Lines from Linda

Funny Thing, Research…

I've been working on another historical novel. I had an idea I liked, so I sketched out an outline and began fleshing it out a bit until I wound up with a fairly detailed five-page plot summary. One scene required my heroine, who is of the early 18th century French nobility, to be secretive about her means and appear as a commoner. I had this great plan for her to hide money by sewing it in her clothes or shoes. Problem is, I started doing research and found that due to the crash of the French economy just a few years before the date I'd picked, the use of paper money had ceased during that period. Back to the drawing board...

I'd remembered studying about France's economic woes before their time of recovery...before the revolution. However I didn't realize they had no paper currency. But I'm sure many world history buffs or those who are drawn to stories set in pre-revolution France (i.e. my audience) would have known, and had I not discovered this tidbit of information, my writing would have been totally discredited to many readers. Which is one reason we research.

So, how does one get started researching a historical novel? I found a good article by Shelly Thacker Meinhardt on this topic. I don't know Shelly and I've never read any of her fiction, but I found her article on research very helpful. In addition to a number of tips and insights into research, she gives a laundry list of general items to check on as you develop your story:

• Clothing & Hairstyles


• Crime & Law Enforcement


• Entertainment


• Food


• Furniture


• History (politics, wars, kings & queens, etc.)


• Housing


• Maps


• Medicine


• Money


• Religion


• Shops & Towns


• Transportation


• Travel & Inns


• Weapons


• Women & Marriage


• Words and Names common to your setting

She went on to say "list every source used" in your notes. This is excellent advice in case you need to delve deeper into a particular area or to prove a point to your copy-editor.

So, my research efforts sent one idea to the cutting room floor. However, the good part is that I've come up with many more ideas to replace it!

Why I’m a Basketball Fan…

Minus 13 degrees with a wind chill of 49 below during the 1967 NFC Championship holds the record as the coldest game played in NFL history. Today's 5 above with the wind chill hovering at negative 9 for the Packers-Giants matchup doesn't sound any better. At this moment, if my live stats feed is working correctly, the game is tied at 20 apiece and paused for the 2 minute warning. This means, unless someone scores, the thousands of fans (in this case, aptly shortened from "fanatics") who braved the big chill will enjoy an extension of the "Ice Bowl" via overtime.

Ouch!

Facelift for Fiction Fundamentals

While I'm on this web site makeover kick, I gave my Fiction Fundamentals site a facelift, thanks to the guys over at Quommunication. I still have a few kinks to work out with the new theme.

For one thing, since I began blogging in the days before "Tags" were part of the WordPress platform (without the use of an external plug-in), I used "Categories" like tags. Now that the Tag feature is part of daily blogging life, it's best to use Categories like Departments, and picking one per post, and then tag the post to classify it with related posts.

Since the newer releases of WordPress include the Tag feature, I really need to go through all my old posts and re-categorize them and tag them. That'll be a chore, but it will make my sites more user-friendly. I'll add that to my to-do list.

The News Theme (pictured in the above screen shot) has a number of features, including Sub-Categories. I've seen Sub-Pages in many themes, but most don't support lumping various related categories under one heading. I did re-organize the dozens of categories I had on that site, and now just a few display across the nav bar with a nice drop-down list of the subs for each one. Pretty spiff!

When All Else Fails…

Read the directions!

I've spent far too much time this year re-designing a web site that I had exactly the way I wanted it.

Why?

I made it disappear.

The WordPress powers that be have warned about updating to new versions without first deactivating all plug-ins and returning one's site to the default theme. Frankly, I'd forgotten that little tidbit of info, but I bet I won't forget it on the next WP update.

The site I annihilated was my humor column, Overweight & Underorganized. I'm still struggling with a theme selection. I've found several I really like, including the current theme, Block Magazine by Adii.

I'm nearly done uploading content. Content, by the way, that I had to search for from three different computers because the word "Underorganized" isn't just a cute word in a column title; it's my life.

I may test drive a few more themes before settling upon the "right" one. And it may be Block Magazine. I really like the theme. I'm just not sure it "fits" what I hope to portray with the site. I want something a bit more whimsical, but yet I want the structure of a magazine theme.

Luckily, I don't have to make this decision tonight.

Happy Birthday, Ben!

Benjamin Franklin was born on this day, in Boston, back in 1706. Here's an excerpt from his obituary. I wonder if he wrote it!

"Elder statesman of the American Revolution," oldest signer of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, scientist, diplomat, author, printer, publisher, philosopher, philanthropist, and self-made, self-educated man. Author, printer and publisher of Poor Richard's Almanack (1733-1758). Born at Boston, Mass., died at Philadelphia, Penn., April 17, 1790.

