Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: scientific research

  • The Ropes Around Research for the Accurate Writer — Chanticleer Toolbox Article by David Beaumier

    The Ropes Around Research for the Accurate Writer — Chanticleer Toolbox Article by David Beaumier

    When you start researching a project? Where do you begin? What should you include?

    Doing research for your stories isn’t just for creative Non-Fiction, though we do have 7 Non-Fiction Book Awards ready to discover new books year round. The other categories that we think benefit most from research are the Lab Lit section of our Global Thriller Awards here, hard SciFi as seen in our Cygnus Awards here, and of course our pre-1750s Chaucer Awards here, and post-1750s Goethe Awards here, both in historical fiction.  

    Speaking of our Chanticleer International Book Awards, remember that the 2023 CIBAs will be announced at our 12th Anniversary Conference on April 18-21, 2024! Seating is limited, so register today!

    A Black woman in a white lab coat doing research with vials and beakers

    In this article, we’ll look through different types of research, including interviews, ethnographies, and place-based research. You can learn more from Carol M. Cram’s article here on tapping experts for your book.

    1. Interview for Research

    This is a simple and reliable option to learn more about the subject at hand. For example, one of our favorite Chanticleerians, Janet Oakley (interviewed here), is no stranger to tracking down people to talk to in order to complete her novels. In writing her book, The Jøssing Affair (read the review here) set in occupied Norway during WWII, Oakley interviewed people who lived through the occupation to better understand what they went through.  

    In giving an interview, you often want to start out with the easier questions, warming your subject up and giving them a chance to relax into the easy rhythm of responding. This gives you a chance to form a connection with a real person that might even last beyond the interview, and it lets you warm up to more difficult questions. 

    2. Ethnography for Research

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    Ethnography refers to observing people from the outside to better understand how they work. If you’re writing a police procedural (as one might for the Clue Awards) and want to capture the atmosphere in a police station, you might ask to sit in one for a while and take notes.

    In conducting good ethnographic research, you want to record the day of the week, the time, and a basic standard for how you take notes. If it’s quiet, how do you interpret the quiet and why? Is it the end of the day when people are ready to go off shift or has something bad happened that’s set a pall over the precinct? How do those quiets look different to you?  

    You’ll record the day of the week and the time because places look different at different times. There’s a Friday feel, even at places that work through the weekend, and any obstetrician will tell you the difference between a normal workday and a full moon. 

    3. Place-Based Research

    This is similar to ethnography except you are going and spending time in the location where your work takes place – whether Non-Fiction or Fiction. You can bet that Janet Oakley also went to Norway to better understand what living there would be like and see what changes have taken place since WWII. Plus, it’s always easier to find people to interview in the country that you’re writing about.  

    Someone conducting research at the base of a tree
    Fantasy writers travel to new lands through portals in trees.

    The question to ask here is how does the setting become a character for you in a way that will let your reader believe that the place is real. And remember, just because it is real or what you’re describing really happened a certain way, that doesn’t mean the way you’ve described it is believable to the reader. Having the extra experience of actually lived or visited the place that you’re writing about adds that extra touch of veracity.  

    4. Research Map

    As you embark on your research you can begin your research map. We recommend starting with your central question. Oakley’s question for The Jøssing Affair was “What would it be like to be a couple in occupied Norway?” 

    Beginning of a web brainstorm

    From this point she can begins to expand into other interests as she goes through the story. As you start your research map, you might end up finding out that your central question, while great for generating research, might not end up being the focus of the story. Be open, let the ideas take you where they need to go in the story.  

    5. Find a Second Pair of Eyes

     

     Once you’ve put everything together it’s easy to be so close to your work that you can’t be objective about it in a regular novel, but once you start using research it can fall into many pitfalls. Maybe your historical novel starts to sound too much like a travelogue, or your lab lit begins to like a textbook instead of a thriller. Inviting someone from outside your area of the specialized novel is a great way to find out how your readers will react to your text.

    We always recommend a Manuscript Overview that does a deep dive into the general strokes of your book followed by our Editorial Services to move step by step through your book and really make it sing.

    No matter where you are in your story, you should be proud of the work you have put in so far! Research is difficult, and we know you’re on your way to great things!

     

    Writer’s Toolbox

    Thank you for reading this Chanticleer Writer Toolbox article.

