Fun & Crazy Novel Research

I love doing crazy and fun research as much as I enjoy writing my stories. The crazier the situations my characters get themselves into, the more fun I get to have. I'm sort of a 'method' author,' experiencing as much as possible what my characters feel and do. (Thankfully, I don't write crime!)

My main character in my current work in progress spends time on a sheep farm, so yay! I got to spend a morning herding sheep!

The fabulous Becky Bowles of Farmcraft Experiences allowed me into her fields to play shepherdess for a few hours and this was possibly the most entertaining research so far. Look, I actually got those sheep into the pen! Not bad for a New York City girl!

Becky was super helpful in answering all my sheep questions. She offers experience days to the general public and trust me, it's great fun!

https://www.farmcraftexperiences.com/about

For my previous full length manuscript, (I'm leaving this book untitled for the moment as it's very possible the publisher who acquires it will be changing it) I had tons of questions for my local fire department. There's a gas explosion at the beginning of this story. To ensure I got the details right for what my characters would see, feel. hear, smell and also how they'd be rescued, I contacted my local Warwickshire fire department. They were amazing, although my husband did raise his eyebrows that I'd opted for morning coffee with a group of firemen.

Crew Commander, Rick D'Amico, and his team were great. So helpful  with my questions and fascinating to chat with. That morning flew by!

A point in the manuscript where I need to narrate the smell of sheep and arghh! I've forgotten how to describe it!

My character throws a mug to the ground in one scene, but how many pieces would it realistically smash into? Well, there's only one way to find out!

If the video above is a bit blurry from travelling through a website, try the direct link here...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFj_9-DzTi0

Aha! Would you believe my husband bought some of this weird stuff to stop the rust underneath his car apparently ... and it comes from sheep! Got to be worth a sniff....

A day trip to Pinner where my newest story will be set. I merely wanted to get a feel for the place and those pesky characters who aren't even fully formed yet were insisting they loved visiting the local pubs. I suspected they were trying it on as pubs have not been included in my rough plot outline yet. Then my husband,who was with me, decided he could suddenly hear my characters talking, and  that they recommended first stop here, the Queens Head on Pinner High Street.