Okay, so I had to watch The Treasure of the Sierra Madre to be sure I got that title right. But Gold Hat wasn’t talking about research, was he? Before I go on, let me introduce us. We’re T.C. Archer, Shawn M. Casey and me, Evan Trevane. Shawn asked me to start this article about research and let her join in later.

Shawn and I write romantic science fiction. She writes the romance parts and I write the science parts. I hold a Ph.D. in electronic engineering, with a minor in mathematics. I’ve been reading sci-fi since I was 10. If there’s anyone who doesn’t need to research, it’s me. Whether it’s exotic star drives or futuristic weapons, sensor arrays or artificial intelligence, what would I need research for? Besides the fact that the futuristic technology is all made up, I know that stuff and I don’t even have a time machine, yet.

Of course this is all tongue-in-cheek. What’s left is 95% of everything else. I have completed tremendous volumes of research. I’m used to it. If there is one thing working for a Ph.D. yields, it’s research.

What do I research for romantic science fiction?

 I research for story ideas.  Not long ago, I saved thousands of documents from a website called The Black Vault. It was full of classified documents on UFOs, military weapons, and strange phenomena. Things like this are a rich source of story ideas or what if scenarios.  For example, I look at the classified documents from The Philadelphia Experiment that reports the military made a warship vanish. This makes me think that maybe that ship got transported to another planet, a planet with all women, and they haven’t seen a man in a thousand years, and . . . okay, that was a bad example, but I could have thought of time travel, or an alternate universe, or that the ship was transported to Hell. Whether it’s pursuing the black vault or reading physics journals or watching TV (like the time I watched a special on the Manhattan Project which spawned an alternate history story for us,) I’m doing research. 

I can’t research futuristic technology. I read a lot of it. I’ve watched a lot of movies and television. What is there to research? If I were to look something up, what would it be? Star systems, military rank and procedures, the amount of oxygen a person consumes per hour, the orbital velocity of the Moon, what is the nearest galaxy, how many scientists were at Los Alamos in December of 1943? Maybe I was wrong, and I do more research than I realized. Old habits die hard.  

Yep, Evan’s Ph.D. gives him an edge over the average sci-fi writer—and a huge edge over me, Shawn. Fortunately, despite the fact my writing partner is a genius who knows more than I will in the next five lifetimes, I’m pleased with what my research gleans. Our latest release Sasha’s Calling is an erotic space operas. For those not familiar with this subgenre, think Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica.  My factual contribution to the research for this book was limited to the history of the Pinkerton Detectives. Yes, in Sasha’s Calling, the private detective agency of the nineteenth century has survived to this undefined century of the future—and they’re chasing our heroine.  

My biggest contribution to the research of Sasha’s Calling was my knowledge of the sci-fi genre and, like Evan, the books and movies which have defined space operas in particular. My knowledge made it easy to see that he’d hit the nail on the head with the style, tone, and elements of Sasha’s Calling. The book screams Space Opera. Like Lucas’ Star Wars, our vision of the future is imperfect. Worlds still need to be saved, an evil ruler/warlord has to be brought to justice and, of course, people still fall in love.

Our current wip is also an erotic sci-fi, so I won’t be contributing any scientific research. (Now that would give Evan a good laugh!) However, we’re using historical movies and events, so I’ve already dug in on those areas. In this case, I’ll use primarily the internet and possibly one of the books in my library about old movies.

We can’t cite any one book or source for our research. Evan and I have our respective research libraries. They include subjects such as science, forensics, history, politics, movies, comics (yes, comics,) religion, and mythology, as well as fictional novels that keep us grounded in what was and is current. We believe that reading fiction is as much a part of our research as the facts we gather from nonfiction sources.  

The internet is especially good for obscure pieces of information that once would have taken a reference librarian to chase down. Evan mentioned a novel we’ve written inspired by the Manhattan Project. Until he presented this story idea and opening chapters to me, I knew almost nothing about the fact that the Americans’ secret lab was at the Chicago University under the guise of a metallurgical lab. When I began researching the subject I fell in love with WWII history. What an amazing time!

In particular, the tidbits that I came across illuminating what went on at Chicago University were amazing. That really was a simpler time. Certainly today, scientists working on their country’s most vital secret wouldn’t be allowed to discuss secret research while standing outside the mathematics building. ROFL. Of course, back then, high tech listening devises didn’t exist…or did they?

Thanks so much for stopping by and visiting with us today.  Feel free to stop by our website and learn a little more about Sasha’s Calling, as well as what we have planned for the future.

http://www.tcarcher.com/