Hey, SE Readers. Joan with you on this last day of June. In my last post, I talked about the importance of getting facts straight when using real-life events in fiction. Doing that requires one of my favorite things. Research.

I’ll admit when I first began writing, I didn’t want to bother with “pesky little details.” All I cared about was getting a story written. At that time, I didn’t have a clue about the ins and out of writing fiction. Since then, I’ve learned a lot more work goes into writing a novel than simply writing.

I’ve come to love research. So much so that I can pause to look up something, then find that an hour or two has passed because I’ve gone down several rabbit trails—none of which I planned.

When this happens, I can do one of two things. Either get angry because I wasted so…