Your Internet Search History

[Ann]

You've come to the attention of the feds!

They look at your internet history as a writer.

Gasps fill the room.

Whats the worst thing they will find that you've researched for in a novel?

Be honest ;]

[Ken]

In no particular order:
-maps of Greece
-Airline emergency policy
-pictures of dead cattle
-beards
-Lady Gaga's costumes from The Born This Way Ball Tour
-gunshot wounds
-Ancient Greek funerary rites
-Genital piercing

[Ann]

HAHAHA! I hope to god that was all just for one character :p

[Carl]

Blood spatter patterns. Grossed out myself.

[Ann]

Haha! No dexter for you then :]

[J]

The N.S.A knows? D8

My writing-related searches include:

Victorian fashion
How does drowning feel?
New York City maps
Human body decomposition process
How to reload a revolver

[Ann]

Thats a story in itself!!

[Deb]

- arrow wounds
- rape impact/recovery
- miscarriage
- time to rigor mortis
- how long does it take to make a gun

[Carl]

Bisky: friend told me about the "table" in Dexter. Ewww... Of course this reaction is strange when you consider the worst thing I ever did in fiction had to do with heads and pikes. No more shall I say.

[Rick]

It's funny you should put this up as a topic...although I wasn't aware you had "Feds" in the UK...because more than once I've thought to myself if anyone is actually paying attention to my search history they would seriously be wondering what in the hell I'm up to. For instance... I've looked up various untraceable poisons, the book of the Dead, the Book of Shadows, various books on magic, serial killers in the US, The Jonestown Massacre, Charles Manson and how he talked his followers into what they did, Anton Levay and his Satanic Bible as well as a history of his followers, the FBI, what The FBI investigates, when the FBI is called in, real estates ads all over Seattle, how long would it take for someone to die if they were impaled, Bob Dylan song lyrics, Oasis song Lyrics, The Smiths song lyrics, assault weapons, the Russian Spetsnaz, Elite Killing squad techniques, sniper rifles, handguns, explosives, yachts, power tools, Gypsies, Twins, and psychics... And that was probably just over a few afternoons. How the Feds haven't already shown up at my door I really don't know?

[Ann]

@Deb that makes me think of a victorian crime thriller for some reason??

@Carl haha I love some tasteful gore. I don't find dexter that bad :3

@Rick We don't but Mi5 isn't as notoriously snoopy. It makes me think of Joesph Mengeles search bar from Brazil lol. Sounds like an interesting story!

[Rick]

Not everything makes it in, but surprisingly a lot does... and I did say my books were fairly entertaining...but then again what author doesn't...:-)

[Jonathan]

I think my stuff is fairly tame, but I'm shit at research. It mostly involves Google Earth for me, and trying to work out the layout of cities I've never been to.

[Ken]

I think it's a little bit easier sometimes when you're writing a genre novel: to a certain extent, you can create the world yourself, along with its rules and everything else.

I still want things to be accurate (or at least seem that way) but I quite enjoy writing some of my alien characters (well, they're the Greek gods) but they have these alien senses and way of looking at things that I can just create for them from the ground up.

[Annalisa]

Poisons and random facts about the 80s are the most recent searches. I might get a visit from the fashion police, I guess!

[Ann]

@Rick Oh i say that all the time :p

@Johnaton I do that!

@Ken Its kind of why I like writing Urban Fantasy, even if its a real place you can add a secret place inside it :p

@Annalisa Hahaha! Maybe your going to travel in time and poison the awful fashion stars of the time :p

[Carl]

Also, I often do research for my poems. For example, I wrote a haiku series about the Palmer House (Frank Lloyd Wright designed) in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I looked up how to make bricks and glass. It turns out that, though the tools have changed, the process has been similar across millennia.

[Ann]

Wow thats really interesting!

[Ethan]

I've got a couple of good ones, including but not limited to:

-edible plants of the Canadian shield
-how to trap a squirrel
-odourless poisons
-anaphylactic attacks
-cocktail recipes
-child prostitution
-largest industries in Nebraska
-anabolic steroids
-Chronic Traumatic Encepalothy

[Ann]

See that one is kinda of random yet chilling at the same time! haha! You're definatly underwatch :D

[Carl]

I love these lists.

[Brian]

This is so awful, but I looked up how long a human body could survive without its skin. The search even made me uncomfortable haha.

[Ann]

@Carl me too!

@Brian I've looked that up too! :x I was so scared I was gonna get some freaky websites. Mostly animal cruelty ones in the end :x

[Jaeme]

I keep my Google search history turned off for that very reason.

[Ann]

The NSA knows all...

[J. David]

Oh I have any number of kinky fetish sites that would probably raise eyebrows...wait, research for novels? Oh, nothing then. ;)

[G.G.]

What does chloroform smell like.
What drugs make you sleep.
What drug is addictive.
How does it feel to get shot, stabbed etc.
Instruments of torture (such as picana).
And Google maps for deserted area/park/reserves and famous buildings/subways etc.

