Derrick Belanger asked Paula Berinstein:

You base a lot of your books' problems on real world science. Ho much research do you conduct before drafting an Amanda Lester novel?

Paula Berinstein Wow, I almost didn't see this question, Derrick. A lot, actually. Some of it is speculative, that is I'm looking for something that will work in the story. I did that with Amanda Lester and the Pink Sugar Conspiracy. I did a lot of research on sugar before I started. I originally intended to feature a panel of sugar tasters, kind of like the way there are olive oil tasters and wine tasters. I wanted to know everything I could about sugar. And then I dropped the idea.

But I also do research on technologies and facts that I know I am going to use. In Amanda Lester and the Orange Crystal Crisis, I looked at acoustic levitation, a way of lifting things with sound waves, which is actually real, although I do exaggerate it. In Amanda Lester and the Purple Rainbow Puzzle I researched quartz and gold and their tendency to be found together. But I also look at how much things weigh, what they cost, what their chemical components are, and a lot of other things.

I use a lot of images too. Maps, quite often, but also just pictures of things. For the pink book I gathered pictures of factory interiors and exteriors as well as English boarding schools. For the orange book I found pictures of quarries. Some of the research is to help Anna with the covers, such as with the forthcoming red book (Amanda Lester and the Red Spider Rumpus), in which I found pictures of crawl spaces under buildings.

By the way, I used to do research for a living, so the process comes pretty naturally to me.

Thank you so much for your question!!!!

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