I'm now blogging on the 13th of every month at http://rosecityromancewriters.blogspot.com/. Rose City Romance Writers is my chapter of the RWA and this is our published author loop. We have a month topic which was research. It's a new blog - we just started about 6 weeks ago and this is my second post!

CURRENTLY WORKING ON: Bachelor Gamble, a contemporary romance

MOOD: Quite pleased with myself, though nervous, since I just submitted a novella to my editor.

I went through a phase where I wrote Victorian paranormal. But the second story in one series ended up on perma-hold under an editor's desk somewhere, and the first story in my second series didn't sell as well as I personally liked so I've shelved that for the moment too. When I wrote these stories I had piles of research books slung around my desk so I could look up things like fashion and home styles and the types of servants in upper middle class houses and all that good stuff.

Mostly though, I write contemporary romance or some kind of paranormal whether set in present day or in the future. My best friend and partner in crime is Google. I Google my computer into crash mode. Yes, it happened today when I was double checking a quote from Hesiod. I wasn't happy.

I have been through the questionable joy of a group series, where we had a series bible that grew into a monster that ate most of the joy out of the project. The project manager had a nervous breakdown. I suppose in that case all your research questions can be answered in one place but building the thing was a nightmare. So I prefer Google for all my needs.

Having said that, I think the best research for someone in my position, writing contemporary romance and erotic nearly everything else, is reading. I have to read to keep up with the market. What's okay to write about sexually? What do readers enjoy right now? When you are epublished your stories are quicker to market (usually) so watching market trends can be quite valuable. My best selling story to date was written because I guessed that the subgenre would be getting popular soon and I was right. I barely read in that subgenre because I was so busy getting the story submitted but it still worked. I knew enough to cover the basics and develop my own take on it.

I should be researching my own work. I have this sad habit of dropping intended series after the first two stories. Maybe this is because I don't put together a series bible for myself (shudder).

Okay, everyone, comments should be focused on how to get me in gear so that I can stand to write the third book in a series! How should I organize my past research, materials on key characters and so on?

 

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