‘Is this even possible? Maybe the car is so old it preceded shatter-resistant glass?’
Here’s what I love about Melissa Johnson, my editor at Carina – she has the nicest way of getting you to really think about your choice of words, and whether the image you think you’re conjuring is as realistic as it could be (like the “magic garage door”. But that’s another story). Right from the first round of edits, the validity of Rachel Miller, the heroine in The Stubborn Dead, being able to smash a classic car’s driver-side window into little pieces was up for debate.
For me, it was a pretty open and shut case. At the time I was taking sword fighting lessons up in Vancouver every Saturday, and not a week went by without at least three cars getting broken into in the parking lot I favoured.** I looked at the way the glass lay around the cars (from a safe distance), and didn’t think twice about using what I’d seen in my writing.
Problem is, there’s a whole industry out there designed around convincing the general public that driver-side car windows don’t break easily (and thus you need to buy their product to help escape in the event you do a movie-style plunge into a dark, frigid river etc. etc.).
Turn to YouTube, you say? There has to be some sort of proof to support either argument on there!
Yeah, no. There are as many wonderful videos showing windows being smashed in seconds, as there are clips of beefy gentlemen (or reporters) struggling to making a decent crack, let alone a clear break.
So I did what any debut author wanting to keep in her editor’s good graces would do – I went to bug an expert for details. Specifically, I took a drive down to our local Speedy Glass Auto Center to chat with their technicians. There’s nothing quite like walking up to the counter and saying something along the lines of, “Hi, I’m an author, and I need to ask you a pretty strange question – can a woman smash a classic car’s driver side window with the back end of a gun?” At which point everyone within earshot has your undivided attention.
It was a fabulous experience. TWO technicians peppered me with questions. Make of the car? ’57 Eldorado. Original or restored? Restored, but by someone who would have gotten the details just right. So he would have made an effort to buy an original Cadillac part? Knowing Kit, most likely. Alright, then that meant that the driver side window would have been tempered, not laminate. What type of a gun was used in the scene? A smaller GLOCK. And the wielder? How big were they? A fit twenty-something year old woman, who would have brought the back end down onto the glass as hard as possible. Well sure, the metal base where the clip pushes into the gun would smash that window without a problem, and the glass would break into tiny, sharp pieces.
Huzzah!
If it’s one thing I’m learning more and more in life, it’s that the majority of professionals and enthusiasts just love to share their knowledge. Which is fabulous if you’re a writer trying to create accurate scenarios, but it’s even better if you’re just plain curious about what people get up to.
So, out of curiosity, what’s the strangest or most obscure piece of information you’ve ever heard from someone else? Or do you have a skill, or outstanding amount of knowledge about a topic, that people find odd or fascinating (even if you don’t)?
**A tip for visitors to Vancouver – leave NOTHING of value visible in your car, especially if you park in a multi-level lot. Even spare change is enough of a reason for a break-in. (And don’t forget to put that GPS unit and your iPod away!) Vancouver’s a great little city full of really nice people, and we wouldn’t want your visit ruined by opportunistic thieves.
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When not devising ways to er, provide conflict for her characters, Natasha enjoys a good adventure. Especially if it involves ‘stumbling upon’ movie or TV shoots around Vancouver, hunting for G1 My Little Ponies at local thrift shops, meandering through book and toy stores, or looking into paranormal phenomena.
She can be found mostly at her blog, Twitter, Facebook or Flickr accounts. She’s also known to pop up on Tumblr, Goodreads, Google +, YouTube and at the Harlequin Community.
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The Stubborn Dead – Book 1 in the Lost Souls series – Available from Carina Press. Also available as a Kindle edition.
‘Rachel Miller thought her next job was a run-of-the-mill haunting. As a member of the Order of Rescue Mediums it’s her duty to release trapped spirits from the earthly realm. But when called to client Sylvia Elkeles’s house, she finds a wraith who doesn’t act like he should.
The Order considers the wraith an extreme threat and Rachel may be forced to use a barbaric ritual to free him—a ritual that comes with a heavy personal price. If she fails to humanely release the wraith, she’ll have her supernatural abilities bound.
When Janus Ostara—local supernatural mob boss—shows up demanding her attention, and Sylvia keeps secrets that may place Rachel in mortal danger, she doesn’t need her abilities to know something darkly sinister is at play.
Between uncovering Sylvia’s disturbing motives, and avoiding Janus, Rachel has enough on her hands without dealing with a wraith who may not realize he’s supposed to be dead…’
But I love the hawks. They ride the wind currents on wide wings until – boom – plummeting into the hay field after one of those irritating voles that dig huge holes and eat flower bulbs.
When I write, I create a world, populate it with characters – good and not so good – and invite the reader along for the ride. An important element in making that journey rewarding is figuring out what motivates the characters. In THE PROFESSOR, the villain may have been warped by his childhood, but he chose to cross the line and prey on college women.
How did I fall in love with Sobek, the Egyptian Crocodile God? Why did I decide I needed to tell his story in Priestess of the Nile?
I grew up in New Jersey and moved to Iowa to attend college which is where I met my husband (in a strange but beside-the-point story). And while we’re busy living out our own happily-ever-after here in Iowa, part of me still considers New Jersey my home. New Jersey and Iowa are very different but the one thing they do have in common is that they’re two of the most maligned states in the Union. One is synonymous in people’s minds with pollution, crime families and reality TV. The other with corn, tractors and caucuses. And really those are the kinder generalizations. Now, it might be that I’m just hyper-aware of these things, in the same way that when you’re pregnant it seems like every other woman you see is pregnant too, but these two states get picked on a lot. And I love them both.
On 
If you look at the acknowledgments page of 
Nadia is a bilingual writer who likes to read, eat, travel and enjoy life. She lives in Japan with her husband and baby boy.
Oh, the holidays. Admittedly, a many of us start the holidays with a little trepidation. After all, there’s a lot to be done and not a lot of time to get there. Shopping and cards and baking and wrapping and shipping. But there is one thing that gets the juices flowing at the holiday season, and that’s food.