Ask the Author: Nickolas Hight

“If you have questions about VENDETTA, fire away. I'll get'em answered...” Nickolas Hight

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It is apparent Vendetta is exhaustively researched. Please describe your research process. What advice would you give someone interested in traveling to the location of their book/story to conduct research?

Nickolas Hight That's a great question, William. My original story idea changed drastically once I started researching. I knew the Visconti family would play a role and that Sir John Hawkwood would also play a part. That helped narrow my research. Once I decided on a specific timeline for VENDETTA, I tried to tie the storyline to events that really took place during a fairly narrow period of time. But the devil is in the details. A snippet of dialog, an article of clothing or armor, any sort of small detail could occasion hours of extra research ...

Your question about travel is a good one also. In my first draft of VENDETTA, I wrote about the battle at Bagnacavallo without having any real idea of what the location looked like, which was silly. I had to go to Emiligia-Romagna, walk the ground, see the topography, and get a feel for the other cities along the Via Emilia. Fortunately, I had the means to do that. If one is unable to travel to a specific location, Google street view can get you pretty close. The internet contains an abundance of knowledge, also. Old maps, blogs, research papers ... There's a ton of information out there. It just requires a lot of sifting to find those nuggets that will help breath life into your setting ...

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