When writing a book, one of the most important aspects is research.
Authors are not only wordsmiths, they are also doctors, lawyers, teachers, and whatever else their characters dream of being. Authors need to research as much as they can about what they are writing. Sometimes a character will change their path and start walking toward an unknown area of expertise and it’s the author’s job to make sure all 
the facts are correct. I tend to write realistic fiction for young adults and adults so when I come across a subject I’m not familiar with, I put on my researcher hat!
Writing the first draft of Bleeding Hearts came easily for me. But when it came to editing, there were some parts in the book I had to stop and do extensive research for.
What did my internet browser look like? Here’s a list of searches I did:
- Serial Killers
- Gun safety
- Can a gun go off if it is dropped?
- Gun Laws in Virginia
- Police procedures for a murder
- How to get out of a choke hold
- Can a woman overpower a man?
- Tendencies of a stalker
- How far down can you fall without dying?
- Wine tasting for beginners
Those are only ten things I looked up when I started editing Bleeding Hearts.
I even got my husband to demonstrate how a woman could easily overpower a man in a crisis or get out of a choke hold.
Yes, that was an interesting conversation, but he helped me.
The next time you want to start a realistic book, make sure you set aside some much needed research to make your book as accurate as you can.
Find out more about my book and even read an excerpt. Bleeding Hearts is a new adult, romantic suspense novel.
Orphaned at an early age, now twenty-four-year-old Camryn Lucks is ready to commit to find that special someone, and so accepts a date from a charming, gallant, handsome stranger. The last thing she imagines after accepting that first date with Carson would actually be the beginning of her worst nightmare.
Red roses, a reminder of her parents’ killer, soon become an emblem of horror for Cami as one by one, those closest to her fall victim to a serial killer. Cami becomes an obsession for Carson, the man she had finally allowed herself to love. Not only is he vying for her heart, but also her life.
Finding herself in a whirlwind of torments shadowed by the blood-colored bloom, Cami finds solace in Isaac, a neighboring police officer. She’s desperate to escape the haunting memories, but she must revisit them in order to catch her would-be killer. Living life in constant fear has driven Cami to second-guess every choice she makes. Will the police catch the illusive murderer, or will Cami be forced to face him once again?
You can Purchase Bleeding Hearts here!
Here is a short excerpt of the first chapter:
My arm trembles as I grip the cool handle of my pistol, keeping a firm grasp to ensure it doesn’t slip out of my sweaty hand. It usually stands sentry in my left nightstand to scare the nightmares away. But this isn’t a dream. The room is dark and hides the face of the man whose intent is to kill me. But I know who he is. A metallic taste fills my mouth; I want to gag. My blood drips off the blade in his hand in slow, steady beats on the carpet. My arms shake as I lift the barrel and point it in his direction. He doesn’t move. His heavy breaths alert me to the meager distance between us.
We’re at a stalemate.
A soft glow from the lamppost just outside my window casts a sliver of light on his face. His dark, beady eyes that I have grown to know rake over my body like I’m another one of his many victims. He lifts the edges of his mouth into a smile. My heart plunges into my stomach. I know what that sinister expression means, and I think back to all the times he had looked at me like that before. I had been so blind.
Before I react he lunges at me, grabbing onto my waist and twisting me to the ground. I shriek as my head slams against the bed frame. Black spots flood my vision. I squeeze my hand only to find it empty. My gun is gone. The sound of the knife clattering on the floor gives me slight hope. Not much though. He climbs up my body trying to pin my arms to the floor. I thrash my fists around, desperate to knock him off.
“Get off!” I scream, pulling on his shirt and kicking him off balance. Wrapping his hands around my arms, my attacker cuts off the circulation of blood. Rug burns flare across my skin as he drags me across the carpet. He closes his hands around my neck, shutting off my air supply. I pull at his hands but it’s no use; he has always been stronger than me. My pulse drums a frantic beat in my ears. The air slowly leaks out from my lungs, killing any hope I may have left. I search for the gun around the room; it may be my only savior now.
