Mahala asked Katherine Reay:

Question: I have enjoyed reading all of your novels, and look forward to the Austen Escape. How do you go about researching careers for your characters and make those careers believable? Online research? Interview people in those fields? Job shadow them? Just curious. Have a great day! :)

Katherine Reay I have such fun with this! Jobs are an extension of character. Emily could never have been a chef or a budding journalist! And Mary simply is an engineer. :) (She's The Austen Escape.)

I do a lot of online research and I talk to people. For Dear Mr. Knightley, I spent time with a group of foster kids. For Lizzy, time with chefs in restaurants and a lot of time with doctors and nurses to get Jane's details right too. For Lucy - I lived in London and, yes, researched home decorating and design. I've also moved a lot so I have learned where to go to find what.

And for Emily -- that was the best. I spent a day with an insurance restoration expert and learned her job -- after reading lots of books so I'd know the language -- then, when in Italy doing the rest of the research (I know, that really is the best "research" trip ever), I was invited to tour the Vatican Restoration Labs. That informed Joseph and higher-end restoration.

There you go. That is an aspect of character that is so important to me as I find it's a natural way to express personality -- and what we do is so fundamental to who we are. Thanks for asking!

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