Research for Dangerous Flames

This is a true story. I swear. When I was busy writing Confessions, another character popped into my head. Her name was Gabrielle Felice Medini. Okay, I thought, that's easy enough as soon as I'm done writing the rough draft of my current book. What happened next? The idea that Gabi is the daughter of a Mafia boss formed. Just great. So... I had a make-believe conversation with Gabi.

Me: Gabi, you're an awesome character to write, but you can't have any ties to the mob.
Gabi: Why not?
Me: Because I don't have any clue to Mafia life. I haven't even watched The Godfather.
Gabi: That sucks for you.
Me: It sure does. How does this sound? You're the daughter of the Mafia boss, but you have a life far from that lifestyle? It'll just be part of your history.
Gabi: That isn't what happens though.
Me: Okay. Hit me with it. What happens?
Gabi: I kidnap my father's hitman because I have been in love with him forever.
Me: Oh hell.

And then I started writing the story and doing the research. Out of all my books, Dangerous Flames took me the longest to write and I believe it was because of the research involved. I had to sink into the world through literature and movies. I read everything Mafia related I could find. I didn't limit the books to fiction either. I read biographies from crooked cops involved with the mob, investigators who specialize in crime families, and autobiographies from hitmen. I was reading this one book about a famous hitman, it creeped me out so bad that I had to stop reading and watched the interview on YouTube. His name is The Iceman. Check out the documentary here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXgi72W2H7U

Then I started watching Mafia movies and The Sopranos.... and got hooked on The Sopranos. My kids and the guy I had been dating at the time complained every time I watched a movie. "Another Mob show?" they'd ask. I was obsessed with the mob for an entire year. My biggest "help" in finding information regarding the Mafia were websites I found on Google. There are several informative sites available (or were when I wrote the book) that explained everything from the words in the Mafia world to the ranks in crime families.

I also needed to know about guns because I had always stayed away from them. One of my friends loved guns and asked if I wanted to tag along to a store. Of course I went! It was the first time I approached someone in public and said: I'm an author. Can I ask you questions about ____. The salesman was more than helpful. He demonstrated how a Glock worked and asked every question I could think up at the moment. Months later I was able to attend some workshops for authors put on by a local homicide detective who brought his guns.

My biggest surprise was when I was having a garage sale one afternoon. A car parked in front of my yard and this gruff looking man climbed out. He strode with a purpose across my grass and started checking out the things I had for sale. This man was different. Finally he said, "I'm really looking for some furniture. Is this all you have?" I told him it was and we started chatting. I found out that he was relocating to Phoenix after being let out of prison. He found out that I'm an author. "What are you writing right now?" he asked. "A Mafia love story," I said. He got excited and told me that back in the day, he had been a wiseguy which made my entire month! Was he telling the truth? I don't know, but he did give me enough believable information and that is what matters.

The book I dreaded writing at first is one I love now. It is the first book in the Mafia Hearts series. Dangerous Flames is now available! Read the following blurb and grab a copy of the book here: http://amzn.com/B00DUJ21HS

Mikolas Russo is one hit away from becoming part of the Medini crime family. But is this what he really wants? Killing people for money is what he has been trained to do even though he’d give anything to trade the nightmares for sweet dreams of the forbidden Gabrielle. Thinking he has the chance to reveal his feelings to her, he arrives at her house to find her brandishing a loaded gun, ready to take control. 

During Gabrielle’s teen years, she attended a private school in Italy. This is where she learns the meaning of Mafia but believed crime families no longer existed. Now back in Las Vegas and demanding answers to the hard questions, she quickly learns that the Mafia still has a hand in controlling society and her father is the Don of the largest mob in the area. 

The Mafia doesn’t seem so glamorous any more after a hit is taken out on her father, especially when Gabrielle has reason to believe that her secret love's safety is in jeopardy too. 

Will the truth fulfill her desires, or will Mikolas be the one to shatter everything?

