With Google and Wikipedia, the art of novel research is in decline–bad novelists can simply cut and paste research straight into a book with a simple mouse click.
The io9 blog ran an excellent essay by Greg Rucka about how he researches his own novels. Rucka (pictured, via Linnea Osterberg) has written a number of action-packed books, including Walking Dead and Patriot Acts. In the essay, he shares all the crazy adventures he had in the name of novel research.
Here’s an excerpt, but be sure to read the whole essay: “My own research, in fact, normally starts in two places-on the web and in the library. I hit sites like Google Earth to get the lay of the land and YouTube to see the places that I cannot reach myself for one reason or another (say, Dubai); I abuse free trials at sites like Jane’s Information Group, and I pay for the right to comb Highbeam for articles and photographs. Ten minutes with a search engine-five if your webfu is really cracking-and you’ll find sites even more esoteric, more specific, more . . . well, insane, really. Web forums discussing the best yeast to use in making your Malbec, or how to fit a SOCOM silencer to a Walther P99.”
Editor’s Note: We corrected a grammar error in this post. The interview originally ran at the Mulholland Books’ website.