A Matter of Research ~ @oddlynn3 #rndrobin0321 #LynnCrain #AWriterInVienna

Hi everyone!

And welcome to A Writer In Vienna. If you’ve never been here before, pull up a chair and look around. I’ve lived in Vienna, Austria four years and am trying to share that experience with others.

Today’s topic is all about research. Every story, no matter what genre deals with research. I was asked the following questions: What type of research have you had to do? Does it bother you when you read something happening in a story that is inaccurate historically, socially, scientifically, etc.?

Here’s my answer: All story genres take some research for establishing details in the setting. It really doesn’t matter what genre one writes in, everyone needs to do some research. When I was writing my award-winning story, The Haunting of Maggie Grey, I had to figure out just how a woman doctor would survive in Scotland on the Isle of Skye. Even before that, I had to figure out if there were even women doctors available to that area during the 1880s-1890s since I wasn’t sure. Happily, I found there was a plethora of women who went into the profession and offered their services to the underprivileged of the time. I even had to do research of veterinary medicine as the hero was a vet and again, I didn’t know if that was even possible. Apparently, I got it right as that story has won some ebook awards in its time.

However, if I wasn’t doing a historic setting, I’d still have to do the research. In my completed book called Loving the Scotsman, I’m again back in Scotland. In that book, I draw on my time visiting there as the setting is contemporary. I look at the places I’d been and even made up some fictional ones to fit the mood and event. I knew enough from being there, my current time research and even emailing people I knew there to make sure everything was accurate or plausible. This story is currently with an agent and I’m hopeful that it will go the rounds at NYC very soon.

I even take Scotland one step further. In my WIP, I again go back to Skye with A Wizard in Skye. This is a story about a futuristic female cop who is pulled into a wizard’s prison by some evil magic. She doesn’t believe in magic. Here I use my husband’s family clan as the backdrop, The MacLeods, and their legend of The Fairy Flag. There are many things written about that little piece of cloth and if I get one wrong, it will be a sad day. So weaving legend with the future has been a fun thing to do. The research here is quite different because I have to keep the Fairy Flag legend intact, layer some of my own interpretation and then draw in a futuristic world of my own making. It all has to be seamless and plausible at the same time.

As far as how I do research, sometimes it just takes me reading a few articles, taking a few notes then making my own decisions on what I’ll use and how I use it. Other times, like one of my current bigger projects, every story will need some major research into the science, the legends and just how it will all mesh together.

Frankly, if I run across stories where the research is poorly done, I will not pick up that author again unless I feel there were reasons for the inaccuracies. For instance, if a story is all about an alternative timeline to our own history, of course, things will be different…may be slightly…may be a lot. It would all depend upon the author’s vision. However, if it is a historic event and they are presenting it as such, I just might write that author and point it out, it would all depend. However, I tend to be a little more lenient about social and scientific things because those can be an interpretation versus an actual fact difference. Most of the items that writers skew to fit their stories are social or scientific. Basically, I know how I see something isn’t the way another does. Yet, if someone tries to disprove a science tenant such as the law of physics, I’d be hard pressed to take them seriously.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little look into my research methods. Thanks for being supportive of us during our round robins. We love when you visit us and tell us what you think.

Don’t forget to go to each of the authors in the list below. Each of them is a very different look into how they do research and what they think. Again, thanks for joining us…see you next time.

Lynn

T Margaret Fieland at http://www.margaretfieland.com/blog1/
T Beverley Bateman at http://beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/
T Skye Taylor at http://www.skye-writer.com/

T Rachael Kosnski http://rachaelkosinski.weebly.com/
T Heidi M. Thomas http://heidiwriter.wordpress.com/
T Marci Baun at http://www.marcibaun.com/
T Anne Stenhouse at http://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com/
T Helena Fairfax at http://helenafairfax.com/
T Connie Vines at http://connievines.blogspot.com/

T Kay Sisk at http://kaysisk.blogspot.com

T Fiona McGier at http://www.fionamcgier.com/
T A.J. Maguire at http://ajmaguire.wordpress.com/
T Judith Copek http://lynx-sis.blogspot.com/
T Rhobin Courtright at http://www.rhobinleecourtright.com/

Do You Believe in the Paranormal ~ @oddlynn3 #rndrobn1026 #LynnCrain

Welcome to this month’s round robin with a great group of writers. It’s October and time for all things paranormal. The weather has changed here in Vienna and out my office window I can see the fall colors in abundance. I just got home yesterday from the States and I do apologize for being late because I’m still a little jet-lagged...make that very...so I apologize in advance if something doesn't make sense.

