Over Many a Quaint and Curious Volume: A Fiction Writer on the Pleasures of Research
[caption id="attachment_2021" align="alignleft" width="260"] Shields Library, UC Davis[/caption]
When I was working on Landfalls, my novel about the Lapérouse expedition, I used to joke that the whole endeavor was just an excuse to go to the library—but I wasn’t always sure I was joking.
One of the reasons the project took so long—besides my painfully slow writing and the demands of grad school and work and, you know, family—was the time I spent researching. There was always one more book to read, one more lead to chase down, one more link to click, one more intriguing footnote I had to follow up on.
It could be a problem. ...