With A Little Research - Janet Lane Walters #BWLPublishing #Reseaarch #MFRWAuthor #Serial

With a little Research

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How does one write a serial? Actually by chance. What it took was a little research and the memories of how a book report made in third grade combined. The book was Anna Karenina, a book my parents had on their shelves. I’d been reading since I was three or four and the children’s section at the library had been well-explored. In the book report, I speculated on ways she didn’t have to end tragically. The report wasn’t well accepted by my teacher but my father said if I could read and understand no book was out of bounds for me.

Back to the serial story. I have a love of ancient Egypt and have read many books on the history, the archeology, gods and customs. When reading about a time when the kingdom of the Two lands was in turmoil, I came across this passage about the number of men who wanted to become pharaoh. “A battle commander vied for the role. Mermeshu was his name.” This stuck with me for ages. Then I read some books on ESP and there were passages about people who could gain impressions from touching an artifact. Somehow this made me think of Anna Karenina. The ways of a writer’s mind are beyond understanding.

So I started the story with the daughter of an antiques dealer who had this ability to read other lives in the story. I’d only meant to write one novella and received a shock from my imagination. The story didn’t end. Suddenly there were other time periods creeping into my story and I kept finding new times and new places for my hero and heroine as well as other characters to appear in other life times. I also found the modern love story would somehow culminate in a happy ending, sort of like the ones I’d devised for Anna Karenina when I was young.

Now came a little bit of research. Now that isn’t the truth. What is there about research that keeps you looking for one more thing? While working on the segments of the serial, after Egypt, I went to China, Pompeii, early Britain, Switzerland, Japan and Peru. Each of the segments took place at a time of chaos in these lands when something new was occurring or some other event. By the time I finished I had a huge notebook full of facts and I’m sure I could have found more. The Egypt research also helped with another set of books, a trilogy focusing on an alternate Egypt.

So just a little research can go a long, long way.