Council of War

 

Photo by Mantas Sinkevičius on Unsplash

You can read the story so far from the beginning here

“This isn’t your hall, you know!” Hilary spread her hands wide and glared at Lord Peregrine.

Lord Peregrine shrugged. “It’s more comfortable here, the problem is here, and the best food is here,” he said with irrefutable logic. “What better place to hold a council of war?”

Hilary narrowed her eyes. “I’m not hosting you when the problem isn’t here,” she said. “You’re pushing your luck about the Winter Feast.”

Lord Peregrine smiled blandly and took his seat. “The food is excellent,” he sighed.

Bracken nodded as she brought in the last platter. “You is late, Lord Peregrine, and that lacks politeness.”

“My apologies,” Lord Peregrine briefly rose again and bowed. “I beg forgiveness from Mistress Hilary and the competent and capable Bracken.”

Bracken sniffed. “Thank you, Lord Peregrine, but you will still be late next time.”

Hilary smiled. “But he is still welcome, as are everyone here. You may eat without fear or favour.”

“And that reminds me,” Lord Peregrine said, shaking out his starched napkin. “I shall have to increase your allowance for food, as you seem to be feeding so many of my court.”

“You wouldn’t have to pay me if you made your own court a little more comfortable,” Hilary pointed out, but her heart wasn’t in it. Bracken had taken so much pleasure setting up the dining room that Hilary didn’t have the heart to protest too much. The old table was covered with an immaculate damask tablecloth and the glasses and silverware gleamed in the soft lighting. There were even bread rolls under snowy napkins because Bracken had found an illustration in an old cookbook and liked the idea. The final touch was a bud vase holding a spray of Michaelmas daisies that Samgan had found in a sheltered corner.

Despite Bracken’s best efforts, it was still a council of war. Paul had his blank notebook and pen next to him, while Cabus had sheaves of paper covered in notes next to his plate, the notebooks retrieved by Samgan carefully placed on the bookcase behind him to avoid mishaps. And despite the heavy atmosphere, Hilary could find a faint spark of amusement as she noticed that Tom had a protective arm over the back of Alison’s chair, and that Alison was leaning a little closer to Tom. “The food is nothing fancy,” Hilary said. “Although Bracken has done us proud. But eat up, as I think we’ll need our strength.”

For a few moments there was nothing but the soft scrape of serving spoons. Magnus and Tom heaped generous portions onto their plates, as did Samgan, but Lord Peregrine and Alison were more moderate and, unsurprisingly, Cabus had a token amount on his plate. Finally Cabus broke the silence.

“Whoever added the stones was insane,” he said. “They were a genius, but insane. It amplified the local current, but it also added what I suppose you could call feedback, the spikes and distortions in the energy.” He pushed a morsel of buttered carrot around his sparse plate. “These stones are now bedded into the magical flow, and taking them out is likely to cause problems with the magical flow.” He looked around the table. “Those problems could be explosive.”

“How bad could it get?” Tom asked.

Hilary passed him the bottle of wine. “It could turn out to be nothing, or give anyone with any magical sense a headache.” She took a sip of wine from her own glass. “But it could cause damage. That is, it could cause serious damage.”

“You mean, like buildings falling down?” Tom asked, pouring a glass for Alison before topping up his own glass. “Or could it mean people dropping dead?” Hilary shrugged.

“We can’t just react to what’s happening,” Lord Peregrine said. “This room is strongly warded, and Alison and Paul are both wearing protective talismans, but we are under attack. If we sit around too long, we are at a disadvantage. We have no choice but to take action. We have to remove those stones, no matter what the consequences.” He looked thoughtfully at his glass of wine, the deep red of the vintage glowing in the lamplight. “The consequences of doing nothing are far worse than anything that could happen when we move the stones. We have a demon among us, after all.”

“The werewolves are strong enough to move stones,” Magnus said. He took a forkful of his beef and ale casserole and savoured it for a moment. “Between Tom’s tools and our equipment, not to mention our own paws, we can deal with them. We’re ready when you call.”

“We have two areas of concern,” Cabus said. “We have the stones, and we have Rowan Cottage. This home is threatened, and it is also the centre of the problem.”

“Perhaps we could all stay at my home, at least for a while,” Alison said. “My kids are with their grandparents at the moment so they wouldn’t be in the way, and it could buy time to deal with this... awful situation.”

Cabus shook his head. “You have a generous heart,” he said. “But we can’t leave this place unattended. We cannot let it be taken over by darkness and used as a sort of headquarters. Besides, this is perhaps the most heavily protected place in the area, including Lord Peregrine’s halls. There are ancient protections here that are holding against the dark energy. I can feel them.” He smiled sadly at Alison. “And I think that we’ve already shown that your home is not protected.” Alison nodded and hunched a little lower next to Tom.

