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One of the cool things about writing the Death By books was researching what happens when people die. Don't get me wrong - I'm not a serial killer at heart. I just found the whole dead body thing to be very interesting.
As I dug into researching various methods of murder, I discovered all sorts of fun and gruesome facts. In Death by Bikini, for example, I planned to leave my victim dead on the beach, strangled by the strings of her bikini top. While researching what the results of strangulation might look like, I came across an interesting article about a man who had strangled his wife and then stuck her body in the bathtub to make it looked like she had drowned. Investigators quickly disproved his story because of little pinpoint red marks called petechiae they found on the wife's face and eyes. Petechiae are the result of blood leaking from the capillaries, which could be caused by the extreme pressure of strangulation, but would not be present from drowning.
Well, I thought I was pretty clever to have discovered this exciting fact, so I tried to work it into the scene where Aphra discovers Bianca's body. While everyone else was speculating that Bianca drowned, Aphra wisely notes the petechial hemorrhaging on Bianca's face, proving that she had been strangled. Here's where the lesson comes in. I had never given Aphra any basis for knowing about petechial hemorrhaging. She's just an average sixteen-year-old, not a forensic scientist. I never even gave her a keen interest in watching CSI or Bones or anything like that. My attempt to show off my newfound knowledge was obvious and clunky. I had to pull it from the scene.
I still love to research, but now I'm painfully aware of this kind of author intrusion and have to be very careful not to endow my characters with knowledge or sensitivities they haven't ‘earned.'
Have you ever come across this sort of thing when reading a book or watching a movie? Does it pull you out of the story or do you shrug it off and just enjoy the ride? Inquiring authors want to know!
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Linda Gerber
Death by Latte
young adult fiction
books
Penguin Books
mystery
RE: Confessions of a Rabid Researcher
I guess it depends on the strength of the writing whether it bothers me. As I said, I'm less inclined to be bothered when they know too much rather than know too little for the sake of plot, but it can be jarring if the knowledge is esoteric and out of their field of interest. A good author can either convince me it fits with the character or have me so enthralled I don't notice, whereas a bad author will have me adding it to the ticky list of things that are annoying me and causing me to contemplate putting the book down.
I don't think I would've
I don't think I would've noticed that, as I love learning new and interesting facts while reading! :)
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Wow, that is some pretty cool info to know! Yeah I can see how that would have to pulled! I usually don't find stuff like that in books and can't remember any off hand! however in lots of movies I will see plenty of ridiculous things and be like YEAH RIGHT! have you ever seen "The Phantom Of The Opera"? well did you notice that when he has his mask off his marks on his go all the way up into making his hair look all weird and like it's falling out a little on that one side and is gray, but when he has the mask on all of his marks seem to SHRINK BIG TIME? lol kinda funny!
Anyways just dropping by to tell PENGUIN TO PUBLISH ALL YOUR BOOKS THAT YOU EVER WRITE! because they are awesome and amazing, and an incredible reading experiance! I can't wait for the third Death by book!
Lots of love,
MelodyJM
I might think in the back of
I might think in the back of my mind something like "Whoa, she's really smart. How did she know that?" but it definitely doesn't take away from the story or my enjoyment of it!