KP asked Marcia Wilson:

I am curious about how you manage your research. Your books are so rich with descriptions and information about the era- how do you find all the information? Do you research in advance, or as you go?

Marcia Wilson I research as I go because I'm always researching!! Like a lot of writers, I have a shelf of "old friends" which includes the Canon. Every so often Ill read a story and listen to the words that pop up. I want them to feel familiar in my head. My shelf gets bigger every year! I like reading about the past because there is a lot of problem-solving in it. How do people fix things without modern technology? I was taught to look for answers and watch. Because we tend to move forward and not look backward so much, books get "dated" and people get rid of them. I get a lot of good books at used, thrift stores. Biblio.com, abebooks.com, and I live near a Halfpricebooks. There are also really fun places to visit on the Internet. I started with victorianlondon.org and started linking up a little bookmark library from there.

OK. I can't resist researching. I will run off on a tangent and come back later to finish a small scene in a book, but the devil's not the only thing in the details. I've read books where London is always one weather, or one pollution level, and my friends who live there assure me this is not true. When Lestrade eats smelts, I check to see what's in season. I know he didn't eat a Mortgage Lifter tomato, but he was familiar with the pink carrots from the south of England. There are references in books and the Internet where you can find almost anything if you poke around and ask questions, and this is my idea of fun. You mean radishes were black? Mocha isn't a modern word? They used it for pottery? Just how wide is a narrowboat? Oh, look--that's a really unusual way to kill someone off. And so on and so on.

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