Where the Research Takes You by Matt Cost

I truly enjoy every aspect of writing, which is a much more complex project then just sitting down and spitting out words. The different hats that must be worn are that of creating an idea, researching, writing, editing, marketing, and promoting. I am often doing all of these at the same time on various books. Right now, I am researching and writing EveryThing VS Max Creed, editing 1955 and soon, Mainely Mayhem, marketing City Gone Askew, and promoting Pirate Trap.

Today, I want to confabulate about research, a piece of the writing process that I greatly enjoy. This is intertwined with my love of history, my major at Trinity College, and my vocation for ten years as a teacher at Brunswick Junior High School. My first written book was I am Cuba, the first draft completed in 1991, before being eventually my first traditionally published book in 2020. Only 29 years.

One big reason for the holdup and passage of time was the need to visit Cuba, a key component in research when writing about a place you are not familiar with. In 2016, I got the opportunity to travel to Cuba on a self-devised tour following the revolutionary war trail of Fidel and his bearded guerillas. I flew into Santiago with my son the day after Fidel was buried in the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery in that city. High in the Sierra Maestra outside of Santiago was where the revolution began. We traveled up to his command post, kept exactly like it was in the 1950s, helping understand how 300 rebels defeated an army of 10,000 trained soldiers in a key battle. We toured key battle spots in Santiago and then traveled across the island nation following the revolutionary war trail as the rebels marched on Havana defeating the government forces along the way.

Similar research mixed with pleasure trip was taken with my wife as we explored New Orleans for Love in a Time of Hate, which was set in that city in the 1870s. For almost two weeks, by day, we researched key street battle spots as the war for Civil Rights and Social Equality raged in actual armed conflicts upon the streets of New Orleans. As well, we met with and spoke with the foremost expert on the Voodoo Queen, Marie Laveau, visited plantations, dug into museums, and gained an understanding of New Orleans, both then and now. And then, by night, we went out for drinks, food, and music. It seemed our journey back to our quarters each night was marred by ‘just one more stop’ as live bands pulled us into their clutches as we tried to pass by.

One reason to set my Brooklyn 8 Ballo series in Brooklyn was that my daughter lives there, giving me an opportunity to do research whenever I visit. Two memorable trips include a trip to the back room of the Back Room and a visit to Roosevelt Island formerly known as Damnation Island.

The Back Room is a speakeasy in lower Manhattan that has been kept exactly like it was in 1924 when 8 Ballo pays a visit there and is escorted into the back room of the Back Room to meet with Charlie “Lucky” Luciano, Meyer Lansky, and Bugsy Siegel. It is here that they spawned the organization known as Murder Incorporated and laid the foundation for the modern Mafia. Due to my daughters’ efforts, we were given a private tour of this back room to the Back Room.

In 2024, Roosevelt Island, a spit of land two miles by a half mile, located in the East River between Manhattan and Queens, is an upscale neighborhood with a bridge from Queens and a tram that takes you to Manhattan. One-hundred-years ago, in 1924, it was known as Damnation Island because it was a dumping ground for the poor, sick, mad, and criminal. A combination of insane asylums, Almshouses, prisons—for the poor, it was reached by taking an elevator down from the Queensboro Bridge.

Whether it is reading current or old newspapers, books, internet stories, visiting locations, or any one of a myriad of various techniques, research is an integral part of the writing process. What research methods have you used or been impressed with in your writing or reading?

About the Author

Matt Cost was a history major at Trinity College. He owned a mystery bookstore, a video store, and a gym, before serving a ten-year sentence as a junior high school teacher. In 2014 he was released and began writing. And that’s what he does. He writes histories and mysteries.

Cost has published five books in the Mainely Mystery series, with the fifth, Mainely Wicked, just released in August of 2023. He has also published four books in the Clay Wolfe Trap series, with the fifth, Pirate Trap, just released on March 27th, 2024.

For historical novels, Cost has published At Every Hazard and its sequel, Love in a Time of Hate, as well as I am Cuba. In April of 2023, Cost combined his love of histories and mysteries into a historical PI mystery set in 1923 Brooklyn, Velma Gone Awry. City Gone Askew will follow in July of 2024.

Cost now lives in Brunswick, Maine, with his wife, Harper. There are four grown children: Brittany, Pearson, Miranda, and Ryan. A chocolate Lab and a basset hound round out the mix. He now spends his days at the computer, writing.