Fiction Research: Black Hole or Thousand Points of Light?

The answer to this question depends on the genre. I’ll stick to what I know and focus on Technothrillers. 

Walking a fine lineReading reviews for my novels can be confusing. “If you like Clancy, you’ll love—” “Doesn’t overwhelm the reader with technical details.” “Too many equipment descriptions.” “Not Clancy.” All true, depending on the reader. For story details, I strive for the middle ground, with a tendency toward descriptions that would satisfy the pickiest Clancy readers.  On the flip side, Clancy-esque minutiae is NOT for everyone, including myself. I’ll be the first to admit, that I’ve read about three quarters of every Clancy novel. Readers skip passages no matter what you write, that’s reality—my goal is meet readers half way.  This has always been my personal preference as a reader, but as a writer, it’s necessary for survival. With most of my books purchased ($5.99 or below) and read on an e-reader, I can’t afford to lose a reader’s attention for very long. Within seconds, they can switch to something new and forget about me.

Research Bookmarks for The Perseid Collapse
Research Bookmarks for The Perseid Collapse

Been there. Done thatMany of my readers are convinced that I’m 1.)  a D.C. insider 2.) a former covert operative 3.) still involved in intelligence agency operations and 4.) have travelled extensively across every continent. There may be some truth to this. I’m not here to dispel rumors or burst anyone’s version of Steven Konkoly. What I will admit, is that I’ve never led an “off the books” Black Ops team on a raid against a Russian bioweapons facility or secretly crossed the Finnish border to investigate rumors of a virus outbreak in the Kola Peninsula.

How do I manage to capture the essence of these operations? My background gives me an advantage. I know the lingo (there’s still a ton I don’t know) and how to navigate online research. I know where to look for articles and how to tell if it’s authentic. Reading everything and anything (books, online articles, subscription sites) helps immensely. I wasn’t on the raid to capture Osama Bin Laden, but I know I could write a fictional OBL raid scene right now, and most readers would believe I had exclusive access to one of the DEVGRU operators on the mission.

How did someone like Tom Clancy get his descriptions, operational details and military jargon so close to reality? In the beginning, he must have fought for exclusive access to some incredible sources. There’s no other explanation. When he became famous, Clancy was granted nearly unfettered access to the military and D.C.  Keep in mind, Tom Clancy  worked in the insurance industry for nearly 15 years before his first novel, The Hunt for Red October, was released. Clancy never served in the military, but he managed to create the impression, from the very start, that he was an insider.

Research Bookmarks for Event Horizon
Research Bookmarks for Event Horizon

Prepping the battle field For me, initial research is critical to achieving momentum. I research on the fly, but I prefer to have the “framework research” already established. Once I finish with my version of plotting, as described in THE PROCESS, I sit back and figure out “framework” topics that need research. If a Marine Infantry Battalion plays a significant role in the story (like in The Perseid Collapse series), I need to know everything there is to know (without going crazy) about the current and future structures for a Marine Infantry Battalion. The Perseid Collapse series takes place in 2019, so I was particularly interested in papers published out of Quantico or the Navy War College about future structure and equipment concepts. This is one example of  dozens of framework research.

Don’t get bogged down here. You have to start writing at some point, and if you’re like me, I feel lost when I’m not in a story. This doesn’t require weeks of prep work. I identify the framework research and do enough to get me started on the novel. I typically like to write 20K words without breaking for heavy research.

Research on the flyThis is the land of Black Holes. Vast seas of time vanish from my day when I’m not disciplined about research on the fly. Sometimes it’s necessary to gain a solid understanding of an important concept, but there’s a difference between researching for the sake of educating yourself and researching to enhance your novel. Trust me, the line is extremely blurry. I still haven’t mastered it. Most of the time, you’ll only know it AFTER the fact. Like getting pick-pocketed. You’ll feel guilty and probably take a break—treat yourself to a snack, because…you’ve gone down a rabbit hole looking for a rabbit, and ended up finding Wonderland. I know I’ve seriously mismanaged my time, when I go on YouTube to watch a clip of a suppressed .50 Caliber sniper rifle for a scene in a book, and emerge from YouTube land 40 minutes later after watching the .50 Cal sniper scene from the movie Smoking Aces. It’s crazy if you haven’t seen it.  Careful, it’s violent and full of bad language. I just watched it again—I never learn.

Google Maps street level view of bridge in Event Horizon
Google Maps street level view of bridge in Event Horizon

Google is my travel agent:  I’ve never been to Novosibirsk, Russia, or Moscow, but I have it on pretty solid authority from a Russian author that most readers would never figure that out through my writing. Damn, I just spilled a secret. Oh well, while I’m at it—I’ve never been to Kazakstan or Argentina. My Russian author friend was surprised that I had never travelled to either Russian location. He knew I hadn’t lived there for any length of time, but the descriptions of the locations, the general feel and the “little things” passed muster.

I like the “little things.” Details about the culture, restaurants, beers, food, street conditions, traffic, graffiti, weather, money, trends—stuff you can find by reading traveller articles, restaurant reviews, hotel reviews, city reviews and tourism board sponsored sites. I spend time on this stuff, and in most cases, if I put a specific description of a location, hotel, street corner, park or restaurant in my novel, it’s real. I change the names (sometimes) for obvious reasons, but here’s a little hint. I rarely make us street names, and I often visualize scenes using Google Maps. If a gunfight occurs in front of 22 Bondegatan in Stockholm, disrupting a cafe with a red and white checkered awning, you’ll very likely find this to be a real place. Okay, I sort of pulled a fast one on you here. I’ve been to Stockholm—but I wrote the scenes from that book and submitted the manuscript to my editor before our Iceland Air flight left Boston.

