Christopher Farrell
asked
Scott Hawkins:
Hi Scott! I'm a bookseller in a small mall and I have been doing everything to handsell your book - it's the most interesting, original book I've read in years. I know you have a prequel story coming, but stories about the Librarians would be appreciated! (More Peter, please - he takes after the cook buried in my own heart) What was your research like for this book?
Scott Hawkins
Thanks Christopher--I really, really appreciate the handsells. First-time novelist is a tough gig, and I am massively grateful for any help I can get. Let me know if I can do anything to help.
As far as research--hmm. One of the big attractions of writing fantasy (as opposed to technical books) is that you can make most of it up. But to keep things grounded I did make an effort to get my facts straight in terms of the real world details. Some of it was easier than others.
You'd think the White House would be pretty well photographed. Maybe it is, and I'm just looking in the wrong place, but I had a hell of a time getting a picture of the room outside the Oval Office. I ended up trackign one down from the Nixon scandal, where the secretary was demonstrating how she accidentally erased a tape.
I think I kinda-sorta verified that Apache helicopters can be fitted with loudspeakers, but I didn't want to get too enthusiastic and end up on some sort of terrorism watch list.
The stuff at the vet was advised by an actual veterinarian--I posted a question on an online forum about what they'd do in a situation like the one that came up in the book. The bit about not having quite enough anesthetic was the vet's idea.
A buddy of mine is a public defender (hi Luke!), and he gave me the idea to set the initial meet between Steve, Erwin and the attorney in a chapel--apparently that's pretty common, and I liked the religious undertone.
I made an effort to get the languages right, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were mistakes. Most of it came from google translate. My copy editor pointed out that I mangled the gender pretty bad in a couple of cases, so there may be other mistakes. The Chinese ought to be okay, though--it was from a native speaker I worked with. I speak a little Japanese, and I think that part was okay.
The pistols that were used were Glocks in the first draft, but one of my beta readers pointed out that Glocks don't have safety levers to flick. (My understanding is that with Glock the safety is built into the trigger.) So I changed it to an HK.
I also bought and (mostly) read a copy of Buddhism for Dummies, and read up on Buddhism generally. In early drafts Steve had about a 10,000 word speech about Thích Quảng Đức, the Vietnamese monk who immolated himself in 1963 to protest Vietnamese government's treatment of Buddhists.
As far as research--hmm. One of the big attractions of writing fantasy (as opposed to technical books) is that you can make most of it up. But to keep things grounded I did make an effort to get my facts straight in terms of the real world details. Some of it was easier than others.
You'd think the White House would be pretty well photographed. Maybe it is, and I'm just looking in the wrong place, but I had a hell of a time getting a picture of the room outside the Oval Office. I ended up trackign one down from the Nixon scandal, where the secretary was demonstrating how she accidentally erased a tape.
I think I kinda-sorta verified that Apache helicopters can be fitted with loudspeakers, but I didn't want to get too enthusiastic and end up on some sort of terrorism watch list.
The stuff at the vet was advised by an actual veterinarian--I posted a question on an online forum about what they'd do in a situation like the one that came up in the book. The bit about not having quite enough anesthetic was the vet's idea.
A buddy of mine is a public defender (hi Luke!), and he gave me the idea to set the initial meet between Steve, Erwin and the attorney in a chapel--apparently that's pretty common, and I liked the religious undertone.
I made an effort to get the languages right, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were mistakes. Most of it came from google translate. My copy editor pointed out that I mangled the gender pretty bad in a couple of cases, so there may be other mistakes. The Chinese ought to be okay, though--it was from a native speaker I worked with. I speak a little Japanese, and I think that part was okay.
The pistols that were used were Glocks in the first draft, but one of my beta readers pointed out that Glocks don't have safety levers to flick. (My understanding is that with Glock the safety is built into the trigger.) So I changed it to an HK.
I also bought and (mostly) read a copy of Buddhism for Dummies, and read up on Buddhism generally. In early drafts Steve had about a 10,000 word speech about Thích Quảng Đức, the Vietnamese monk who immolated himself in 1963 to protest Vietnamese government's treatment of Buddhists.
More Answered Questions
Michael
asked
Scott Hawkins:
Scott, I loved this book. The ideas were original in a way I haven't seen in awhile and the characters were great. For some odd reason, whenever I was reading 'Erwin', I couldn't help but here him with Sam Elliott's voice. A little crazy, huh? So... you have to be thinking about a sequel, yes? Carolyn has some serious unfinished to deal with and I'm sure Erwin could handle being her American advisor, right?
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