“We can’t be in two places at once,” Lord Peregrine said.

“That’s exactly what I suggest that we do,” Cabus said. “We will have one group that removes the stones, and one group that stays here, reinforces the wards, and perhaps acts as a safe haven for those of a magical disposition.”

“Have you found all the stones yet?” Paul looked up from his note-taking. “We know where the old stones are, from before, but we don’t know the locations of all the new ones.”

Cabus shook his head. “The notebooks that I’ve been reading aren’t clear about the exact placement in the woods,” he said. “But most of them are near the cottage. We’ll have to map them out.”

“I may be of some assistance in that endeavour,” Samgan said quietly. “I was drenched in the dark energy while I was confined. Tracing the echo of that energy should not be problematic for me.”

“If I have any say in the matter,” Hilary interjected, “Samgan can identify the stones, but he should stay at the cottage with us when we start fighting back.”

“Can we call it a hall instead of a cottage?” Lord Peregrine interrupted. He looked around the wide dining room with a table that could seat twenty. “There are dozens of rooms that have been added on over the years, plus the attics, and we can’t forget that the cellars are bigger than some houses.”

“It’s a witch’s cottage, it’s called Rowan Cottage, and it’s staying a cottage,” Hilary said firmly. “And Samgan should stay in it while all this fuss is going on. It’s not just that he’s still recovering from a dreadful ordeal.” She paused and smiled across at Samgam. “But he’s also strong, capable and can read the magical energy. Alison should be here, as she can be a target, as should Paul.” She instinctively glanced over her shoulder. “They are both vulnerable and we don’t want the thing in the cellar seeing what stones we’ve found if it’s looking through their eyes again.”

“So those in the house should be your good self, Mistress Hilary, Bracken, the Lesken sisters, Paul and Alison,” Lord Peregrine said. “I will go with Cabus and the werewolves to find and destroy the stones. I’ll warn the rest of my court to keep a distance.”

“I’ll send the wife and kids to my cousin in Harrogate,” Magnus said. “That’s out of the way and it will stop me from worrying.” He looked around the table. “We can’t afford to be distracted.”

“And, as someone who knows what it’s like from experience, if you find that you’re missing memories or feel that you’ve lost a chunk of time, then you need to speak up.” Paul was grim as he tapped his pen on the notepad. “It may even give us clues to what the demon wants. After all, he spoke through me to get Alison here. I guess he thought that he could use Alison to do things in the cottage as well as whatever he had her do while she was sleepwalking.”

“I suspect that the demon had her cover up the stones,” Cabus said. “The traces of mud and exhaustion after the sleepwalking would make it a plausible action, and we’re nearer the stones here than at Alison’s home. After all, the harder it is for us to find the stones, the harder it will be to remove them.” He reached over and patted Alison gently on the hand. “You were very brave to talk about it. And there’s no shame. We’ll look after you now.”

Lord Peregrine took a thoughtful sip of his wine. “Before we can take action, we need to identify the stones.” He looked around the table. “Cabus, I would ask that you stay here until this is over. Not only is it protected, but it gives you access to the notebooks and the stones nearby.”

“I had anticipated that,” Cabus said with a faint smile. “My bag is in my car, and I will not need nourishment for a few days.”

“Arrangements can be made if that’s a problem,” Lord Peregrine said.

Cabus smiled faintly. “I’m sure that there will be no need,” he said. “But thank you.” He turned to Samgan who was eating heartily. “If it suits Samgan, we can go out tonight after this pleasant dinner and start mapping the stones.”

“But it’s dark!” Alison said. “And the weather’s awful.” There was a patter of rain on the dining room window.

“It will not be pleasant conditions,” Samgan said quietly. “But we can prepare dry clothes and set out warm drinks before we leave.”

“And if you think that I’ let you go out in this without me staying up and watching for you, with soup and hot tea ready and the fire nice and warm, then you don’t know me at all,” Hilary said firmly.

“We shall be on watch,” Bracken said. “You will take care?” she asked Samgan anxiously.

“I will take care, little Bracken,” Samgan said with a soft smile. “And knowing that you will wait for me will keep me warm.”

Lord Peregrine raised an eyebrow, but he carried on with the plans. “I shall come with you,” he said. “It will not be perfect conditions, but we can all see in the dark, and the sooner it is dealt with, then the sooner we can remove them.”

“The sooner we can identify them, the sooner I can work out the best order to remove them,” Cabus said. “That will be the harder challenge.”