I’m not on holiday; I’m researching a book...by Michelle Holman

I write women’s contemporary romance set in New Zealand with a strong emphasis on humour. I’d like to be able to say I plan my books but the truth is they tend to plan themselves, however there are benefits to this. I had to (had to) research professional basketball for my fourth book Barefoot which meant I had to sit and watch a lot of very tall, very fit men pound around the basketball court. My eyes were worn out keeping track of them all.

I usually run my ideas for plots past my husband first who listens patiently and invariably says, ‘Sounds great. What do you know about that industry/situation/theme?’ To which I invariably answer, ‘Nothing, I’ll do some research.’

My second book, Divine, was about a woman named Tara whose husband leaves her to become a woman, and Tara stumbles into a job as a dominatrix telephone sex worker. My husband was thrilled when I announced I was going to research the dominatrix telephone sex industry and kept offering to play the caller if I needed to practice. Whenever I mention this at publicity events it’s amazing how the men in the audience sit up straighter. When I ask: ‘So how would you research the telephone sex industry?’ they crane their necks to see who answers, and get an awful shock if their wife puts up her hand.

So where did I go for help? The New Zealand Prostitutes Collective, of course.

They were fabulous. I met a woman named Sue who used to manage a telephone sex service, and a transgender woman named Hana. The information I got from them was pure gold. I’m a lapsed emergency room nurse (you never stop being a nurse, you just lapse). I think I’m fairly unshockable but my jaw was on the floor while I listened to them. I ran through my version of what a dominatrix would say over the telephone. Sue said I was pathetic. ‘You’re too nice. TOUGHEN UP!’

I get to travel when I do research. A couple of years ago, I went to the South Island of New Zealand (think Lord Of The Rings territory), to visit a cherry orchard. There are few things prettier than a cherry orchard. There’s something very sexy about blossoms, fruit, and men and women fighting each other and the elements at two o’clock on a frosty morning while helicopters fly overhead. While I was there I entered the annual cherry pit spitting competition and got beaten by a six-year-old who took her nana with her when she went to “spit” because she was so shy. The overall winner posted a distance of thirteen metres (about 42 feet). I spat down my chin, managed one metre and retired.

More recently, I’ve visited a vineyard in Marlborough which is the setting for the book I’m writing at the moment, and the second of my soldier books (the first, Hand Me Down, is set in the cherry orchard).  Wandering along rows of vines in brilliant sunshine and being encouraged to sample Sauvignon Blanc/Chardonnay/Merlot/Pinot Gris/Pinot Noir grapes is no hardship. The difference between me and the professionals is I don’t spit the grapes out, I eat them. At no point was I on holiday, I had a job to do, and my research is ongoing. If you could see my wine rack, you’d understand I’m telling the truth.

In three of my books the male character has been American: Dan Brogan in Bonkers is a paediatric surgeon who wears mismatched socks; his brother, Glenn Brogan is the smartarse ex-NBA star in Barefoot, and Ross Fabello is a very successful author with a bad case of writer’s block who butts heads with a New Zealand ED nurse called Danny in Knotted.

I’ll be making a start on the last book in the Bonkers trilogy soon, which means I’ll be revisiting Dan and Glenn and their wives and babies. It’s a perfect excuse to do some research in the USA.

I’ll have to suggest it to my husband.

To find out more about my books or drop me a line visit: www.michelleholman.com

or talk to me on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100000015468861

To purchase any of my books visit:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Michelle+Holman&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3AMichelle+Holman&ajr=1

Researching the American Old West by Elysa Hendricks

RESEARCHING THE AMERICAN OLD WEST

By Elysa Hendricks

When I first started writing there was no Internet or at least it was still in its infancy and I didn't have access to it. Google and Wikipedia didn't exist. There really weren't many people using email and Zuckerberg was barely out of diapers. So if I wanted to know about southwest Texas, what its landscape, climate, flora and fauna were I basically had three options: visit the area myself, talk to people who lived or had lived there, or spend a lot of time in the library reading books about the area. Oh, I also watched old western movies, but since many of those movies were actually filmed in Italy (hence the term Spaghetti Westerns) rather than in the American southwest, there was some question about their accuracy. 