I could go on and on and yes I often wondered what would happen if someone would be checking my internet searches and add it all together. Outch. It's a wonder I haven't been arrested yet.
And no, not everything goes in the stories. Sometimes I just get sucked in a research and end up searching for other stuff by curiosity.

[Ann]

Oh dear :p

And G.G I do that with Wikipedia all the time!

[Jaeme]

Bisky wrote: "The NSA knows all..."

My bookmarks, on the other hand, might be better reading for them:
Russian-English dictionary
Mexica Movement
Military Factory - Military Weapons
Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields: Florida
Cuban cigars | Insight Cuba
and so forth...

[Ann]

Oh dear, makesure your affliation with communists is on the low low :p

[Nicole]

I have a friend that has a blog/all her accounts (goodreads, FB, Twitter) and her handle is "iloveladyporn". :-| LOL

[Ann]

.. What? Lol. As a person who has been on the internet promoting various things...

She is REALLY going to regret that lol

[Carl]

Nicole, lol. And Bisky's right.

[Kamil]

Bisky might be a fed undercover, so I'll keep quiet.

[Ann]

Kamil, look at the red light in my pen for a second.

[Kamil]

Erm, It's basicallt things like impalement, skinning, flogging, dismembring, mumifiation and other nice stuff

[Stephanie]

In no particular order:

-how to go "off the grid" in the U.S.
-cave systems in the northwest
-fashion design schools
-how are swords forged
-human anatomy
-canine hunting behaviors
-can bones be used to make furniture

and now the CIA probably has my butt on a sociopath watch-list.

[Kamil]

Stephanie wrote: "In no particular order:

-how to go "off the grid" in the U.S.
-cave systems in the northwest
-fashion design schools
-how are swords forged
-human anatomy
-canine hunting behaviors
-can bones be u..."

werewolves?

[Stephanie]

Kamil wrote: "Stephanie wrote: "In no particular order:

-how to go "off the grid" in the U.S.
-cave systems in the northwest
-fashion design schools
-how are swords forged
-human anatomy
-canine hunting behavio..."

Not all of this is for the wolves, some of it was for my psychopath villain who runs rampant through most of the series I'm working on right now.

[Ann]

I wish I had the time to google Button Spiders right now lol

[Ann]

Itchy text :D

[Jonah]

Jennifer wrote: "I got sucked into a vortex today on Wikipedia researching the Hope Diamond & its CURSE!
-bio warfare
-fire ants
-CIA /FBI
-the secret room in the National Gallery
-tracking devices
-museums-high te..."

Quite a list. If that doesn't attract NSA attention I don't know what would. I had to research GPS cell phone tracking and several different firearms brands for Speedster. Been looking over my shoulder ever since. BTW your comment re using sticky notes to cover the spider pics is priceless. I can see my wife doing that. She wouldn't print it out first though. She'd just hang sticky notes on her monitor.

[Ren]

Wow. I searched for comma rules to refresh my memory. Maybe I should've searched for something bloodier. ;p

[Char]

I feel lame compared to some cool researchers.

- Warhammer creatures and their back stories
- Folklore stories
-Dictionary.com
- Babynames
- Jester images
- Images of actors and actresses that look like my characters.

Might I add I am in the very beginning of the story.

[Molly]

I'm rather tame compared to some people:

sword weight
medieval clothing
medieval kinds of shops
glass windows invented
fighting styles
how easily people can be killed with swords
history of paper
feminine undergarments of medieval times
history of toilet paper
shoes in the middle ages
how far can a horse travel in a day
how to sword fight
Weavers looms
treatment of stab wounds

[Michael]

Nuns of the Community of Saint Francis
Chinese Hopping Vampires
Life Histories of Chinese Americans
Chinese Swear Words
Commer Camper Vans
Plants that grow with blackberries and nettles
Fritos Twists

The one that could have really gotten me in trouble: I was writing an article on window washing in skyscrapers and I came _that_ close to calling up the World Trade Center one week before 9/11 and asking a series of detailed questions about their procedures.

[Ann]

@Micheal... That wouldn't have gone down too well lol

And what the hell is a Chinese Hopping Vampire?! Omg... The pull of wikipedia is strong... Must... Edit...

[Michael]

@Bisky: A Chinese Hopping Vampire? Well, I _could_ look coy and say, why that's the solution to a mystery in my novel, Safe as Houses, you'll have to read it... but I won't. If you look up "Jiang Shi" you'll find they're reanimated corpses in Chinese folklore. According to Wikipedia, a Jiang Shi "is typically depicted as a stiff corpse dressed in official garments from the Qing Dynasty, and it moves around by hopping, with its arms outstretched. It kills living creatures to absorb their qi, or "life force", usually at night, while in the day, it rests in a coffin or hides in dark places such as caves." For fun, go on to YouTube and search for "Mr. Vampire" for a series of funny Chinese movies about this kind of vampire.

[Rick]

And if you watch Painted Skin: The Resurrection a Chinese film you'll see a variation on this theme in a movie that at times is stunningly gorgeous, well acted, and beautifully directed. It really is a great movie!

[Michael]

Very cool. I missed that when I was doing research. The only movies I saw were pretty silly.