The Right Guard (The Allegiance Series, Book 1)

Writing About What You Know

People ask me how do I know about various physical locations, or a certain technique or firing on a gun range. It’s because I've been there! As an anthropologist, field work was the norm. As a novelist, I'm still collecting information on locations and situations that I can make as real as possible for my readers. If I wasn’t there, I use diaries, interviews or research. Sometimes my imagination creates a scenario but if possible, I work from my background or travels. Readers seem to enjoy that in my work. Like other authors I write notes on napkins in restaurants, have writing note pads all over the house and in my car. You never know when an idea or a description of an experience takes place and once it is gone…it is gone. Jack London, “Call of the Wild” worked in the Klondike. Herman Melville, “Moby Dick” worked as a crew member on several vessels beginning in 1839. John le Carré [David John Moore Cornwell] “The Spy Who Came In From The Cold” worked during the 1950s and 1960s for both the Security Service (MI5) and the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). Interested in becoming a writer? What do you know?