But back to the topic of the month and that’s all things paranormal. I got a great beginning to the subject when we landed yesterday in a fog bank. Yes, it was like the legendary London fog and total pea soup. I was thankful that by the time we got in the taxi that you could at least see a hundred feet in front of the car as there was zero visibility from the plane window. The pilot gave us a little warning but my husband said that he didn’t explain it well because the German version was a little disconcerting. Still, I think it is an appropriate beginning to this month’s column.

The question is have I or anyone I know ever had a paranormal experience? I can say that with an absolute yes. I live in a very old building here in Vienna. People have been coming and going, dead or alive, since it was built in 1867.

We haven’t figured out yet just how the original apartments were configured. We believe that many of the floors on our side of the building were single apartments or at the very most, two apartments. We’ve seen a few of the larger apartments when they’ve been updating them and they could hold at least a couple of families.

In my particular apartment on the fifth floor, although they say it’s the 3^rd floor because the garden level doesn’t count and ground level is considered the earth level, we are not alone. I became first aware of this by noticing the French doors keep coming unlocked. What I mean by this is that we can stop one of the doors from moving by pushing the lock down into place in a hole in the floor. It makes it so the door doesn’t swing and we do it because once the dog discovered the door moved, he wanted to play with it.

There are many days where the lock has been activated yet when I return the doors are open and able to swing. At first, I thought that the dog found out a way to unlock it but soon realized that if he had, it would involve a lot of jumping on the door which would make a lot of noise. I chocked this up to any number of things in the beginning: the floor was warped, I hit the door accidentally thus loosening the lock and so on.

Now some people would say this isn’t an event but it happened even before we got the dog and I again thought it was something I did. But another event convinced me otherwise. It was not long after we got our puppy and in the beginning, he would sleep in his little crate right next to my side of the bed. Once in the middle of the night, he started growling as if something were in the room with us. Again, we explained it away because we had the light on for him and there is a lot of shadow play in our room.

Matter of fact, if the small light on my side of the bed is on, the room can be absolutely eerie. Yet, that wasn’t the last time our young pup would do this. There have been at least 3 other incidents and none of them involved light of any kind. He would start growling and we’d wake up, let him out of the crate and he’d bury himself under the covers peering out to see if it were safe to come outside.

One of the times, he woke me up from a dead sleep and I just lay there, assessing the situation. I felt I wasn’t alone in the room but when I looked nothing was there of course. The presence wasn’t malevolent but it was there and it made the hair stand up on my arms. From that moment on, I had to acknowledge that we had someone else in the house with us.

Now, I take a different stance on things like this and many people have thought me odd. I talk to my ghost. I don’t know its specific gender but I do know it means no harm. So when odd things happen in my flat, I’ll ask if it did them and what’s wrong. It’s my feeling when ghosts act up, they are like a child where something has gone awry and they want what everyone wants, comfort and acknowledgement. I’ll talk to it when the doors come unlocked, when it wakes me at night or when I feel its presence anytime of the day or night.

Yes, I know this is odd but I truly feel ghosts are real and are but just one of the many paranormal phenomena that inhabit this world with us. As they say, I am a true believer and have had many experiences in my life in regards to the paranormal. And it might have to do with an experience I had as a young girl with angels. You heard me right, angels and while that’s a story for another time, just know that without a doubt I believe they exist as well. Matter of fact, the television show Supernatural is one of my all-time favorites as the subject matter delves into the paranormal world.

So, now it’s your turn…have you ever had a paranormal experience in your life? Leave me a comment and I’ll give one lucky person a copy of my ghost story on October 31 or Halloween. Have a great week and see you next month with another round robin. Also, look for some changes to this blog as I am going to start Weird Wednesdays where I tell the world about odd things I find here in Vienna. And I’ll also be starting to post with the Weekend Writing Warriors on this blog my next book in the A Taste of Vienna series.

Thanks for stopping by. Don’t forget to drop by the other great writers in this round robin. First go to Rhobin Lee Courtright’s blog as she’s the one after me. You can find her here http://www.rhobinleecourtright.com. Here’s the complete list of all the participants for this month. Please visit each and every one of them as we all tell you about our paranormal experiences. I’ve only included myself so you all can see the order.

Beverley Bateman http://beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/
Marci Baun  http://www.marcibaun.com/
Diane Bator http://dbator.blogspot.ca/
Connie Vines http://connievines.blogspot.com/
Fiona McGeir http://www.fionamcgier.com
Lynn Crain http://www.awriterinvienna.blogspot.com
Rhobin Lee Courtright http://www.rhobinleecourtright.com

See you all next month!

Lynn

The WC

Written June 18, 2011.

I’ve mentioned before the various items that are vastly different than the States. The major one in my opinion would have to be the bathrooms as if you haven’t been to Europe, you will be in for a shock. I now know why my aunt didn’t like them as the family gets used to the buggers.