Militia stronghold in Event Horizon-Eli Russell's place.
Militia stronghold in Event Horizon-Eli Russell’s place.

Here is an excerpt from a recent review. The reviewer is Gustavo Rossi from Buenos Aires. “…The political context is well managed too, and the references to Argentina (books 2 and 3 have long parts there) are surprisingly correct for an american writer…” I’ve never been there in person, but I’ve logged dozens of hours on the internet in “virtual Argentina.” Lesson learned? You don’t have to write on James Michener’s level to connect with a locale. 

Secret Contacts : I graduated from Annapolis with over 1,000 top notch men and women (somehow I got mixed in this crew), many of whom are still on active duty or in the active reserves. They’ve commanded warships, led SEAL platoons and Marine infantry companies in combat, served in the Pentagon, rotated on and off Unified Combatant Command staff (PACOM, CENTCOM, EURCOM, etc). During my eight years on active duty, I’ve met 100’s of other officer, enlisted and civilian contractors. It’s a vast network of professionals that doesn’t divulge secrets or pass information to celebrities. I’ll leave it at that.

The Bottom Line: For my style of writing and genre, detailed research is well worth the time. I’m always feeling the crunch to make progress on a novel, but not at the expense of the reader experience. The trick is deciding which details are essential to the story, and which are gratuitous displays of knowledge gained during a Black Hole trip through the Web. I’m still honing this process. 

 

My “offices”

Where do you spend most of your time?

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Day Job

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Writing Job

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Dream Office (Occasion summer location for now)

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Research (lots of research for Black Flagged)

Chinese Cyberwarriors…

are crossing a dangerous line in the realm of Asymmetric Warfare.

I have been watching this issue for years with a detached interest. There is truly nothing earth shattering (hint) about the accusation that China continues to systematically prosecute economic espionage operations against the United States or the West. This is not a new theme out of Asia. The Japanese were accused of conducting industrial and corporate espionage in the 80’s and 90’s, which purportedly launched several of their high-tech companies far beyond the reaches of American counterparts. Most American electronics brands never recovered from the supposed theft of billions of dollars in research and development information, leaving Japanese brands to dominate the market. So, what is different about the current Chinese brand of economic espionage? China is a rising superpower and competitor, with much greater aspirations than dominating the world electronics market. Think military, then think beyond.

EUVE_satellite

Can China, or any nation ever surpass the United States in terms of military technology, power and the ability to project that power? Not in my lifetime, or my children’s…thankfully. We have cornered the market by spending trillions and developing a robust military-industrial complex. The Soviets tried to compete with us directly and it tore them apart. The Chinese won’t make that same mistake. Think more subtle, then think massive scale.

What are they really doing? Stealing military secrets is part of it, but the persistent, widespread cyber-attacks indicate something deeper.

I have been thinking more about this lately, because the concepts of Cyber and Asymmetrical Warfare will be featured prominently in the sequel to The Jakarta Pandemic, setting the stage for a complete shut down of the United States. I just hope the Chinese don’t shut us down before I launch the novel. 

Take a look at this article, which does a great job explaining what has been capturing U.S. officials’ attention: Asymmetric Warfare article 

 

Vacation…I mean research trip to Scandinavia

Alright, I’m probably not going to fool the IRS on this one. Nor will I try. At most, I might dare to write off my own airline ticket. I’ll let my accountant make that call…which is me at the moment.

When I started writing Black Flagged Redux, I knew that one of the final scenes would take place in a Scandinavian country. Finland or Sweden seemed most logical, since either country was a convenient travel route out of northwestern Russia, which is also a major setting for the story. Since we were traveling to Stockholm, I decided this would be the location for book’s climax. This would allow me to research the streets of Stockholm first hand. Of course, I finished the novel almost six weeks before my “research trip.” Go figure. Fortunately, everyone took time with their piece of the puzzle…editing, cover art, pre-reader feedback. All effectively blocking the temptation to launch the book before my vacation. I really wanted to head out to Europe with a clean slate so to speak, but I’m so glad my impatient plan didn’t work out.

There is nothing quite like walking through a foreign city and seeing the action from one of your books play out in front of you. How often does a writer get to lean up against the same stucco wall as one of their characters…in a city six time zones and one ocean away. Pretty cool to say the least. Only about fifteen people could know the significance of the following pictures, but after you read the book, you’ll look at these pictures very differently. 

The street name says it all

First thing Daniel Petrovich and Hans Schafer see when rounding the corner onto the street. I didn’t envision the trash…nor did I expect to see the very address I chose for my book to be under construction! I’m not kidding you when I say that this is the only building in Stockholm that I saw under a blue tarp. I guess it makes sense given what happens in the book. Look, there’s even a white van!

View of cafe in book, from the entrance to Reznikov’s apartment. It was a little busier in the book.

At this point, people were starting to give me the hairy eyeball, so I felt a little uncomfortable taking close ups. This is the entrance to Reznikov’s building.

You can imagine that this doorway alcove would provide decent cover (in either direction) for a Spetznaz operative. Not much chance of a 5.56mm round penetrating those walls.

That’s it. A ten minute detour on the way to pick up our rental car. I was a little bummed to see the blue tarp at 22 Bondegatan, but had to appreciate the irony of the situation. Goes to show that Google Maps can only take you so far in your research. Actually, I’d be quite lost without Google Maps.

What you can’t get from the internet is a sense of the city. After the trip, I spent some time adding details to the Stockholm scenes that could only be captured by actually standing on the sidewalks or driving the busy streets.

I’m pretty sure that General Sanderson’s next headquarters will be based out of Mexico…right on the beach next to an all inclusive resort. I can’t afford to get the setting wrong on that one. I’ll need to stare at that beach for quite some time to get into General Sanderson’s head.