Research as promised

Tomorrow (strictly speaking, today as it is after midnight) is GCSE results day.  I hate it with a passion for all sorts of reasons to do with not having any control and kids being used like political footballs kicked into constantly moving goal posts just to prove how rubbish their teachers are...

Oooh, never get me started on Education and Politics.  Let's discuss something much nicer.  Like research.

 

Research is the best thing ever.  Research means you get to read loads of random books and google all sorts of bizarre topics and you can pretend there's a valid reason for doing it! When I first started to write G&P, my idea of research was to watch a couple of episodes of Inspector Morse (which reminds me about the time I saw the wonderful Colin Dexter give a talk and admit he'd never really done much research himself, but nicked the technical stuff from P.D. James because he knew she was the sort of person who would have researched properly!!)  However, as time went on and I got more ambitious, I realised that this could be the excuse I needed to buy more books!
 

I've worked my way through books on fleas to fortune telling as well as more obvious topics like forensics.   There are some books which are my constant writing companions :



 

 

 

Blackstone's Police Handbooks are invaluable too, especially the ones covering police proceedure.

 

 In addition, web sites have furnished me with details about police dog training, goat rearing, modern art, library shelving, fire extinguishers, motor boats and of course, the Bonnie herself.  (For a while Hamish was actually a member of an internet forum of Bonneville owners which was, of course, completely fraudlent of him, as he's never actually owned a motorbike at all!)



Current research!  Tried to hide the spoilers!

For the new book (42,000 words and counting!) this is a bit of my research.  I also have a file of photographs on my laptop (and some have made it to my pinterest board too!) which I use for inspiration and specific details. Music is usually pretty important in helping me establish mood and I have play lists for specific elements of the story.  At the moment, I'm listening to quite a lot of Mike Oldfield some of which has the right sort of folky feel, and Aqualung, whose angst often mirrors my hero's at the moment.  I don't want to give too much away but there've been some specialist books, especially on some aspects of Scots law, which have been necessary reading. 

 

But the absolute must-have book I couldn't write without is this one:

 

I bought it in Dumfries, on a Robert Burns jaunt back in 2005 when I'd only written six chapters of Scotch Mist and I can honestly say it has had the biggest impact on my writing of anything I've read.  I can sit, open it at random and after ten minutes it has given me so many ideas I don't know where to begin!

 

I mean, who knew there was a word for 'indulging in intimate courtship in the corner of a farmyard'!  (it's 'corrieneukin' should you ever need it!)

 

To GCSE students and their teachers everywhere: good luck in the morning!