Letters to Kel: REFERENCES AND RESOURCES AND FUN, OH MY!

And here's my "official" list of reference books I have kept. Over the years, I've bought a lot of books as research for books I wanted to write, and got rid of them when I realized they didn't give me the info I wanted or needed, or I decided the book wasn't going to pan out, or other reasons.

I have LOTS of books on faerie tales and mythology -- Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson, The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Mabinogion (Celtic), Native American, Arabian, Greek, etc.

Bullfinch's Mythology
The Arthurian Encyclopedia
The AMA Home Medical Encyclopedia
New York Public Library Science Desk Reference
Bodytalk -- Morris
Dictionary of Quotations -- Evans
The Way Things Work -- Lodewijk
An Incomplete Education -- Jones and Wilson
Survival with Style -- Angier
The Cartoon Guide to Genetics -- Gonick and Wheelis
The Cartoon Guide to Physics -- Gonick and Huffman
Back to Basics -- Reader's Digest
The Compendium of Weapons, Armour & Castles -- Balent
Light Elements -- Stone

A good starting place for research is the children's section of the bookstore -- find books that explain the basics, the simple, bedrock details of things like how different mechanisms work, essential history and geography. For instance, you have some scenes set in a pyramid -- find a kids book on Ancient Egypt and building pyramids. Kids' books are more likely to tell you the details you want/need to know, rather than having to wade through 2,000 pages of scientific data you'll never need, and might not understand without going to other books to explain them!

Plus, with the Internet, you have a good chance of finding -- free for download -- diagrams and photocopies of older books or historical documents from the time period or location where your story takes place, that you might not be able to get access to either through a bookstore or library by going physically there. I had a friend doing research on what kind of plastic surgery was available during the Regency era. She didn't have to go to England, she just got on the Internet and found ancient manuals and sketches from that time period, and copied them to her computer for future reference.