There is a lot of "soup" in my brain that eventually results in a novel.
In Genealogy, I spent a lot of time doing research to get the historical portions "right" in a fictional way. Hmmm... Elliott drinks a gin and tonic... Could he have ice? How available was ice in the Philippines in 1916? And down that rabbit hole I went.
But there is a lot of "stuff" that doesn't come from intentional research. It often comes from public radio, specifically Morning Edition, All Things Considered, RadioLab, and Science Friday (aka SciFri for us supernerds.) I thought I'd share a few notable examples of some NPR stuff that stuck in my brain and ended up in Genealogy.
Swedish Death Cleaning?
I first heard about it on NPR (link) and the concept found a mention in a conversation between Ali and her mom.
Quipus? The Incan "talking knots"?
Also NPR (link).
Now back to writing more of my romance-slash-women's-fiction-slash-just-plain-enjoyable-to-read novels while listening to NPR. If you hear a great-slash-fascinating-slash-unusual story on NPR, send it my way. I'd love to hear it!
(And yes, if you want to know, I do support to my local public radio station. It's an automatic monthly contribution and I proudly have my NPR sticker on my car.)