Okay, so research is slowing down, and I had to wait a whole week before I had enough interesting stuff to blog about. To be fair, some of this stuff I didn’t technically Google, because I knew which site to search, but in my mind, it’s still Googling. Whatever. Google is going to take over the internet anyway, and we’re going to have to pay 5 cents for every time we mention the word.

Onward…

1. I had a minor character, with about 2 sentences of description, and she’s got dark hair and deep eyes. My first inclination was to make her a goth, or at least goth-like. But then I thought, should she be an emo instead? What’s the difference between a goth and an emo? So…googled “goth vs emo.” Didn’t find any wrestling references, thank goodness. Did find other variations of this same theme: neogoths, scene, post-punk, etc. Whoa. Talk about shades of gray. Decided to go with goth, because they are at least happier people.

2. Random word spellings and exact definitions for “Anne Boleyn,” “buzz” (yes, I spelled that one correctly), and “elysian.”

3. I also needed a place for Ben to want to visit in London, and I remembered an attraction I had visited when I was fresh out of high-school. Across the bridge from the Tower of London is a little hole-in-the wall museum call the London Dungeon. Totally gruesome and inappropriate, but fascinating for someone in their teens. I once wrote a research paper for an English class on “Medieval Weaponry,” and that teacher was there when we toured the museum. She said, “I can’t believe you talked me into seeing this. I should have known better, after that paper you wrote.” Ben never does get to see the museum. It might be on his bucket list, though.

4. Finally, the rival gang to Prospero’s gang needed a better leader name. It used to be Ruglund, but I wasn’t liking it. I thought of a good name, and did a quick Google to see if it was anyone super-famous that might sue me for libel. Lucky for me, there aren’t too many “Otto Rathbones” out there.

And thus continues a typical week for research. Once I finish polishing book one, I’ll be querying more, and then cracking the whip on book two editing. Joy. And, at some point, I’ll be working up ideas to finish the series with book three. That’s about all book three is right now, a bunch of notes.

With that, I am reminded of the verse in Prov 16:3. “Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.” It is not my work, but his. Sola gloria deo.

Okay, really this is several days worth, but it’s some odd stuff. Strange how the mind wanders. I started with food, so I can officially call this a smörgåsbord of topics. First up …

• British Food: Amy and Ben order food service in their hotel room. What do they get? British hot dogs, considered one of the grossest foods out there. Pickled, in a can, served with what looks like some seriously wilted onions. They also order Bubble and Squeak, because it sounds funny, but they actually like this. And for dessert, some sort of pudding … which we know is not really pudding … it’s a meat thingie …
• “It’s my nature.” Clever little phrase first coined by … drum roll … the scorpion who stings the frog as they cross the river, and then they both drown. Kinda’ answers the nature vs. nurture question, at least for scorpions.
• Finally, very exciting, I had to search for a fix for my Wacom mouse. It’s misbehaving, and driving me nuts. I tore the thing apart, thanks to some tutorials, but wasn’t able to fix the scroll-wheel. Time to buy a new one, but they don’t sell the mice by themselves. Maybe duct tape can fix it.

Isn’t research wonderful? Got to get those details just right.

One last thing I searched for, on Bible Gateway, was, “Why does the way of the wicked prosper?” (Jer. 12:1) Hearing about ultra-secular, atheistic people succeeding in phenomenal ways, makes me wonder why so many Christians flounder.

We shouldn’t be pathetic. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31) Shouldn’t we be awesome? Or at least weird?