First, it is not a given that a toilet will be in the bathroom. If it is then the room is considered an American bathroom. You can have a shower-tub-sink combo for the bathroom and the toilet in a completely separate place. This is odd to say the least.

When looking for homes here, I was amazed at the various different types found. There were ones that were almost American but had bidets. There were ones that had just a shower and a sink, a tub and a sink and the toilets in different areas of the house. There were some houses that had toilet and a since, commonly called a water closet or WC, upstairs and the main bathroom in the basement. Some were nice and some were horrible. The one penthouse we looked at had American bathrooms with no bidet in sight.

The flat we ended up in actually has two bathrooms and one WC. This does not guarantee that there are two toilets and I found this out when we were shopping for a place. Unfortunately, we are a two toilet home and had to mark a lot of places off our list. Had it been only my husband and myself, that might be different but with friends or family visiting, it would be a nightmare.

I was pleasantly surprised that we found a home where there was one bathroom with a shower tall enough for my husband to stand in, a toilet, a sink and a bidet. It also had the washer and eventually dryer in it as well. This is standard in Europe and it is rare to have a separate laundry room. The WC stands alone with a small sink and two small rooms so your guests can use it without taking up a whole bathroom. The last bath has a soaking tub and sink as well as the huge hanging water heater and tank.

It is my opinion that the baths here function as multiuse rooms as other than the WC, our two have dual purposes. This will take time to get used to this configuration and we’ve been in our flat since June 8^th.

Here are some pictures to show you what it’s really like. The first looks into our shower room and shows the washer located there. The second shows the WC and the associated door. The last shows the small sink attached to the WC and I must say, I personally laughed my ass off the first time I saw it. After all, I wasn’t even sure it would fit a soap dish. Lucky for me that every bath has a least one shelf but no other storage.

Life in Vienna is never dull!

More later...

Lynn

The Home Search

Written June 16, 2011.

Sitting here, I think about all that has transpired since my move here in May. The whole enterprise was like a whirlwind courtship: too little time to pack and put our affairs in order, too little time to even look at a place there via the internet, way too little time to say goodbyes and do last minute writer things. Yes, definitely like a whirlwind courtship as there were days I didn’t know which end was up.

Overall, the transition went – er – about as smooth as I expect. Does the term atom bomb mean anything to you? We landed here on a Friday and by Saturday early morning; we were looking at houses in the outskirts of the city. One was a fantastic home and much bigger than ours in the States. The next had a fantastic yard that I wanted to combine with the first house we’d seen but neither seemed quite right for us as both would require a car for us to get around.

I picked a few more from the list provided to us by the UN. Many were taken, as the list hadn’t been updated as frequently as necessary because of lack of staff. Lack of staff? Hey, this is the UN, right? Every position is funded or they don’t have the department, correct? Well – no, that’s not at all how the system works. Throw out everything you know or thought you knew about the UN because more likely than not, it is incorrect.

During the next week, I along with my youngest, Kyle, a nineteen-year-old who drives me crazy, I saw three more places. One place was a penthouse with three terraces, all new appliances and a funky kitchen that my husband felt claustrophobic in when we stood there together. The dog park was a far walk away, there was no parking for the potential car and the neighborhood was questionable. We had the keys for this place and visited it three times during that week so we could look at the neighborhood and check out the public transportation. We loved the place that much and thought we could make it work even with the drawbacks.

The rest of the places that week aren’t even worth mentioning as they were too small or too far from work or were just not right for us. This was the first house search for me in almost twenty years and I had very definite ideas about where I wanted to live. So far, the only place close was the penthouse.

That Sunday we visited another house that looked to be in a great area in the 21st District. We get there and the place looks perfect from the outside as a typical Viennese home. We’re excited by this prospect and go across the street to meet the sweetest little old Austrian woman we’ve ever seen. She reminded me of my grandmother and spoke no English. Once in the home, we’re devastated as it has not been updated since the late 1950s or at least that’s what it looked like. It also didn’t help that we couldn’t communicate with the woman. The rent was cheap, the yard was great but the bathroom was in the basement. Needless to say, we immediately passed on this one.

Another week goes by and the next Saturday we find a house in the 22^nd District that looks promising. The home is in an area my husband, Gordon, knows he’ll love and it’s on a golf course. We’re excited, as it is owned by someone with the Mexican embassy and therefore a person who will understand about living in a foreign land. We run into our first problem trying to get there. We wait for the bus to take us to the stop as shown on the internet. Apparently, the bus stop is only used Monday through Friday and we’re half mile away. We trudge it along this fantastic country lane. Finally, we find the bus stop and note that it is a long way from the house itself. Not good for those winter treks through snow for the husband to and from work. This is a place we’ll definitely need a car.

