Countdown to “A Stone for Sascha” Day 4 of 10: ResearchWhen I...
Countdown to “A Stone for Sascha”
Day 4 of 10: Research
When I wrote Journey, the research I did was only to fuel my imagination. I wanted the story to be grounded in reality, but not of reality. I borrowed pieces of Florence, Italy, Fuedal Japan, and Ancient Cairo. How they mashed logically together wasn’t a big concern. As long as it felt fantastical.
But with the story I was developing for “A Stone for Sascha,” history was key. I knew librarians, teachers, and their clever students would be scouring my illustrations for the details within. I had no idea where to begin. I was telling the story of a stone that began thousands of years ago and traveled the world to end in the hands of a young girl circa 2017. 30,000 years and 3 continents? No problem. (insert nervous laugh)_
I looked at trade routes. I wanted the stone’s path to be plausible. I researched civilizations and vast time periods of ancient human history. How could traders in Africa have moved their goods eastwards? Would there be a civilization vast enough to make such trade possible during the centuries in question? Eventually I found my route, not just across geography, but time as well.
Once I had that figured out, I began to research each civilization. I wanted the costumes to be accurate; their architecture. Even the dogs that appear in various spreads reflect breeds that would have been present in those regions during those times. Like the best puzzles, my research was difficult but gratifying. I found that I had to make a few concessions for the sake of good storytelling. The wardrobe of the Hawaiians reflects more traditional garb than the western clothing they would have been wearing by the mid-nineteenth century. The pirates that steal their treasure are wearing costumes not befitting the period. But this was a wordless book and I occasionally found myself needing to use visual symbols that immediately told the reader what was happening. There’s nothing worse than relying on research and losing your audience. For the most part, though, I was able to keep the history accurate and tell the story I needed to tell.
A pile of reference, however, is not a book. Now I had a story to create.
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Come back tomorrow for part 5: Drawing on Glass. In the meantime, it’s not too late to pre-order your signed copy of “A Stone for Sascha” from my local indie, The Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley, MA. Give them a call and let them know to whom you’d like it inscribed. They can ship it anywhere in the USA. “A Stone for Sascha” publishes Tuesday, May 8th.
