Yes, writers do a ton of research for our fictional romance novels. We like them to feel as if they are real and give readers a superb reading experience. If the book isn't detailed enough, it may not offer a believable read. In fact, I'm trying to decide which of the 500 initernet tabs, pages, and links I've had open for most of the year in 2022 on my cell to close out as we enter the new year of 2023. Seriously, 500 tabs, because I often use my phone for research while writing on my laptop in another document in order to view two screens simultaneously at "supersonic" speed.
The majority of these links were research for the half-dozen books I wrote in 2022. I may even have a few open from books the year before.
Why not close them? What if I need those links? What if a reader challenges what I wrote on the pages of my books? Having deadlines, I didn't always want to close those rabbit holes and instead chose to leave them open while I moved forward.
And since it's time to finally close them as we embark on a brand new year, I'll share a few of the links here for those who find a peek at our writerly habits interesting, and for those who may enjoy a place with some cool, mainly western, historical research--:
In writing about the Oklahoma Land Rush for Addison's Adventure
The Cimarron River
https://www.kshs.org/p/the-ranch-at-cimarron-crossing/13237
In writing The Parson's Bride, I needed adoption research concerning birth certificates, and again for Addison's Adventure. I had no idea we didn't even have them before 1907. Yep. Most pioneers used their Bibles, baptism records, and church records.--:
Birth Certificates begin in 1907
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birth_certificate
One needs to know about kilts if one has a Scottish hero like the one in Addison's Adventure--:
Traditional Scottish kilts - photos
State Maps & other maps
https://www.google.com/search?q=states&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-ao&client=safari#imgrc=WIi-vjj0ktlNGM
Area map of Greenbay near where Addison is from in Addison's Adventure and also near the area where some of Cherry Crossing relations are living.
https://www.google.com/search?q=where+is+green+bay&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-ao&client=safari
Sometimes grammar issues and technical applications are so important in writing--:
How to use quotation marks in multiple paragraphs of dialogue by the same person consecutively.
https://www.englishgrammar101.com/module-13/punctuation-quotation-marks/lesson-3/more-on-quotation-marks-with-dialogue#:~:text=Multi-Paragraph
I needed information about a particular governor in Minnesota during a certain event and found a speech here which answered my question--:
Governor of Minnesota speech - fascinating summary about the speech given by a man related to the Pillsbury household name.
Vermont small town, Montpelier
https://www.montpelier-vt.org/
What people ate on the Oregon Trail and in other time periods in history--:
These links became helpful in writing the Montana Meadows series with its 1870s setting. Montana wasn't a state yet, but I learned so much about the Territory and other helpful information to keep my plot moving forward, like this link about what kinds of predators or other situations might make a horse rear up like the one in Sparrow's Hope does.--:
What horses are skittish about--:
https://horseracingsense.com/why-are-horses-so-skittish-spook/
Montana Native Plants--:
Hunting in U.S. History--:
The Hayes sisters, though not preachers, became proactive suffragettes in the series--:
How Female Preachers Birthed the Women's RIghts Movement--:
Undergraduate Research Journal at UCCS, Volume 2.1, Spring 2009
I found helpful information about Zeke's experiences as a doctor attending a medical university in Philadelphia, here (and more links further below if you keep scrolling). It's interesting to discover doctors in the mid 1800s and earlier didn't need a license or much education until much later in the century when the government began to put uniform guidelines in place for medical universities. Almost anyone could take classes at any non-certified medical school for a few months or a year or so (more or less) followed by shadowing another doctor, if possible. If they wanted to open a practice with very little training or knowledge, they could, especially in the Wild West. It was also quite some time before women were finally allowed to train to become doctors.--:
Women at Penn: Timeline of Pioneers and Achievements
1876-1879: First Women in Penn Classrooms as Special Students
6 Relevant Feminist Quotes from the 1800s
An article by Suzannah Weiss
April 23, 2016 at
History of the U.S. Woman's Suffrage Movement
These two articles gave much insight about how the early rodeos began in the west--:
Rodeos, Wild West Shows, and the Mythic American West
Rodeo Circuit in 1870s
(The Many Faces of Oregon's Workers 1900-1910)
Recipes and cooking are hard to find for the 1870s and previous years, but here are some at this link:
Olde Cookery: Recipes from 1877, posted by Milo on October 14, 2018, under the Life tab
Here's another interesting article which includes photos of a taffy pull, links leading to spring vegetable gardening tips, and mentions of types of candy available in 1870s, and so much more.
This video shows us how Jackie Hayes and her sisters loaded their revolvers for the gun competition during the Wild West show they attended in Sparrow's Hope--:
The Cowboy Load for a single-action revolver YouTube video
(https://youtu.be/S043pY7MAxQ)[https://youtu.be/S043pY7MAxQ]
How did cowboys get glass soda bottles to shoot like they do in the movies? This article may give us a better idea of when glass soda bottles became a thing.
The History & Quality of Glass Bottle Soda
Montana Plants and Montana Field Guide
Since some of my characters take a journey through Yellowstone in the 1870s, I needed to know more history:
Yellowstone History from a tourist in the 1870s
John Muir in Yellowstone by John Clayton, published August 6, 2018
U.S. National Park Service , Yellowstone National Park History
Philadelphia was a great learning center in the United States during the 1800s. I needed to know a lot about a specific school my doctor might have attended in the era, but the school changed hands, locations, and names several times in history--:
Philadelphia Medical History: Extinct Philadelphia Medical Schools
1853-1881
Helpful timeline history
Yes, there are some quirky nuns in the Montana Meadows series. Here's how I learned more about their attire. I kept calling the coif "the white thing" on a nun's habit until I learned the right term.--:
Attire for nuns in the 18th Century