“Then eat up,” Magnus said pragmatically. “Of course I’m coming with you, and the sooner we start, the sooner we can get back into the warm.”

Working Through the Blogs

 

Just a quick update after last week’s post about my plans here. I was diving in over my head with a crazy plan to transfer over just shy of 600 posts from Wordpress to Blogger. What was worse, I wasn’t planning on automating it. Instead I thought that I could have a little look through, perhaps correct some links, and generally tidy up.

Of course, I couldn’t stop there, not when I hadn’t fully used up this month’s idiot supply. I’d unposted all the non-spooky stuff that I’d previously had on Wordpress, because my brand, such as it is, has an oversupply of the supernatural. I have Kane’s ghost stories, the frankly over-supernatural stuff at the White Hart and all the good stuff in stories like Invitation Accepted. The few bits of ‘normal’ world writing seemed adrift and out of place, so I took them off the blog. But then I read through the drafts of some of them as I was preparing to transfer them over, and I kind of liked them.

Rather than lose the stories, running to just shy of 22k words spaced over 39 stories, I created another Blogger account, Mari’s Fireside. I’ve hopefully got all of the stories over to that blog, and while some are distinctly average, and some I decided should never see the light of day again, there are a few that give me a sense of pride. I hope that you feel able to dip into them. If I ever expand any of them to a better length and tidy them up enough, they could end up on Amazon under the name Mari Medana. I’ll be clear that it’s the same person, but one is spooky and one is non-spooky and that way everyone knows what to expect.

I have given myself eye strain, but now all the little stories are over either on Always Another Chapter Blogger version or on Mari’s Fireside. I now need to go through and check that everything is either saved to the laptop, PC, or cloud, and that it’s either waiting to have things done to it, on Blogger Always Another Chapter, or on Mari’s Fireside. I’ve already secured all of Kane’s stuff, though of course I’ll be double checking, all of The Guest and today I got Invitation Accepted copied onto the PC.

And while I’ve been typing this, I can’t help but wonder whether the Research and the Author posts that I’ve copied over perhaps should have their own blog, as they seem to be multiplying nicely and I’ve got plans to write a non-fiction book containing them at some point. It will only happen if I think that it will be a useful contribution but if that book happens then it could do with a blog to support it. Dammit. Anyway, here is the page giving links to all the Research and the Author articles that have made it over to the Blogger Always Another Chapter, only fourteen at the moment but watch this space.

The next stage, apart from a possible fourth Blogger blog, is to go though each post on Wordpress and check that it has a home elsewhere. I managed to automate that, fight my way through an Excel sheet (I loathe Excel with the fire of a thousand suns), onto a Word table, and I have now got 33 pages of entries to go through individually, double check, then allocate to somewhere, whether it’s the PC, the laptop, one of the Blogger blogs, or even the discard pile as some things really aren’t worth keeping. I’ll post on here when I’ve finally finished, whenever that is!

If you have any questions, would like to tactfully comment on my lack of sanity, or have any views, please let me know. I always love to hear from people.

And please wish me luck!

Research and the Author - What's in a Name

 Let’s talk about researching names for characters in contemporary fiction. I’m never going to be brilliant at naming characters. I have no problem imagining the way that that a character moves, the way that they tilt their head when talking, and even their food and drink preferences, but if I’m not careful, they’d all end up called John or Jane Smith. Or I’d subconsciously name them after a player on a soccer team, or a character in a soap that I don’t watch but that I’ve heard about, and then I’d feel ridiculous. What is more, if I unintentionally pick a name of someone in the public eye and make them a devious and unpleasant villain, it could be seen as hurtful or even directed, and who wants to accidentally get involved with that?

I created this image using Canva without the help of AI and I'm a little surprised that it turned out this well.

I am a research junkie, and until they come up with a 12-step programme to get me away from it, I’ll always turn to research when I’m faced with a conundrum like names. And, for me, a carefully chosen name can have a significant impact on the initial description of a character. In fact, if it’s just a side character that will appear briefly, the name can do most of the work. After all, stereotypes are useful if you’re careful and deliberate with your writing. If you name a character Antonio Rossi, the reader immediately gets a certain amount of background, just as they would for a character called Hamish McDonald or Bjorn Gundersen. Any name has put a stamp on the character, and the reader will have certain expectations. You may as well make use of them.

