How I do love the internet, let me count the ways

I think one of the things I've always liked about writing is the actual research part itself. The internet is so indescribably fun for this, and only gets funner every year. I can look up the same thing I looked up a year ago and find new info, new references.

Here's just a fraction of the research I've been able to do for this story...

Find a house for the Lancasters to live in, in New Orleans.

I have a family tree, for free, on familyecho.com - complete with pics, and if I want I can add births and deaths etc. I've got over four generations of characters up there, and I reference it all the time.

I can find the right calendar for my story in... let's time it... 

I can find the right calendar in 22 seconds. (Google calendar, choose the first one, set the year and country.) I remember when I was a teen, I either had to find one date reference for the year I wanted, in some random book, and then figure out the rest of the calendar from there; or at some point I may have found out how to calculate old calendars, and worked my way backwards from the present.

I can find out what newspapers were around in 1918 San Fran.

 

How the US draft worked in WWI (important if you have male characters running around in 1918):

What restaurants were like:

I have a 1911 map of San Francisco, that I can super magnify and locate any number of landmarks, including the hospital:

I first located the hospital in about two shakes of a lamb's tail:

Found a page full of alternate names for Satan:

Found a house on Nob Hill for my heroine to escape from:

Google Books = awesomeness. Such as looking up the history of coffee making:

The specifics of the Spanish Influenza in San Francisco:

If I find an interesting reference while researching music recording in California...

I can find out more details with a quick wiki:

I can find San Fran specific info about jazz:

Look up quotations...

Consult an old edition of a magazine...

Find out club names in 1918 New Orleans...

 

...and then find a picture of it:

The history of interracial marriage by state:

Get a picture of the interior of a Pullman train car (as well as first hand accounts by Pullman porters, and the schedule for the San Fran -> New Orleans train, showing what time it left, what time it stopped at each city etc. As well as the application of segregation laws as the train traveled from one state to another.)

I know what jazz songs would be playing:

And then buy 100 period songs for $11.99, to listen to while writing...

Pages full of cultural info on the period:

And finally, interesting people to inspire my characters:

And I can have all those pages open in tabs for quick referencing, along with a jazz persona for my browser.

Ridiculous, I tell you. C'est ridicule!

Hey. There's a little kitty sitting on the blanket, at my feet. Looks like she might be finding her own way to be A Writer's Cat after all.