Going on ice, though I have as much aversion to cold as the Oscars do to people of color

I am not an ice fisherman, but I am heading out on Saginaw Bay today – three days before the end of January - to do some research for my next book.

But, here’s the kicker. At this stage of my life, I have as much aversion to the cold as the Oscars have to people of color. I absolutely have no use for weather that makes my teeth chatter and my knees knock.

With the temperature just below freezing, and a howling wind from the northeast that makes it feel bone-chilling cold, this is not anything I am looking forward to. In fact, I’m dreading it.

However, there is nothing like experiencing the real thing to give a piece of fiction the kind of authenticity that will engage readers and pull them into a story. A piece of advice I picked up at Love Is Murder mystery writer’s conference a few years ago is that a good writer has got to do the research – the legwork – to make a story ring true.

And the key word here is research. One of the most frequently asked questions I receive when I’m meeting with folks at book clubs and writers’ circles, or with college or high school students, is this: You’re writing fiction, so why can’t you just make it up - why does it have to be accurate?

The answer is that readers are too smart to be fooled by pure fantasy and wild guesswork. If the work is dead wrong and filled with misinformation and errors, then the author is dead in her or his tracks.

It’s all about plausibility. If readers believe they’re being handed 250 pages or more of B.S., they’re simply not going to swallow it. And worse, if they put a book down and move on, it’s unlikely an author can lure them back.

So, I’m doing the legwork. I’m going out on the big ice with Fisher Joe, a friend I occasionally knock down a few beers with at the Blue Water Inn in Caseville.

Fisher Joe has got the ice gig down to a craft. He should, he goes out to catch Walleye and/or Perch almost every day in the winter. And he’s almost always successful. When I run into Joe, we inevitably swap a few, fresh cold ones. I buy him a few Bud Lights in exchange for a mess of fish – a small portion of whatever he caught that day.

All I have to do is clean the catch, season it up right, and toss it into the oven or into a pot of sizzling Canola oil to fry. Served with a baked spud and homemade coleslaw, the result is a delicious feed.

Pardon my drooling taste buds. They’re taking me off track here. The reason I want to go out with Fisher Joe is not the fish, but to research the experience.

He’s going to help me find out all kinds of things. What kind of clothing is necessary to weather Michigan’s coldest weather? What are the essential tools and gear of the ice fisherman? What about the bait (once out on the ice, you can’t just run back into town to pick up worms)? How do you judge the thickness of the ice to support you and your gear? What about weather patterns and shifts in temperature or wind? How do you know when it’s time to get off the ice?

And while I will rely on Fisher Joe for lots of information, my research won’t stop there. I’ll also talk with many of my neighbors, who have their own fishing traditions and rituals. That’s the great thing about living in a community where you have many resources.

But that’s not all. Before I’m done, I’ll also touch base and spend time with people at the Huron County Sheriff’s Department and the Coast Guard about cold-water rescue. They’re the folks who go out and get the anglers on the ice when they get in trouble.

So, by now you’re probably wondering just what kind of story a murder mystery writer might be conjuring up about ice fishing on Saginaw Bay.

Well, stay tuned. If all goes well, I’m hoping to publish by the end of the year and it will be within your reach.A Grand Murder