Whether or not he wrote the above words is unknown, however, he did write and publish (in Poor Richard's Almanack) a premature epitaph, which first appeared in 1771:

The body of BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Printer, Like a Covering of an old Book, Its contents torn out And stript of its Lettering and Gilding Lies here, Food for Worms; But the work shall not be lost, It will (as he believ'd) appear once more In a New and more beautiful Edition Corrected and amended By the Author.

National Nothing Day

We live in a busy world. Thank goodness for people like Harold Pullman Coffin, who gave Americans a day where we can relax without honoring, observing, or celebrating anything. I think I'll do that.

Thanks, Harold!

In a Web Working Mood

I know that today is the anniversary of the invention of basketball. And, yes, I'm a huge basketball fan. I've been doing a great job of achieving my basketball watching quota. In fact, I've been gone most of the evening watching our high school teams play. (Girls won; boys came within 3 points near the end of the 4th quarter, but fell by 9 by the final buzzer.) However, I've also spent quite a bit of time doing some web work.

Those of you who have hung around my blog for a while (thanks!) know that I love playing with web sites, even though I have a lot to learn. I'm getting fairly comfortable with WordPress and .php, although I still use themes & templates. I doubt I'll dip my toe into the developer's pool, but I've had a lot of fun learning about magazine-styled WordPress themes.

You may have noticed the redesign of my main site, LindaFulkerson.com. I've also completed a redesign on our church's site and am nearly finished with a new web for our church youth group. I'm very pleased with the looks of all these sites.

On my site, I'm using the Structure theme by Jason Tadlock. The church site was created with Michael Polluck's WordPress Magazine Theme 1.0, and I used Brian Gardner's Revolution Magazine theme for the youth group's web. Please note that some of these themes (all by "Structure") are "premium" WordPress themes, which means they are not free.

But, like L'Oreal, they're worth it!

A Sad Day for the Razorbacks

We knew it was coming. It makes perfect sense. But still, most of us wish it hadn't happened.

Felix Jones and Darren McFadden today announced their intent to enter the NFL draft. No one can blame them, but no one wanted to see them leave the Razorbacks when both had another year of college eligibility left.

These are two of the most talented running backs I've ever had the pleasure to watch. I wish them both the best as they transition from college students to professional athletes.

You Gotta Love the Internet

Where would we be without the Internet? I mean, how else would we know that today, January 13, marks the birthdate of Elisa Bonepart, Napolean's little sister?

So, how, when, and why did the Internet really get started? According to WikiAnswers:

The Internet was originally developed by DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, as a means to share information on defense research between involved universities and defense research facilities. Originally it was just email and FTP sites as well as the Usenet where scientists could question and answer each other. It was originally called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency NETwork). The concept was developed starting in 1964, and the first messages passed were between UCLA and the Stanford Research Institute in 1969. Leonard Kleinrock of MIT had published the first paper on packet switching theory in 1961. Since networking computers was new to begin with, standards were being developed on the fly. Once the concept was proven, the organizations involved started to lay out some ground rules for standardization.

Many others contributed to the Internet's development and its later commercialization, including Jennifer Wimborne, who coined the terms "Internet" and "Email."

And speaking of "Advanced Research Projects," I use the Internet quite a bit for my own research projects, such as answering questions like "What on earth am I going to blog about today?" Which is why I Googled "January 13" in the first place.

Another thing I learned today from browsing online is that one of my favorite actors -- Patrick Dempsey -- shares a birthday with Napolean's little sister.

Shekinna Stricklen

Remember her? I've blogged about Shekinna before. She and my daughter were teammates until my little girl graduated and moved off to college. Shekinna is about to do the same. Only she's headed to Knoxville to play for the Lady Vols. Last night Shekinna had a career high of 43 points. Plus 11 rebounds, 8 steals, 5 blocks, and 3 assists.

The Morrilton girls struggled throughout the first half, and at one point during the third quarter, were down by 16 points to a team that's one of the favorites in our conference. We had beaten this team (Siloam Springs) to win the title of the Neosho (MO) Holiday Tournament in December, but at this point in the season, Morrilton's 5th and 6th girls are on the bench with ACL injuries. We're 3-0 in a competitive conference, but many have wondered how well we'll do the entire season with the injured players. A couple of other girls have stepped up and done very well filling those gaps.

Near the end of the third quarter last night, the tallest girl on Siloam's team (a 6-4 sophomore) nailed Shekinna from behind on a fast break layup and sent her sailing nearly into the wall. There was an audible gasp throughout the crowd. Shekinna got up, shook it off, and sank both shots from the intentional foul, which cut Morrilton's deficit to 10 or 12. She then turned toward the girl who had knocked her down and pointed at her. That was it. Shekinna took the game on her back and Siloam Springs never had a chance.

Shekinna is great at playing team ball and rarely plays "off the leash" like she did last night. She is generally a humble spirited person and leads the team in assists, although we all know she can cut loose whenever she wants. I think last night she was just plain mad.