On the general question about research…If it’s something where the answers are out there, but are hard to get at, and there would be people who would know that I hadn’t done the research, I would shy away from the project or try to tweak my way around it. But you know this, as I am a big one for creating my own towns instead of using real places and I’m currently in my own alternate universe.

In a case like what you’re dealing with, where the answers aren’t available to the public, giving me the excuse that there’s practically no non-fic to read on the subject, and given that I’d rather wash dishes (and you know that’s saying something) than read textbooky stuff– well, that’s the sort of thing I’d embrace. Just tell your story. Get a few beta readers to tell you if your ideas about it are just too out there to be believed.

Someone had an excellent post on this last year… who was that?

Holy cow, I can’t believe I found this. It was Stephanie Tyler’s post on accuracy or what can bog the writing down. She starts off with a great quote by Suzanne Brockmann who says that she’s always going to get some details wrong, but her job as a writer is to entertain.

I have a feeling this is a scattered and grammatically poor comment.