This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The author will be awarding a Jane Austen Coloring Book (US only) to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
I think one of the reasons I am usually writing historical fiction is because I*love* research!
I’ve heard other authors talk about falling down a rabbit hole while researching as if it were a bad thing…but it’s those very side trips that make someone a better writer. If I were writing fantasy novels instead of historical fiction, it’s called “world building.” If the year is 1882, and it’s Pittsburgh, and I want to know about the hospital that my character is in, so I’m reading newspapers at the Heinz History Center, and I just found out there was record rain that year, or record snow, or there was a new craze for roller skating, that’s all useful information. It helps build texture. The reason people read historical fiction is because they are curious about what it was like to live in the past. Telling them what it smelled like, what it sounded like, and what it tasted like is what I’m here for. To educate as well as entertain.
Even my two modern novels, A Woman’s Persuasion and Jane Austen Lied to Me, required research. AWP is set in 2007 – my readers have lived through it. So they remember it. Don’t screw up. Because as soon as you forget that iPhones first come out on June 29 of that year, and either assume that either no one has them, or everyone already has them, you’ve just lost all the tech enthusiasts among your readers. JAL2M, the book currently coming out right now as an audiobook, is set on a modern college campus. (Well, modern to 2017, when it was first published.) I haven’t been a college student for a long time, and being an adjunct professor only takes you so far. What’s the registration process like nowadays? I bet students don’t run around campus with a registration form like when *I* was in school…I asked my students a LOT of questions.
That’s all that research is. Asking questions. I want to know the answer because either my readers want to know, or my readers already know, and I will look like an idiot if I demonstrate to them that I don’t know.
The thing that people forget is that research is more than just reading. That’s why the best crime novels are written by former members of the justice system, and the best cookbooks are written by chefs (or moms that cook every day). Experience is a form of research. That’s why they say “write about what you know.” In order to write about something, you have to go do it. Unless you write murder mysteries. Then I suggest you job shadow the mortician, not the murderer…
I am a dance teacher, and there’s a dance scene in every book I’ve written. Because I know what different social dances in different eras feel like. (I had a dance student from one of my dance groups read one of my novels and correctly identify the name of a set dance from 1878 by my description! That was satisfying.)
I am also a costume enthusiast, and there is no understanding corsets, and hoopskirts, and bustle dresses, until you put one on and wear it all day. For every actress in Hollywood whining about how uncomfortable they are, there are three re-enactors or living history presenters rolling their eyes at this stupid fuss about underwear that women wore while dancing the polka, and building log cabins, and lifting heavy iron pots. I can talk about what it feels like to waltz in a bustle dress, when your skirts arrive a few seconds after the rest of you had finished turning, because I’ve done it.
Research is about getting out and doing, as well as reading. I confess I do absolutely *love* the growing digitized newspapers available online. The University of Illinois has a fabulous collection, and it’s all searchable by keyword. But in order to really understand what I’m reading, I had to have gone out and done it. I teach historical dance, and all the descriptions of “the mazy waltz” would make no sense if I haven’t been on a crowded dance floor, where my partner and I have to navigate a dance floor filled with other spinning couples.
And sometimes, while writing a modern story about a college girl who loves Jane Austen, that research means sharing personal stories about working at the library or being really bad at math.
What college girl doesn’t dream of meeting Mr. Darcy? Lizzy was certainly no exception. But when Darcy Fitzwilliam comes into her life, he turns out to be every bit as aggravating as Elizabeth Bennett’s Fitzwilliam Darcy. So what’s a modern girl to think, except….
How could my hero be so wrong?
Enjoy an Excerpt
Well! That was interesting. My roommate invited me along to this frat party she was going to. She went through something called rush week, and she is now pledged to a sorority. She said the frats are less formal than the sororities, and even though I wasn’t a pledge I could go with her. I figured, why not, it should be fun, right?
I got to meet the guy she’s chasing. I couldn’t blame her for being interested. He’s cute, and sweet, and considerate, and a total people-pleaser. One of his parents must be the demanding sort who is never happy.
He introduced us to his friend… whose name is Darcy Fitzwilliam! I wasn’t sure at first that the guy wasn’t just pulling our legs.
“Your mother obviously loves Jane Austen,” I laughed.
“Obviously,” he answered. Not much to go by.
“I love Pride and Prejudice,” I continued.
“I hate Pride and Prejudice,” I can only describe the look he was giving me as hostile.
“I think you will find yourself very much in a minority,” I answered, returning his look with one of my own.
We didn’t talk any more that night. Talk about getting off on the wrong foot!
About the Author: 
Jeanette Watts has written three Jane Austen-inspired novels and two short stories for Jane Austen Fan Fiction anthologies, two other works of historical fiction, stage melodramas, television commercials, and historical dance manuals. She is a regular contributor to MOMCC Magazine.
When she is not writing, she is either dancing, sewing, or making videos for her YouTube channel and TikTok accounts, “History is My Playground.”
A life-long lover of horror, Vanessa wrote her first story in the genre when she was only in grade five. It was titled Mutilated and it warranted her a trip to the school guidance counsellor. A lifetime later, she continues to write about anything that suits her fancy. She was afforded second place in the David Adams Richards Prize this year, and honourable mentions in the WFNB writing competition for her novel A Child to Cry Over. With over a dozen publications under her belt, Vanessa was celebrated as a bestselling author with Books We Love Publishing for the sale of over a thousand copies of The Curious Case of Simon Todd! She lives with her husband Brendon and daughter Bernie in New Brunswick. 
Seventeen-year-old David is fading from his world, like a Polaroid picture in reverse. He longs to feel connected to something bigger.
There are doors that open to other worlds, but it’s no fairytale on the other side.
At a young age, Shelly Campbell wanted to be an air show pilot or a pirate, possibly a dragon and definitely a writer and artist. She’s piloted a Cessna 172 through spins and stalls, and sailed up the east coast on a tall ship barque—mostly without projectile vomiting. In the end, Shelly found writing and drawing dragons to be so much easier on the stomach. Shelly writes speculative fiction ranging from grimdark fantasy, to sci-fi and horror. She’d love to hear from you.
Isabel Tate yearns for the simple pleasures she took for granted before scandal rocked her family two years ago. On May Day, she’s determined to forget her troubles and enjoy herself at the Claremont family’s annual festival.
Will it end in peace or a silvery dose of fate?
Wring about myself… oh, the horror!
Death-cult leader Joseph Proffit has met his end! Along with him perishes the secret method for manufacturing indigo, the substance that imbued him with godlike abilities.
Unsure of his real past or name, Finn O’Connor thinks he was born in Ireland and taken from his mother as a baby by a gypsy woman. As a toddler, an English woman then took him to London. About ten he fled to join a gang of boys who survived by their wits on the streets. Five years later, he was arrested for a minor crime and transported to The Colony of New South Wales for a 10-year term. In 1846 as transporting of criminals neared an end in NSW, he was moved to the infamous penitentiary at Port Arthur in Van Diemen’s Land.
