Recently, I was working on a bit of research for a novel and was forced to reach up into my library of reference books… OK, let’s just pause and admit that’s how old I am.  I have reference books.  When I wrote my first novel, Bulletproof Mascara, my heroine was a linguist, a subject about which I knew very little, and one of my plot points actually hinged on her being familiar with a Latin phrase.  So as I result I ended up purchasing a book on Latin and several on linguistics.  But shortly after that book was published (all the way back 2011) the world changed.

Articles on linguistics and Latin are now readily available (and reliably accurate) online.  Heck, everything is available online.  And nothing has driven that point home more firmly than the book I’m currently working on—a paranormal romance with heavy Indiana Jones/The Mummy vibes. Once more I’m looking up Latin phrases and trying to remember everything I knew about about German menhir.  It used to be that I’d be trotting over to my friends and family and asking to see their Germany photo albums.  Now I just hit YouTube and there is Marburg Castle and I can see the color of the stone and check out the artwork without having to leave my computer.

There is nothing like actually visiting place to provide accurate detail, but it can’t be denied that life has gotten easier in the research department.  Which is why I was amused at my own grumpiness at having to actually rise from my seat, walk all the way over to the bookcase and pull down the book on Latin.  Oh, the horror!  The absolute drain of life force from having to flip pages.  How dare the internet fail me?!

Don’t be distressed.  I have recovered.  I managed to make up some absolute nonsense to counterbalance the actual facts I included regarding Egyptian canopic jars and German history and was thus soothed.  But remind me not to write anything close to historical fiction. I would probably have a historically accurate fit of the vapors if I had to have an entire book full of research.

You can check out my paranormal romances from the same world here: bethanymaines.com/supernaturals/

Or my upcoming magic free Romantic Suspense here: bethanymaines.com/the-deveraux-legacy/

The Fallen Man – Book 4 of the Deveraux Legacy Series – releases October 18 – PREORDER: https://books2read.com/FallenMan

The Deveraux Family: wealthy, glamorous, powerful… and in a lot of trouble. Senator Eleanor Deveraux lost her children in a plane crash, but she has a second chance to get her family right with her four grandchildren – Evan, Jackson, Aiden and Dominique. But second chances are hard to seize when politics, mercenaries, and the dark legacy of the Deveraux family keep getting in the way.