RESEARCH

by Kathy Cannon Wiechman

Writing historical fiction means doing a ton of research. And I love researching! I find historical facts, places, and events against which to set my fictional story.

My recently completed novel, LIKE A RIVER, will be published soon by Boyds Mills/Highlights Press. It’s a Civil War story with a few elements the average reader might not be familiar with. It’s also a story about hardship. And triumph. And people.

My research included stops in six states. I visited dozens of intriguing sites and met numerous helpful people. I learned to load and fire a muzzleloader. I talked to experts and read stacks and stacks of books. I learned a lot of facts.

Kathy firing a muzzleloader.

There were “ah ha!” moments that helped mold my story line. And interesting facts that gave me a new perspective on lives lived 150 years ago.

Many of them will not be in the novel. Some of them were things I needed to learn to get a feel for the place and time I was writing about.

Confederate prisoner-of-war camp at Andersonville. http://www.classroomelectric.org/
30,000 soldiers were crammed into an area designed to accommodate 10,000.

Swagger Writers will participate in the A to Z blog challenge during the month of April. I plan to use my portion of alphabet letters to share some of the facts behind the fiction in my book. I hope you’ll revisit this blog next month to read about them.