Rabbit hole

I promised myself one thing when I started writing my Roman military thriller series and that was that I wouldn't allow myself to get bogged down in research. Well that didn't happen.

Some level of research is necessary when writing historical fiction, of course it is, but I decided at the outset that I would do just enough to ensure facts were correct but that I'd let my story drive the narrative and I believe that to be true for the first three books in the series.

Now as I'm busily trying to plot and plan book four, and I've got more time to carry out research, I'm finding that I'm going farther and farther down the rabbit hole of information out there. And believe me, there's an absolute mountain of very interesting and engaging facts to absorb about the Roman occupation of Britain (that's the only spoiler I'm giving for book four). You go looking for one fact and you come out the other side with perhaps three or four new facts often more interesting than the one you went looking for. The temptation then is to try and work at least some of them into your story, but therein lies the problem - you want to have just enough facts in your book to ensure its authenticity without it becoming akin to a textbook.

Time-consuming it may be, but it is fascinating and my knowledge of the time period grows with every passing day. I'm also fortunate in that I live in an area rich with Roman history.

One more day of research and then come Monday I should be ready to commit the first words of book four to screen - provided I stay off the internet and don't touch the ever-increasing stalagmite of Roman text books.