On Research

When you tell someone that you write fiction, occasionally (but more often than one might expect) one of two extreme assumptions are voiced:  

1.) The writer sat down at the computer and made up the whole thing without having to deal with any pesky research.
or
2.) The story is a true one that the writer somehow got someone to tell them and then changed just a few details. (This one tends to be voiced to people writing straight mysteries and such--not so much to fantasy authors.)

Both of these e...