My main character, Kate Corliss, has come through an international disaster and her own personal upheaval in the fifth book in the Art of Murder series, Black Bear Killer. After a period of recovery, she can see her life’s work ahead of her: it’s her long-time avocation, art, but with a new purpose. (And in new, more colorful media.) As her readers know by now, she’ll “find her way,” as she does at the end of each of the mysteries.
Meanwhile I’m taking a breather and looking back on the best parts of keeping company with Kate through almost a thousand pages.
The very best part? Research. That surprised me, because before writing about her adventures I didn’t have much occasion for it. But I gave Kate experiences I wish I’d had, like watching otters at play in a misty lake, or like being so (safely) close to a black bear that she could watch his eyebrows work. I needed pictures of bears’ faces, I needed to know more about the behavior of otters. Finding things out is pretty easy these days, and I wanted to make sure the details I wrote into The Art of Murder were accurate. The Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and the Audubon Society websites were a big help, and I spent so much time on Wikipedia that I became a monthly donor.
Of course Kate has plenty of experiences with birds and animals that I’ve had myself. We two have a lot in common. I was a full-time RVer for five years, and I love being outdoors, bird-watching, cycling, hiking and paddling. When Kate tells her new friend Simone about a heron managing to swallow an eel, that’s something I saw myself.
That’s been true from the beginning. Early in Drawing Fire, the first book, Kate tells her companions how to hear the difference between the male barred owl’s call and the female’s. I learned that in Ohio, where the woods behind my house seemed to be full of the little owls. It’s really fun for me to weave my own memories into Kate’s life along with new information I find online.
Issues beyond natural history came up, too. I needed to know more about guns, legal proceedings, disturbed children, beekeeping, tranquilizers. That’s how I discovered why I like research: I like knowing things.
And I really like putting reliable information into my novels.