If you're old enough to remember card catalogs at the library, congratulations. You're an old person, just like me. They were cool. You could flip though, looking for a single book, for example, and find a dozen more through serendipity.
Research today is so much more fun. Take yesterday as an example. I was fact checking a virus for a story. I wanted to be sure I understood how Hantavirus was transmitted. I knew it was called Navajo Flu. Whaa? What's this about Korea? It was named for a river in South Korea. I had no idea, but hey, I love Korean food, especially kimchi, the hotter the better.
Back to the Hantavirus post. Genome? blah-di-blah. Couldn't understand anything. There it was, method of transmission. Inhaled rodent feces and urine. Ya right, like I'm going to have my characters crawl around on the ground sniffing mouse droppings like powdered cocaine.
Hantavirus is carried by rodents and shrews. Shrews? You mean my mother-in-law could be a carrier. Apart from being a terrible cook, here's another reason not to visit.
Rethink Hantavirus. What's equally scary? I need something to strike fear in my protagonist's heart. What's that? Yersinia pestis? It's a Gram-negative, rod-shaped coccobacillus, a facultative anaerobic organism that can infect humans via the oriental rat flea. All I understood in that sentence was oriental rat flea. I live in Virginia. I don't think oriental rat fleas are prevalent. I read further. Plague??? What the hell! It's plague. Bubonic plague plus a couple of others. That I could work with. But, wait. That requires a nearly total rewrite of the story. Not going to happen.
Dump that. No plague. Back to Hantavirus. Found in the Southwest. Love Navajo jewelry. Went to research squash blossom necklaces. Whaa? They were influenced by Spanish pants buttons. Really. Also by buttons worn by Mexican caballeros. So, Pancho Villa? We don't need no stinking buttons, or something like that.
By now I'm so far from where I started that I'm not sure what the original question was. I was having too much fun learning all about new things. I looked at the clock. Where the heck had an hour gone? A whole hour wasted running down rabbit holes instead of stopping with snorting mouse poop.Oh well, I checked the fact. It's solid.
And now I need to figure out what kinds of poisonous snakes are in North America. See you later.
9 comments:
LOL, Betsy. You fell into the "black hole" of research. I do it all the time. Almost like "squirrel!" Those darn side links. They hook me every time. Best wishes on finding poisonous snakes--in research, not in your house.
Loved this and it jarred a memory. I've been asked more than once how I came up with the stuff in my short Amanda in the Summer. I honestly couldn't remember. I'll be I ran into it via a research hour that loped from one point to another.
So glad to discover other people do this. Sooooo reassuring, betsy, thanks.
Diane, 'black hole' is a perfect name for what Betsy and all of us get 'lost' in. Apt is Betsy's description of the 'glaze over' when the stuff you find is too hard to understand, much less explain (simply) to a reader. Loved the humor, Betsy...you have to laugh when you're in the mire...crying takes too much time when you're looking hard for way to kill people :-)
I'll soon be doing research on poisons, too. And you all know how simple that's going to be. I hate losing time. I do enough of it with senior moments. Great post, Betsy.
It's always fun to learn new things! The heroine in my current WIP owns an antique store, so I'm learning all kinds of stuff about old things I can't afford. Good luck with your snakes. We had rattlesnakes where I grew up. I remember my dad ran over one once then brought it home and fried it up for dinner. Apparently it tasted like chicken. I wouldn't know since I refused to try it...
A day late here, life and all, you know. Isn't it great how the mind wanders when left to its own devices? Black holes and squirrels sound so much nicer than senior moments. I have an abundance of each. Good luck on your snake hunt. And, Jannine, eeeeeeeeewwwwwwww!
I love this! It's exactly what I do, and you never know when one of those tidbits you picked up will come in handy. (And am I to understand that there is a special type of flea found only on the oriental rat--if there is such a thing???). Excuse me a moment while I Google that...
Ha, research can be fun, but it can also be like a child who gets distracted by a balloon floating by, or something shiny. Ohhhh, pretty, I'll chase that for a while! I love it when I enjoy research, but then again, hate it when it takes up too much of my time. Thanks for the laughs!
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