If you’re writing a short story, doing research for names can be something of an overkill, but, as I mentioned, a name is part of defining a character. You perhaps just need the first name, so you don’t need to worry too much about getting confused with a character in a film or a person in the public eye. You don’t have to look up James to know that it’s a fairly popular and timeless name, and can be tailored to your character as James, Jimmy, Jim, Jimbo, Jamie, etc. The same goes for names like John, Mary, Jane, Elizabeth, or Peter. Those names settle nicely in most English speaking countries without much trouble. They are a little bland, though, so you may want to change it up.

Other names are very much of their time. In my part of the world, the names Sharon, Kevin, Tracy, or even Darren are mainly common in those born in the 1960s. If you want to show age, a name is one way of doing it if you choose carefully. You can have a quick internet search for something like ‘popular baby names of 1990’ and take your pick of something that sounds good and that would potentially fit the character.

A very famous Jane
Photo by Paolo Chiabrando on Unsplash

Another way of finding a first name is to look at sources for the meaning of popular names. It can help support your vision of your character if you choose a name that fits in with their personality. For example, Richard means Brave Ruler, Arthur is linked to Bear, and Ciaran means Little Dark One. I haven’t checked those meanings, by the way. I found them on a site called Honey Name which I bookmarked and intend to use shamelessly.

I find surnames far harder to choose. First names are undefined and could be anyone, but full names are different. There are so many names out there on the internet that it’s unnervingly possible to pick a name of someone that’s at least well-known by some readers. I’m clueless when it comes to reality shows, and I don’t watch many soaps or films, so a name that sounds perfect could actually belong to someone real. If you think of a name and it sounds perfect, for heaven’s sake do an internet search on the full name plus possible nicknames. The point of research is to stop the author looking like an idiot.

It could be a name that is genuinely unknown to the author, but crazily famous elsewhere. For example, I’m British and I’ve not had much access to American football. I’ve heard of the Superbowl, and I’ve heard of quarterbacks, but I had to check the internet for who was the quarterback in the 2026 Superbowl winning team to know that it was Sam Darnold. It would be unnervingly easy for me to call a character Sam Arnold, or Sammy Darnold, or similar without realising, and for those who read my work and also watch the Superbowl, it could cause confusion. In fact, depending on how many readers I got and how awful the character was, I could get some uncomfortable comments on the internet.

Finding a surname is tricky. I know that when the first writers of the long-running British soap Coronation Street were starting to put the idea together, they went to a local cemetery and looked at names on gravestones. That could be a fun day out in the right circumstances, but if you’re deep into a writing marathon, then you’ll want to forge ahead. As my stories are primarily set in England, I’m happy to use English place names as a last name. I can look on an internet map for obscure districts and then add a first name. A quick internet check will tell me if the name belongs to someone famous, or at least potentially known, and I have a name. The hero in my book Out of the London Mist, John Farnley, got his last name from a district in my home city of Leeds.

'Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland'
https://maps.nls.uk/
which shows a map including Farnley from the nineteenth century

You can pick up surnames from obscure sports teams, trade directories, newspaper stories – all sorts of places. The important thing is to not use the name as a whole.You don’t want to try and take the identity of a name in the paper. The idea of research is to make your life easier, not to get into trouble. Let’s look at a sports team as a source. Yorkshire County Cricket Club had a player called John Thewlis who scored the first century, or one hundred runs, in County Cricket for Yorkshire in 1869. Thewlis sounds like a good surname, and according to Honey Name, Brenna means Little Raven which I thought sounded intriguing, so I now have a potential character called Brenna Thewlis. It’s not a bad sounding name and I didn’t find anything for that when I did an internet search. There are a few traces of Brenda Thewlis and Brendan Thewlis but I should be safe with Brenna, and I think that she sounds cute.

If you are writing a novel, particularly if it’s part of a series, getting the right name is important enough to take a little time. I absolutely think that it’s worth spending time on research. If you’re in the middle of a sprint or marathon, or if you’re on a deadline, and you don’t have time, being able to pick names from lists is easier if you have a couple of sites bookmarked from your research into names. Research is supposed to make life easier for the author so don’t overthink things, get a name that supports your character, then send the hapless hero or heroine out into your amazing story, and have fun doing it!

There is a page with links to all the Research and the Author posts here and I hope that you feel happy to dip in.

AI and its Dreams

Please note, I normally avoid AI because I'm clueless about it, but for the purposes of this article, all images are AI generated unless otherwise stated.

I’m not comfortable with AI. I don’t really understand it, and that makes me reluctant to use it. I typed in a question about motivation once, and got some good advice, which I promptly ignored, but otherwise I’ve watched with caution. You can find previous posts on my blog here and here.