    Writer Toolbox Helpful Links: 

    TAPPING the EXPERTS – Researching for Your Works in Progress by Carol M. Cram

    10 QUESTION INTERVIEW WITH MULTI-AWARD WINNING AUTHOR JANET OAKLEY

    An Editorial Book Review of The Jøssing Affair by J.L. Oakley

    The traditional publishing tool that indie authors can use to propel their writing careers to new levels?  https://test.chantireviews.com/2016/05/15/the-seven-must-haves-for-authors-unlocking-the-secrets-of-successful-publishing-series-by-kiffer-brown/

    Got a great book?

    The 2023 CIBAs are open now!

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    View all awards and upcoming deadlines here. Over 30,000 in Cash and Prizes are given away annually!

    When you’re ready, did you know that Chanticleer offers editorial services? We do and have been doing so since 2011.

    Our professional editors are top-notch and are experts in the Chicago Manual of Style. They have and are working for the top publishing houses (TOR, McMillian, Thomas Mercer, Penguin Random House, Simon Schuster, etc.).

    If you would like more information, we invite you to email Kiffer or Sharon at KBrown@ChantiReviews.com or SAnderson@ChantiReviews.com for more information, testimonials, and fees.

    We work with a small number of exclusive clients who want to collaborate with our team of top-editors on an on-going basis. Contact us today!

    Chanticleer Editorial Services also offers writing craft sessions and masterclasses. Sign up to find out where, when, and how sessions being held.

    A great way to get started is with our manuscript evaluation service, with more information available here.

    And we do editorial consultations for $75. Learn more here.  

    If you’re confident in your book, consider submitting it for a Editorial Book Review here or to one of our Chanticleer International Awards here.

     

  • An Editorial Review of “Lost Antarctica” by James McClintock.

    An Editorial Review of “Lost Antarctica” by James McClintock.

    Lost Antarctica: Adventures in a Disappearing Land opens up an amazing world for readers, especially beneath the sea surface. You’ll meet bright orange “sea butterflies,” which can change sex from male to female, and read how scientists filmed soft corals actually walking from one place to another.

    Many readers will know that scientists from around the world come to Antarctica to study its unique environment, but we don’t often get to read about how they do that science and what the results mean. This engaging book delivers all that.

    The unique creatures that live in Antarctic waters have already been found to produce compounds that could fight cancer, AIDS, and influenza. Their body chemistry shows promise for new antibiotics. But if change continues at the current rate, all these species may be gone before we have a chance to understand them.

    How can a continent of more than 5.4 million square miles be “lost?” How could it disappear? Global warming is the answer. Antarctica is more than ice, so the land itself will never completely vanish, but the southernmost environment as we know it is already changing fast, and in ways that have drastic implications for the future of all life on earth. McClintock uses interesting descriptions and down-to-earth language to explain the situation for non-scientists.

    Take krill, for example—tiny crustaceans that form the majority of zooplankton near the bottom of the food chain. Juvenile krill feed on algae that grow on the underside of pack ice. With less and less pack ice each year, there are fewer and fewer krill. So what, you might be thinking—why should I care about krill? What eats krill? Bigger crustaceans, jellyfish, anemones, penguins, fish, seals, you name it. Even the largest animal on earth—the blue whale—depend on this food source.

    You’ll find out how more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere means more acidic ocean water, and how more acidic water means all shelled creatures are in danger of extinction.

    But this book includes more than just the results of experiments and their associated dire predictions. McClintock gives us a peek into the lives of the researchers. You’ll learn about living on board research ships and the fear and frustration of being tossed about in ferocious katabatic winds. McClintock describes how researchers camp out on ice shelves and challenge 1000-pound leopard seals for diving rights. The book details an invasion of king crabs and provides an explanation of “seal finger,” an injury that can be fatal. There’s even a warning of how the Norwegian delicacy, lutefisk, can permanently damage sterling silver (and possibly your insides).

    Professional scientists may want to know more about the various tests and methodology McClintock describes, so the author has thoughtfully included a Notes section, as well as a good Index. Unless you’re already familiar with the layout of Antarctica, you’ll be frustrated by the lack of a map in this book. Find or print out your own so you can follow along as McClintock describes the fascinating geography and the challenges of working in this rapidly vanishing environment.