Today I can talk with people all over the world via email and Facebook, getting information almost immediately. (Still haven't figured out how to use Twitter.) And when I need to know something about what a location looks like I jump on www.maps.google.com and take a quick tour. When I was researching my humorous women's fiction book GRANNIES AND TRANNIES:VEGAS OR BUST, I spent the day going up and down the Vegas Strip via Google's street view. I ended feeling like I'd actually walked the whole way, even though I never left the comfort of home and my feet didn't hurt.

Now there's Google Earth which even has a Historical Imagery site where you can take a peek back in time. http://www.google.com/earth/explore/showcase/historical.html Think of the possibilities. Now I just have to learn how to use it. Despite my ability to surf the web (does anyone still say that?) I'm pretty much a techno-idiot. I've signed up at two blog sites, but can't figure out how to create my own blog. But I digress.

Where before I spent hours and hours in the library pouring through research books for historical details about stagecoach and railroad schedules, wardrobes, towns, and people, and hundreds of dollars on books, now I spend even more hours on my computer searching through hundreds of web sites on every possible subject concerning history, only I can do it from the comfort of my chair at any hour I please. Having access to the Internet is great when insomnia strikes.

That's not to say I've given up my hours in the library or the research books I've collected through the years. I still love browsing through dusty tomes and unearthing unpolished gems of information. My western historical romances THIS HEART FOR HIRE and HER WILD TEXAS HEART were inspired by my reading of Lucia Robson St Claire's RIDE THE WIND, Larry McMurtry's LONESOME DOVE and T.R. Fehrenbach's COMANCHES: A Destruction of a People. I wanted to re-create the world as it was during that period of history while still giving the reader a satisfying happy ending for the characters they'd come to care about.

One thing I've learned is wherever I'm getting my historical facts I always try to verify them, to find more than one source, especially if the source is the Internet. Sometimes information on the Internet is like the game of Telephone we used to play as kids. I tell someone something then they tell it to the next person and the next and so on until at the end what I said bears no resemblance to what the last person hears. Find at least two or more sources that say the same thing. Sometimes there's a question about 'historical' facts where even the experts disagree. History has a way of blurring the lines between fact and myth. If every source says something different then choose the one that based on your knowledge of the time period seems the most reasonable and/or fits with your story.

That's not to say that you can't play around with some historical details to accommodate the needs of your book. Just remember that if you do so you risk pulling your reader out of the story. And if you do choose to 'adjust' history to fit your story be sure and let the reader know. I love books that include author notes about the 'real' history and the how and why the author adjusted her version.

THIS HEART FOR HIRE

http://www.amazon.com/THIS-HEART-FOR-HIRE-ebook/dp/B005VF01TY

A convent reared innocent and a gunslinger with no memory struggle to survive and find love while crossing the dangerous west Texas frontier.

Abandoned by his father and betrayed by his half-brother and fiancee on the eve of his wedding, JAKE GALLAGHER no longer believes in love. Though he longs to go home, his undercover work for the Texas Rangers keeps him in a lawless Texas border town. Even though it jeopardizes his mission he refuses to stand by and watch outlaws rape and murder a young woman. Getting shot and losing his memory wasn’t part of his plan.

While fleeing from her stepfather’s plans to steal their ranch, CHRISTINA GOODWIN witnesses her brother’s murder and is left in the hands of a merciless band of outlaws. Raised in a strict convent, Christina has little knowledge of men or the world, its dangers and temptations. Frightened and alone, she is forced to accept the help of the dark gunslinger who rescues her. Though drawn to Jake’s potent masculinity, she hesitates to trust him, fearing her stepfather has sent him to bring her back. Unsure of Jake’s motives for helping her, she struggles against him, determined to find a way to avenge her brother’s death and regain control of her ranch from her stepfather.

HER WILD TEXAS HEART

http://www.amazon.com/HER-WILD-TEXAS-HEART-ebook/dp/B007464OSM

In a lawless west Texas border town, a woman has two choices: death or dishonor. Doctor's apprentice and former Comanche slave, KC O'Connor finds a third--she buries her femininity and longing for love beneath a boyish disguise. But the arrival of an injured greenhorn shatters the shell around her hidden heart.

Thanks for hosting me on your blog!