Research, Research, And More Research

8/24/2016

Running up that hill. On Beech Mountain

I've been writing like a fiend. Still re-writing on the Beech Mountain fic. I recently got to return to the place I've been calling my "real" home, my heart home, for over sixteen years now. I'll be there again in a couple of weeks. My premise for my Beech mountain story: After failing to save a life, a female veteran searches for solace and finds love in the process.
My research has focused on running, training on Beech Mountain, and finding out everything I can about The Bear race on Grandfather Mountain. Scottish clans are involved! I spoke to a runner on a hill at Lake Coffey on Beech, and to the crew at Beech Mountain Brewing Company. Took a Yoga class at Sky Bar at the top of Ski Beech. Hiked the trails my hero Sami runs. Visited the Beech Mountain Club fitness facility where Sami, Josh, Seamus, and Jackson work out. Went to Boone Mall on Sami's trail to look at running shoes. Paid attention on the drive south to see what she sees as she travels on a short return to Daytona Beach, which also features in her story.
In the meantime, my side project has blown up into a mystery novel. Oh, well :headdesk: It's set exclusively in Daytona. Research has involved head injuries, blindness, gambling games, chef's knives, lawful detention in Florida, and probably earmarked my to local law enforcement for asking too many questions about detectives and jail/state correction facility procedures in Daytona. My Charleston, WV fic, paranormal murder mystery Billie Mae, has become a 2016 Finalist for unpublished mystery and is up for a Royal Palm Award. I'm searching out other contests to enter it in. To this point, I haven't been a big contest enthusiast, but I'm still seeking agent representation for Billie Mae, so I guess I'll try harder for award recognition. I've been poking along on the sequel. I have a full outline and it's been building steam and demanding more of my attention as the scenes get layered on. Last week, I got to sit down with a paranormal investigator and I've been invited to a cemetery stake out for a night in September.
Most of June and July, I focused on my new Alvarium Experiment novelette,
'Someday Loyal'. I'll be writing more about the story in a later post and also posting interviews from the other writers involved in this second project, called 'Return To Earth'. In the writing of 'Someday Loyal', I managed to write a 14,000 novel treatment/outline for a science fiction novel, Annunaki, set in the same universe as 'Someday Loyal'. Like I needed another open project right now! But I'm excited about it. It was the story I intended to write for 'Return To Earth', but it got out of hand and I put it aside. Research for that included searching for info on vortexes, areas like the Bermuda Triangle, the Sea of Japan, military aircraft, the conditions for habitable planets, energy drives for interstellar flight, satellite communication, SETI, and sail boats- among other things.
Photos from Beech Mountain: