Researching Weaving Magic

The writing process for WEAVING MAGIC (April 27, 2012) began with a lot of research. I knew main character, Christopher, had a tie to magic through his Father who had been the town’s magician.  In order to research, I attended a magic show while at the Highlights Foundation Summer Camp in Chautauqua, and I checked out videos showing magic tricks for everything from birthday parties to full fledged magic tricks. I furiously copied down notes and learned how to, somewhat, do a few magic tricks. Many of those magic tricks are in WEAVING MAGIC.

Christopher is also a baseball player who gets caught for a dirty UA under the school’s new drug testing policy for athletes. At the time I was writing WEAVING MAGIC the local high school was implementing a drug testing policy for athletes. I was also friends with a high school baseball coach, and after picking his brain for some details, I attended some high school games to learn a little bit about the game.

As a part of the research process, I also had to learn mosaics. Mosaics plays a big role in bringing Shantel and Christopher together both in the beginning and the end of the novel. Luckily, an artist friend of mine was a mosaic artist and I was able to take some of her classes. This mirror is one of the projects we made in the class.

And, sometimes, research means I have to really learn and not just read about something in books. This was the case with Shantel’s weaving. Here are pictures of my loom and my attempts at learning to weave scarves. No one said research had to be dull and boring!