The internet has never been a place of unrelenting truth. Right from the start, there have been emails and posts and so-called advice that have been unfounded, fictitious or downright malevolent. There are even new words to describe some of the more predatory online practices, like phishing or catfishing. I’ve always taken the view that I can’t trust the internet when it comes to health, wealth, or religion. I can access sources, and some will be more reliable than others, but if I’m in doubt, I need to speak to someone qualified.

Image created on Canva using AI with the prompt 'create an image for a blog post about phishing'

These days, that’s not such a guarantee. I know that there are accounts of AI being invaluable in all sorts of ways, but the professionals who use it are human too. There have been cases, including one quoted in the Law Gazette here, where the AI has had a dream. An AI has been asked to provide documents that includes supporting cases. I guess that the instructions should have included real cases that have previously been heard in a real court. As it was, the documents were plausible, persuasive, and absolutely undermined when it was shown that the supporting cases that had been quoted didn’t exist but had been dreamed up by the AI. The qualified legal professionals who were getting the documents together didn’t check. I can imagine the absolute fits that the judge had at that lack of diligence.

To me, dealing with AI is like dealing with the Fair Folk. You have to ask your question so carefully or the answer that you get is like fairy gold that turns to dead leaves in the light of day and is useless. I’m okay asking for help with a route if I’m driving to an unfamiliar place. I know that I’m going to go over it on the map anyway and I’m quite happy to adjust it to suit myself. In theory I could ask for recipe suggestions, like Weary Wolf on their YouTube channel who asked for 21 meals for one to cover a week on a budget of £20, and got an okay, if potentially uninspiring, result, here, if you’re interested.

It reminded me again of dealing with fairies. These weren’t malevolent fairies. They wanted to be helpful and useful. But when there was excess money, the AI suggested that it was all spent on cheese, because more cheese makes everything better. Obviously, the AI had seen a lot of the ‘cheese makes it better’ memes and took it literally, like a brownie or elf trying to understand mortals and not quite getting all that they saw. Thinking about the recipes, I would have suggested more fruit and veg, or perhaps more seasonings, but the AI was going from its instructions and insisted on more cheese.

One of my friends, posting as Supernovauk, is using AI to make music. They’ve got it on YouTube, here, if you’re interested. It’s light and pop and fun, and it reminds me of the days when I was young enough to dance the night away. I know how hard they’ve worked on that music. The lyrics are all from them, and they’ve spent a lot of time and effort getting the music exactly where they want it. It’s absolutely not some slop thrown together, but a real creation using AI because the access to musical instruments and the time to master them isn’t available to them.

Image created on Canva using AI with the prompt 'please create a blog post image for electronic music

I feel like it’s a deal with the Fair Folk, making a deal with fairies, which is a dangerous thing to do. My friend has put in so much effort and care, but because it’s AI, they can’t copyright it. It could just slip through their fingers. Other AI efforts, particular in the romance book area, are like dreams or perhaps like fairy gifts. They lack an indefinable something, like fairy cheese made without salt or lumpen bread made without an iron oven. Or, frankly, are plain awful.

Authors have a few different problems. The publishing world is getting overwhelmed by some extremely poor AI books, churned out with little regard for a reader. Romance has been particularly vulnerable to this. As a voracious reader of romance novels, I have lost count of the number of books that I’ve picked up, read the first page and then rejected because the AI writing is appalling. However, if a determined AI user is willing, they can publish dozens of books in a day, bung it on Kindle Unlimited, and if enough people like me read the first page, they’ll get plenty of single pennies from the Kindle Unlimited accounts and make a nice living from it.

This pic may be generated by AI, but the text of the story is absolutely AI free and you can read it here on Wattpad

Those AI collections of words have sparked a backlash and there is a witch-hunt against anyone suspected of using AI. There have been a lot of accusations thrown around, and not all of them have been grounded in reality. It’s not always obvious whether it’s AI or bad writing, or even if the author’s writing style is one of those that has been heavily copied by AI models. I’ve been acting as a beta reader for my friend Holly White and unfortunately their writing style is one of those that has been copied. And it's not AI! They’re writing a series of fan fiction romances, based on Quidditch teams in the Harry Potter universe, and I’m loving them. I’ve been with them every step of the way and those stories have been hammered out on their keyboard, tap by tap, in evenings after work. As they’re caught up in the joy of writing in a genre new to them, they are racing ahead and so books are coming out quickly. Not only that, the writing is, in my opinion as their trusty beta reader, awesome and not comparable to the AI autochurn that’s been thrown together and dumped on Amazon (and you can find Holly’s work on Wattpad here, if you’re curious). I’m not sure how that will protect them, though, if accusations are launched at them.

