Beer and bricks

Everyone thinks that researching and writing a novel involves thinking deeply in front of a computer screen. It does, but in the case of The Priest, the Witch & the Poltergeist here’s what else it involved:

- drinking Stella Artois beer and eating moules frites in Rouen.  I liked this part.

- learning more about Joan of Arc because (see above) we were in Rouen.  I did not know, for example, that she was only 14. What is it about adolescents and visions? Nor did I know that she was denigrated by the Catholic church for many years, referred to as la pouce (the flea). Some flea. Some bite.

- calling a British paranormal society about Andrew Lang, a nineteenth-century anthropologist, and telling the receptionist helpfully that he wrote about the Cideville poltergeist.  ”Oh!” she gasped.  ”How did you know?”

- handing husband and two daughters bricks and blocks to bang on the walls of our house to simulate a poltergeist one night after dinner. Turns out doing this can blow out candles and cause squabbles.  We have since moved.

- accidentally putting poltergeist sounds (for Booktrack ebook on sale Oct. 22) on iPad and discovering I kind of like walking in the woods with them. A change from Lady Gaga.

So see? Write something and find out for yourself.