Finally, we get there and the caretaker is waiting for us. He immediately apologizes as the previous tenant had just left the day before and it’s the first time he’s seen the place since he rented it to them four years ago. Not a problem as we understand just how nasty a home can be when first vacated and needs a good cleaning. We’re floored upon entry, as the people have not only left it dirty, they’ve trashed many things that made the home special. We look through every room and all three floors as our hearts sink. The stairs have issues, the basement floor is warped and a variety of other problems. It will take three weeks to get ready and even though it has everything we want, we pass, as we can’t afford our temporary housing too much longer at about $2K per week.

We moved on to the next on our list. My youngest, Kyle, and I had seen two more places during the previous week. He actually insisted his father see both of them, so we’re off to the one in an area called the 19^th District, which rang all my bells and whistles with the first look. It was three bedrooms, two and a half baths, two terraces and had locked parking as well as a garden for the dog. The owner was a lovely man who we enjoyed very much. The only problem was that the rooms were small and it was a fair distance from where my husband would work. We had afternoon tea with the owner, chatted a while and came away with an absolutely great feeling about the place and the landlord.

The last place we saw was in an 1869 built building. The fifteen-foot ceilings echoed and the original parquet floors were in two patterns. One, a herringbone pattern took up what they called the hall and kitchen. The other, a star pattern, made up the rest of the floors in the apartment or flat as it is known here. The kitchen was modern and would suit our needs. The bathrooms were quiet different, as there was one complete bath with a shower, sink, toilet and bidet. The other bathroom had a tub and a sink. In addition, a water closet was between the two that contained a sink area and a toilet area. In the first bathroom, there was the washer with the potential for a dryer. Did I mention most people don’t have dryers here? Most use racks to dry their clothes indoors or out, whichever is more convenient.

One of the best things about the place was that it overlooked the gardens of the Schwartenberg Palace. The other end of the garden was another palace called Belvedere. The gardens here are legendary and therefore the view fantastic. Another was the fact that the tram stop was about two hundred feet from the door coming in and about five hundred feet on the other side of the road for leaving. This meant Gordon could get to work very easily and efficiently every morning with little time spent in the elements. After all, he was the one who would be out more than me as far as U-Bahn travel.

Finally, we were done looking and have narrowed it down to three: the two places in the 4^th District (the new penthouse and the one overlooking the palace gardens) and the one in the 19^th District. To make it fair, we did a grid and sit down to talk about the pros and cons of each.

The penthouse is a trudge down a hill, albeit short, to get to public transportation. It has no storage for the bikes, no car parking and the dog park is a long way away. All the appliances are new but the kitchen is funky and there is no bathroom upstairs. A dryer would have to be purchased but a new washer is in the master bath.

The place in the 19^th is located right next to public transportation but it a bus ride and two train rides away from Gordon’s work making it about 40 minutes total travel time. While that’s not bad, it’s not the best either, so it goes in the con column. The rooms are small, another con but it does have terraces, the garden for the dog as well as an underground garage that we can store bikes or a car. There’s also the plus of the great landlord we would have. We’d also have to purchase a washer and dryer ourselves, as it didn’t come with either.

The 1869 flat is huge in comparison to anything else we’ve seen, including most of the homes. The views are great and it has an ambiance none of the places had at all. It’s also just steps away from a tram stop, with a total commute time of fifteen to thirty minutes depending upon the tram and train. The dog park is less than half a block away. There is storage for the bikes and we could rent a car space if we decided to get a car. It had a sauna and a pool but no access to the fantastic garden at the back of the home. The kitchen and baths were all modern and adequate for our needs. There was a room for the office as well as plenty of space for guests should we ever have any. There was more storage than normal and it had a washer with a dryer to be provided should I want one.

I was then asked my impression, as I’d be the one living here full time with him. I thought for a moment and him that I probably would have gone with the penthouse because it was new. I went on how I liked the place in the 19^th as well since it had everything we wanted. Something held me back as a thought came to me. Growing up, I had a certain idea of what a place like Vienna would be like. I thought of big rooms, high ceilings and great views. In my opinion, the last flat was what I pictured living in Vienna would be like. The final decision would be his, as I would be traveling back and forth to the States more than he would be. Wherever we lived, he had to love the place since he earned the money to pay for it.

Today, I’m at my new desk, looking out over a garden only meant for royalty and their guests. Across the park, I see the place where the guards resided as well as the church attended by those who lived in the compound. Yes, this is exactly what I pictured Vienna to be.

More on this fantastic place I now find myself living in.

Lynn