Author Tasha Alexander
Photo Credit: Wolf Hoffman

Over the past few months we've discussed how to conduct and how to incorporate research into your fiction novel. This month we feature an interview with author Tasha Alexander on this topic and how she uses her research when writing her award winning, and quite delicious, historical novels.

You've said that the ideas that came to you when writing And Only to Deceive weren't exactly researched but more of a blending of your own personal experiences that wove their way into the book. What type of field research do you conduct and at what point during the writing process do you conduct it?

Tasha: Ideally, I like to take research trips to the places about which I write. For And Only to Deceive, I chose settings already familiar to me because there was no chance I was going to be able to travel. I'm incredibly fortunate to now be in a different position. While working on the first draft of my most recent novel, Tears of Pearl, I was able to go to Istanbul. At that point, I knew where most of the key events in the novel would take place, and I went to each of the locations, taking thousands of pictures (thank goodness for digital cameras!) and filling a Moleskine with notes. The guards at Topkapı Palace found this vastly amusing. I also spent days wandering around, keeping my eyes open for those spots you can only find by accident. I love aimlessly meandering through unfamiliar cities, soaking up the culture, the sounds, the smells. It's the best way to really get a feel for a place.

At what point do you recommend to fellow writers to conduct research?

Tasha: As to when I'd recommend conducting field research....If you're writing about a location that's completely new to you, I think it helps to go relatively early in the process, so that you have a vivid sense of the area before you're too far along in the writing. Last summer, I was lucky enough to visit Monet's house at Giverny days before I wrote a scene set there. I'd read everything I could about the house, the garden, and had looked at countless pictures, but actually being there was an entirely different experience. The scene was much easier to write, and I know I couldn't have captured the atmosphere even half as accurately if I hadn't been there.

How much research do you do? And what does your research involve (e.g. travel, Internet, reading of similar genre or within that time period, etc.) ?

Tasha: I've always been fascinated by the history--particularly the social history--of Victorian England, so had a decent base of knowledge when I started writing. Still, though, it's necessary to do specific research for each book. For And Only to Deceive, I focused on art forgeries and learning as much as I could about different translations of the Iliad. For Tears of Pearl, I studied memoirs and letters written by English women who lived in or visited Constantinople, as well as general histories of the Ottoman Empire.

My overall strategy is to start by doing broad research before writing a single word. I brush up on social mores and politics, read about the location in which I'm setting the book, that sort of thing. But I'm careful not to get too carried away--it would be easy (and a heck of a lot of fun) to spend years on research and never actually write the book. When I'm drafting, I will pause to look up specific information when necessary, so long as I don't get distracted and lose forward momentum in the story.

When I've finished the first draft, I do another round of research, this one more specifically targeted and detailed. This is when I'm aware of precisely what it is I need to learn, and I can strategically focus my efforts. For me, this is more efficient than if I were to make my way through every book available on the topic at hand before completing a draft. I hold off on describing clothing, food, landscape, and buildings until nearly the end, saving them like a treat.

Where or what have you stumbled upon that might have produced some unexpected information that turned out to be good research material?

Tasha: When I first started working on the ideas for Tears of Pearl, I had expected there would be strict limits to what I could have Emily do in Constantinople. Like most contemporary Americans, I assumed women--particularly Western European women--wouldn't be able to move effortlessly through the city, wouldn't have any access to the sultan or the harem. Amazing how ignorant we can be, isn't it? Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, whose husband was the British ambassador to the Ottomans in the early 18th century, wrote a series of letters that radically opened my mind. She visited with the sultan, bathed with his concubines (and revealed to readers that the Turkish baths were not, in fact, lascivious and degenerate), and became familiar with the city and its culture. Her letters (which she published) were greatly influential to subsequent English women travelers, who followed her example and explored the Ottoman capital with abandon over the next two centuries. I was astonished at the ease with which Lady Mary and the rest moved through the city, even without male companions. In the 19th century, Lady Layard, another British ambassador's wife, became close friends with the sultan, dining with him and his family, watching him play with his children in the harem, and making frequent visits to the palace.

As accuracy is of vital importance to me, I was thrilled to see there was historical precedent that made it possible for me to send Emily into these places without having to stretch credulity. I'm constantly amazed by the adventures of Victorian women travelers. Often they were more bold than we are today.

What advice could you share about either conducting research or incorporating research into a novel?

Tasha: The evil temptation that comes with research is the desire to include in your book every fascinating thing you learn. And while you may, in fact, have uncovered the single most interesting and heretofore unheard of detail of, say, Victorian plumbing, if it doesn't advance the story you're writing, it doesn't belong in the novel. It's essential to include only those details that enhance the story, and leave out any that distract from it. Set the scene, build the atmosphere, but guard against getting too caught up in it.

The Chico Writers Group would like to extend our appreciation to Tasha Alexander for the interview. To learn more about Tasha, visit our resources page. And to see photos of Tasha's most recent research excursion, to Istanbul, or read an excerpt of her latest, Tears of Pearl, and much more visit her website, www.TashaAlexander.com

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