taste food for poisons – the tasting methods in the book are real methods used by professionals who work in the food industry.  I just happened to be married to one professional who is an expert in tasting chocolate (I know – I know – I hear it all the time! He has a dream job.). 

And for those who are interested in becoming a food taster – here’s a quick 5-step method:

How to Become a Food Taster in 5 Easy Steps

by Maria V. Snyder

1. Amass a file folder full of technical articles on tasting.  Having a husband who is an expert in “tasting” and has a degree in engineering helps.  Just show appropriate interest to husband and wait.

2. Read and digest technical articles.  Titles range from the intriguing, “Learning and Speaking the Language of Flavor,” to the scientific, “The Flavor-Fusion Illusion; The Psychology of Flavor,” to the fun, waist-expanding, “How to be a Knowledgeable and Discriminating Ice Cream Gourmet.”  At the end of this step, you will know more about the tongue than you really wanted (trust me!).

3. Learn about the appropriate tasting methods.  Tasting is not just about the flavor, it’s a complex mixture of sensory data.  The smell, how food feels in the mouth or “mouthfeel,” and even how it looks are all important.  Or you can use the 10-year-old boy quick, “If it smells good, it’ll taste good,” test for unknown edibles.

4. Practice methods learned in step three using chocolate (Why use anything else?).   Examine the chocolate.  Is it smooth?  Does it give a nice clean snap when broken in half?  Free of that white stuff (i.e. bloom)?  Smell it.  Put a piece in your mouth.  Let it melt and coat your tongue.  Swallow a little bit to cover the back of your tongue.  How does it feel in your mouth?  How does it taste?  Gritty?  Bitter?  Fruity?  Sweet?  After you swallow it note the aftertaste.  Make notes (or not, depends on your ability to remember).  Drink some room temperature water to cleanse the palate.  Repeat analysis with different chocolates as many times as needed (if questioned, tell others with a haughty air, that you’re eating chocolate for science).  After sampling, compare and determine the best one.  How?  The best one will be the chocolate you liked the most.  

5. Use these methods on all kinds of food and impress friends and relatives.  And if you encounter any “off” flavors, “strange” smells, or “unusual” tastes in your meal, review your recent history.  Fired anyone?  Cut someone off on the highway?  Forgot to send your mother flowers on Mother’s Day?  If the answer is “yes” to any or all questions, throw food away and don’t feed it to your dog (unless you’re looking to get a new dog).

Other research I needed to do for my Study series includes learning how to ride a horse for Magic Study. Having grown up in Philadelphia, I had zero knowledge about horses.  My friend, Susan offered to teach this city girl how to ride her horse, Kiki.

Kiki, an American Saddlebred, is 16.1 hands tall.  While I can’t tell you exactly how high that is, sitting on her for the very first time, I felt I was about ten feet from the hard, hard ground below.  I was wearing a helmet, but it seemed inadequate for protection – full body armor would have been more preferable to me. And it didn’t help my nerves when Kiki’s head went straight up, her left ear cocked back, and she gave me the eye without turning around.  With almost 360 degree vision, she only needed to move her head a little to keep me in sight.  And I knew she was plotting how to dump this stranger on her back into the nearest mud puddle.

Kiki though was a perfect horse for a terrified beginner.  At 22 years of age, she had seen it all, and we spent many hours slowly walking around the training ring.  It was July, she was hot and I probably could have gotten off and pushed her faster.

It was a scary, fun and interesting time.  I learned about horses and I learned about myself.  Mainly, that I like to be in complete control.  Even though I held the reins, I knew Kiki was in charge.

Learning how to blow glass for Fire Study was a blast.  In order to write the scenes with Opal, a glass artist in the book, I needed to learn how to work with molten glass.

The teacher made it look easy to gather a slug of glass.  But when it was my turn – yikes!  It was HOT!  The big vat of molten glass was kept in a rip roaring furnace at a toasty 2100 degrees Fahrenheit.  I held a metal rod, and, while squinting through an eye-melting orange light, I dipped the end into the thick goo and spun it, gathering a glob of glass onto the end.  The incandescent glob glowed as if alive. 

Once acquired, the slug then needed to be quickly shaped.  Glass cooled at a rapid pace, and, even though heat waves pulsed from the slug, it didn’t stay pliable for long.

My first paperweight was a misshapened blob.  After hours of practice, my ability improved, and I created a paperweight worthy to hold down my next novel’s manuscript pages.

I learned that working with glass required deft coordination, arm strength, tons of patience, and a good partner—it’s a good thing I have a day job! 

Not all my research is hands on – while it is my favorite way to learn and, really, who could resist taking money spent on glass classes off their taxes??  I also use the more traditional methods – like books and the Internet.  Although my non-fiction research books tend to be those written for children.  Yes, you read that right – kids’ books.  Why??  Because those books have big color pictures – like when I researched castles – that make it easier for me to describe.  Plus they give you the bare bones of information, and save me from wading through pages and pages of text.  So far, the kids’ books have been able to answer all my questions.

To make a long story even longer (hey I’m a novel writer – it’s hard for me to write under 100,000 words), I’ve given you a behind the scenes (so to speak) look at my methods of doing research for my books. 

Now it’s your turn.  What have you done in order to find information or learn a new skill??