“Why are you doing this?” I struggle to get the words out. He squints his dark eyes. I’m wondering if there might be a chance that he will stop this madness. I am wrong.
“It’ll be over soon, sweetheart.” His hands again tighten around my neck, blocking the air from entering my lungs.
Dana Provo has always loved books and reads everything from young adult fantasy to adult historical romances. When she’s not reading or writing her next novel, Dana can be found riding her horses and getting ready for competition. Dana lives with her husband and two house plants in Richmond, Virginia.
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You can Purchase Bleeding Hearts here!
Hello out there!
You can find Fire in the Woods and Ashes in the Sky at all these awesome bookish places!
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Kobo | Chapters Indigo! | iBooks | IndiBound | Google Play
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so I didn’t even bother to look at the blurb. Wicked has all that I love about a JLA novel, but it also has a lot that I didn’t love. Jennifer L. Armentrout also writes under the pen name J. Lynn. I read a J. Lynn novel once and quickly realized why she wrote it under another name. (I will not pick up another J. Lynn novel again) Wicked, while not being quite as graphic as the J.Lynn novel, was pretty close to it. The blurb does state that the character is 22, and it does allude to a heat factor, but the sex scenes are not glossed over in any way shape or form as it is in other JLA novels. As a fan of her work, I just wish I was warned in the blurb. I understand writing in different genres, but if you are a YA author, I really think there should be at least a warning so you know what you are getting in to. Okay – rant over. I did, believe it or not, enjoy this book. The hero is not the most likable. He is a playboy who wanted to get in the heroine’s pants the moment he saw her. Not my type of guy, but okay, I went with it. I did enjoy the heroine, and I loved her sidekick, Tink the Brownie. This was an exceptional character.
Actually, I am not a photographer but once upon a time I wanted to be. In middle school and into high school photography was something I loved! I took pictures of sunsets and what little nature I could find in my little suburban neighborhood. We had a digital camera, which was pretty modern at the time, but it was huge and saved pictures onto floppy disks (do teens even know what those are anymore? I’m making myself feel old!) but it had a screen that showed me the pictures after I took them which was awesome!
Never in a million years did I expect that this book might be in contention for the best of the year, or that it might be one of the best books I’ve ever read. In this novel, a SEAL team is called in to save the passengers on a hijacked plane. But this is more than an explosive rescue story. We see the SEAL team, and the passengers, and the FBI agents before the hijacking. We see who they are outside of “hero mode”. Then we get to see them as real people through the entire operation, with real, everyday problems that they need to deal with on top of having the lives of a few hundred people in their hands. In an interesting and well-done twist, we also get to see into the lives of a Jewish family escaping German occupation of Denmark, a country you don’t hear too much about when you think of the Holocaust. Interesting, that it is this part of the story that had me in tears at the end. There are several romances running through this novel, and not all of them end well. ROMANCE READER WARNING -NOT EVERYONE GETS A HAPPY ENDING. Showing the true danger Navy SEALS face every day, not everything goes as planned.
We are left with one group of humans at the end of The 5th Wave. In book two, this group gets split up so we experience two different stories. The Cassie/Ben timeline continues, and is very exciting as they question every move they make. Stakes are increased when the aliens start doing the unthinkable to children five years old and younger.
It’s been a long time since I read the book, but what I remember is that, as a result of the research he was doing, the main character—Jessup—began to change into a primitive man, probably a very distant ancestor of man.
Born in the Midwest, magazine editor Merrie Destefano currently lives in Southern California with her husband, two German shepherds, a Siamese cat, and the occasional wandering possum. Her favorite hobbies are reading speculative fiction and watching old Star Trek episodes, and her incurable addiction is writing. She loves to camp in the mountains, walk on the beach, watch old movies, and listen to alternative music—although rarely all at the same time.
Jennifer M Eaton 