Sunday, December 6, 2009

Research: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

From A Fistful of Dollars to High Plains Drifter, there’s nothing I love more than a Clint Eastwood western. So I’m playing on the name of my favorite to talk about researching my work-in-progress.

The Good: After successfully completing both Parisian Patisserie and chocolate baking classes, I can now whip up puff pastry, éclairs and spiked chocolate truffles. All from scratch.

The Bad: Sometimes a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. All I want to do is make and EAT my delectable creations. And let’s not forget about those 14 pounds I put on writing my last book. Arrgh!!!!

The Ugly: Now when I say a book is kicking my tail, I’ll really mean it! Boot Camp workout classes also started this week. Yowza! The only person that hates a ::really tough:: 6 am workout more than me is my poor heroine.

So tell me some things you’ve done good, bad or ugly in the name of research????

Phyllis
www.phyllisbourne.com

4 comments:

Kaz Augustin said...

I started learning about quantum mechanics for a book that's been out on submission off and on for the past year! LOL I wanted to find out where the holes were so I could break the physics in a more or less believable fashion. Or, so I think I do anyway.

As a result, for good or ill, I don't have a lot of respect for string theory!

Katrina Spencer said...

Phyllis,
In my next book Unbeweaveable, one of the characters is a retired ballet dancer. I dragged my husband to many a ballet to get a feel for the dance.
The good: My daughter will soon be enrolled in ballet class.
The bad: My husband's mood before the ballet.
The ugly: My husband's mood after the ballet.

Phyllis Bourne said...

@Kaz - Quantum mechanics?!?! All I can say is WOW!

@Katrina - LOL! My husband's mood was pretty good after the ballet - because he slept through the entire performance. Oh, and used the intermission to check sports scores on his phone.

Liane Spicer said...

LOL, you guys! My suffering for the sake of research has been the other way around thus far. I do the suffering then realize years later that it was all prime research for my fiction!