I had just booked a cover from GetCovers for An Apprenticeship of Ghosts, which will be coming shortly, knowing that they don’t use AI, and I wondered what I could do with Canva, AI, and a little time. They have an AI function, and I clicked on it, nervously, and put in a prompt book cover with a raven flying holding a ring on a ribbon. I got this.

I didn’t give a title. I certainly didn’t give it a subtitle or tagline. I absolutely definitely didn’t invent the name for the author. I was unnerved enough to check, and at time of typing, there wasn’t a book or author with those names on Google. AI had dreamed a story to go with those twelve words that I used as a prompt.

I came away with two thoughts. One is that I want to write that story. The other was that I gave the seed to the AI for this dream. I wonder what unbidden dreams haunt AI.

Research and the Author - Mapping Hazards

Photo by Massimiliano Morosinotto on Unsplash

I spend too much time on Reddit, and recently while I was on there, I noticed a thread complaining that an author had got it wrong about an American state. There was a lot of irritation in the 189 comments, and there were, according to the stats, 1.5k views. It was in a small corner of the site, and I suppose it could be argued that it wasn’t a big deal, but it shows one of the hazards and I thought it might be worth talking about a few points.

This book mentioned mountains in Wisconsin. According to this post and the comments, there are no mountains in Wisconsin, which I hadn’t considered. There are bits that are higher than other bits, and places that might be nicknamed mountains, but people were firm that there weren’t mountains. Out of curiosity, I checked on Google maps and confirmed that it wasn’t a very mountainous area.

I’m a firm believer that, on the whole, you put what you need into a story because things are like that in your world. I remember seeing a story about JRR Tolkien who was told that the geology of Mordor was all wrong. Tolkien replied that Morder wasn’t like that because of geology but because of magic and besides he needed it for the plot to work. I also believe in lots and lots of research because research is there to stop the author from looking like an idiot. I’m not linking the thread because while I may get grumpy at lack of research, the author doesn’t need to be pushed down.

If you are writing fantasy, then as long as you keep it consistent, it doesn’t matter as much. You may get a grumble or two about weather patterns not being plausible, but if the weather patterns are getting more attention than the epic chase through the Badlands as strange forces pull together at the lost temple, then you’re doing something wrong. However, if you’re writing anything set in the real world, or writing alternative history like steampunk, then it’s worth being aware of the pitfalls.

There are times when it pays to be vague. If you research things carefully and get it right, but the majority of your readership don’t know the full set up, you are going to be in just as much trouble as not bothering with research at all. After all, how many people know that the Mississippi changed course in 1876? Apparently it was a big thing and left what had been a flourishing town high and dry away from the river traffic. You can read about it here. If you are chasing nefarious ghosts through Vicksburg, I suggest being vague about either waterways or the date. Or you can always set the story in New York. The Nile in Egypt has changed course many times. Archaeologists have traced the former course of the Nile and found cities that have been lost for centuries, abandoned when the river disappeared. It’s a great idea for a plot, if you think about it. As well as a beautiful picture of the Nile, I've added an aerial map to show the hints of ancient river beds.

Photo by Jordi Orts Segalés on Unsplash

Photo by USGS on Unsplash

However, mountains and rivers generally stay roughly the same. If you want to use a location firmly set in the real world, then it’s worth checking a few details. The first place I would start would be Google Maps. I think that it’s worth taking the time to set aside maybe an hour or two and scroll around. Google Maps has the basic map, the satellite view so you get a feel for the landscape, it has terrain view so that you can see any hills and valleys and there is even a street view. I’ve used street view regularly to get a sense of what to look for when I’m driving an unfamiliar route, but you can get a clear idea of the scenery.

I may be guilty of over-researching everything, and you don’t need to look up the geological profile of the groundwater unless you have a really specific type of plot, but I feel that if you’re dropping a casual reference like I came from a small town then it’s worth having maybe five minutes look to make sure that you are aware, for example, if there’s an active volcano/shrine to pagan gods/museum of murder weapons/renowned fields of sunflowers that may or may not be known to a lot of potential readers. If a main character says that they come from a town where nothing ever happens and it’s known for something like, at random, music festivals/Formula One races/resident royalty/regular spots on Most Haunted, then you should perhaps rethink the location.

If you are using a location as a setting, and it isn’t somewhere that you know well, then after rummaging around on Google Maps (I’ve also checked Map Quest and Doogle.co.uk), I’d put the name of the town into some social media sites. I don’t hit many sites, but Reddit has subreddits for particular areas, YouTube has reactions and tours and Facebook has groups. If you dip into one or more of these, you’ll get a sense of the area, and possibly some plot ideas on the way.

And despite my love of research, I continue to recommend when in doubt, keep it vague and then be clear that if there’s a glacier flowing through the French Quarter of New Orleans, then it’s like that in your world.

There is a page with links to all the Research and the Author posts here and I hope that you feel happy to dip in.

Research and the Author - Check What You Wear

Photo by Nastia Petruk on Unsplash
I'm not sure if this is a corset, but the other examples in Unsplash were making me blush

I was rummaging through Reddit, indulging in my weakness for romance stories by looking for recommendations, when I saw another one. Why don’t authors do their research? In this case, the complaint was about a corset. I’ve already written a couple of pieces about clothing in particular settings, but after seeing that thread, with many posters being so intense about accurate clothing, I thought I would add some more general observations.

I’m not going to link the thread here as I don’t believe in driving criticism towards an author, but it seems that a character in the novel was complaining about their corset but the story was set about fifty years before corsets existed. The original poster was irritated and there was a whole thread with several hundred views, and plenty of posts that were grumbling about accuracy in clothing. I understood, because if there is an error, it bugs me and takes me out of the book, but it was a minor detail.

Here’s the thing. I love history textbooks, dabble in historical romances and adore knitting while watching YouTube videos that include historical costumes and sewing methods. I’ve done a fair amount of research into domestic life, including textiles, because it interests me, and I pay attention. I would still have got the corset wrong!

Photo by Alison Pang on Unsplash
I think that this is nearer a corset, but I'm still not sure and it looks quite dainty for something that was supposed to stiffen things up.

It’s a classic case of not knowing what you don’t know. I know a little information on historical fashion but, for some reason, I’ve never paid much attention to antique underwear. And 99 readers out of 100 would not have a flicker of interest about authenticity when caught up in a riveting plot. If you’re worried about whether the silky drawers of the heroine are linen or cotton, you’re missing the point but there are a lot of readers out there who care. A reasonable portion of those who care will be vocal. And then you’ll be known as someone who couldn’t get their frilly bits in order and may become a meme – which may help sales, but it absolutely could deter someone buying your book if they care about the accuracy of the clothing.

So I come back to the reason for research is to stop authors looking like an idiot. And that’s not easy if you don’t know what you don’t know. However, if you’re writing something historical or historical adjacent, like steampunk or fantasy that strongly references the real world, it’s worth having a look at some fashion details before you dive in deep to writing. I’ll put in a few places that I check at the end.

It’s not just historical clothing that could be a problem. I buy most of my clothes from supermarkets or charity shops and have the fashion sense of a hedgehog. If I’m describing someone wearing expensive clothing, I’m at risk of getting it badly wrong. I suspect that if I want an understated designer dress, I don’t say that it’s from Vivienne Westwood, but I wouldn’t stake real money on getting it right. I’m happy describing the CEO entering the ballroom as wearing a stunning pink designer gown and leaving it at that.

Photo by David Kester on Unsplash

It doesn’t always give the right flavour, though. Sometimes, when you’re writing, you want to add that extra spicy detail, and there are a lot of people who enjoy current fashion. They will spot the difference in style between Prada and Gucci in a second and they will judge! I turn to my friend, eBay (other online auction sites are available).

Instead of looking for gently used and inexpensive sweaters and jeans, I go to the couture listings and visualise what I want the character to wear. Is it a man wearing a dramatic coat, a woman wearing a deceptively simple blouse, or a lady who needs to look expensive. Then I search through the highest priced listings, make a note of a brand name that looks right and throw it in, keeping my fingers crossed. It’s not perfect, but it gets me through and hopefully I don’t look like an idiot.

Following on from that, here are a couple of places that I look when I’m thinking about historical clothes.

The Gutenberg Project – this has books that are out of copyright, and some of the information may be dated, but if you’re looking for books on Victorian fashion, you can get contemporary insights. There are even a few books about the history of costume, like this one here, that may have been produced a century ago, but are at least a starting point.

Anything by Ruth Goodman – she is wonderfully clear and has a hands-on insight into the reality of daily life, including clothing, after being part of many living history experiments.

Bernadette Banner – someone else who understands how clothing works in practice and not just in theory. I love watching her YouTube videos. She covers a lot of Edwardian and Victorian clothing.

Photo by Smithsonian on Unsplash

AshLG – I follow them because I love their attitude to LARP costumes and the clarity they have about how clothes are constructed (and I may have an advert in their advertising slot in this video about hand sewing techniques which starts at 15:45)

And try and come to terms with knowing that you will never get it 100% correct.

If I’m researching before writing, I have a scan through a few books, dip into some blogs, watch some YouTube videos about people who are worried about authenticity and then I keep it nice and vague.

When it comes to the story, in my view, you shouldn’t worry about the stitching in the hero’s shirt, but instead concentrate on the muscles and scars revealed as the clothing is removed. If the heroine is being dragged through Victorian London towards a villainous vampire, I feel that you should concentrate on the struggle, not the exact shade of the walking dress. And if you have to include a detail to help the plot along, run a quick check first, even if you think you know all about it. Just in case.

There is a page with links to all the Research and the Author posts here and I hope that you feel happy to dip in.

Readers Wanted

Illustration by Diletta Davolio on Unsplash

Most authors are absolutely desperate for reviews. Those reviews can make or break a book when it comes to sales, and authors know it. It makes sense - would you rather read a book with half a dozen reviews that give interesting feedback, a book with hundreds of glowing reviews, or a book with no reviews at all?

Authors will often send out free copies, known as ARC copies or Advanced Reader Copies. The deal is that the reader gets a free book just before publication or just after. In return, the reader leaves an honest review of the book. As long as the review is honest, and at least tactful about the bad bits, it's a win-win result.

Some influencers on Instagram, Facebook, and on their own websites, can make a few pennies from ads and affiliate marketing. I've heard rumours that some of the biggest ones will charge authors for their reviews, which is strictly against the rules for Amazon. Most ARC readers are more interested in the chance of reading new books that they may never have discovered by themselves than playing the system.

If you ever decide to become an ARC reader, I found a post here, How to Become and ARC Reader and Acquire Books for Free, that covers some of the basics, including book review sites like Net Galley. Net Galley may have a formal set up and have certain requirements, but not everything is so regimented. There are ARC reader groups on Facebook, and I think most social media sites that have any sort of author groups will have posts looking for ARC readers.

Illustration by Ogie on Unsplash

I've had a rummage around, and I found some common rules and requests for ARC readers.

1. Be Honest. If the book is brilliant, then it's great to share the good stuff. If, however, you struggle through a novel, or if you find parts problematic, then it's okay to mention it in a review to warn other readers, but think about point number two.
2. Be Tactful. The book may not be perfect, but the author is a human being who has poured their soul into their work. When I write a review, I strongly believe that it's better to be kind than leave a witty but cruel comment. That goes double if it's really tempting to put in something that sounds hilarious, is possibly true, but would be unnecessarily hurtful to the author.
3. Be Prompt if it's Possible. Publishing algorithms are unrelenting and a review left within a month of the book going live will have have considerably more weight than a review left three months later. However, any review at any time is significantly better than no review at all.
4. Be Aware of the Rules. Amazon is incredibly strict about reviews. It's entirely appropriate to mention that you recieved a copy to review. It's not okay to say that you recieved the copy in exchange for a review. Amazon are very clear that all reviews should be honest and freely given without incentive. If you mention any form of payment for a review, you're getting the author into trouble.
5. Communicate. Talk to the author. Let them know about any problems and delays that you have, together with any technical difficulties. Ask them if you have any questions. If you feel that you can't finish a book, or that you can't give a good review, let the author know.
6. Spread the Word. Share the review where you can. You may feel that you can only share among your friends, but it would mean so much more if it's posted a little further. You don't have to have a fancy presence or loads of followers. Just the existence of the review is important, but sharing it is a bonus. You could post to your own blog, Amazon (the biggest deal), Goodreads, Storygraph, and any social media where you would normally post. And if you tag in the author and give permission for them to share your opinions, so much the better!

And be warned - if you recieve an ARC and you neither post a review nor let the author know that you didn't feel able to review, then you're not likely to get other ARCs offered to you. It’s also vital that you remember that the copy is for you alone, and not to be shared around. You have privileged information.

I write the odd review, and as I hope to get back to it, I've bookmarked How to Write a Book Review on the Reedsy site to use for guidance which may be useful for anyone else wanting to indulge. In my view, reviews are there to give other readers information to help them decide whether or not to read that particular book. A review doesn't have to be clever or fancy, or even particularly long. It's just there to say - I read this book, this is how it made me feel, and these are a few words about what to expect if you also read this book.

Authors who also write reviews are in a tricky spot, as anything that looks like a review swap is extremely frowned on by Amazon, but I like writing an occasional review as it helps me to look outside my comfort zone and to read wider. So I'll very carefully get back to reviewing and enjoying it in the near future.

Illustration by Irvan maulana on Unsplash

I'd love to know what you think about ARC reading, reviews and this article, so feel free to drop a note in the comments. This article was written with the use of em dashes but without any sort of AI assistance.