Guest Post: Stacia D. Kelly talks about impromptu research and inspiration. Stacia and I write the Urban Samurai series together, beginning with 2013’s “Ichi.” The series pairs Shia Ronin, a 1,000 year old samurai who fights all sorts of evil supernatural things, with Detective Ryan Calder, a D.C. homicide cop who doesn’t believe in any of that mumbo jumbo until he starts seeing it himself.
We get to put the couple in a number of wild situations, which gives us ample opportunity to research the strangest things. Stacia describes some of that research here:
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Yay! I get to cross post again. Yes, I know, I get to co-write with Nick too, but I thought I’d share a scene and the reason I love to research so much.
It’s the little things I love to weave in. For the scene I’ve shared below (it’s really only a short piece in a larger scene), I had to research cat DNA. Yes, you read that correctly, cat DNA. For other Shia scenes, I’ve created flea demons, research Tibetan monasteries, and more.
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Ryan knocked but didn’t wait before entering Shia’s lab. He carried a steaming hot cup of black tea in one hand and an equally hot coffee in the other. “Anybody home?”
Shia looked up from the computer console and smiled. She knew this drill well. “I see you’re back from your researching. Find anything good yet?”
He handed her the tea, setting the coffee down on the table next to him as he took a seat. “Too much of a good thing. I’m sure Jace told you he’s having a hell of a time paring down the results. I’ve got forty-some women matching as close as the facial recognition software has detailed.”
She nodded and turned back to the console, holographic screens lit up around the room making easier for them both to see the data as it streamed. “The loup-garou was drugged.” She pointed to the DNA sequencing as it built, shattered and re-built in 3D. “Those are Taji’s cells shifting on screen.”
“Those are Taji’s cells?” Ryan pointed two fingers at the screen, counting in his head. “How many DNA pairs does she have? That looks like a lot more than 23.”
“Taji, being a shifter, her DNA shifts too. In human form, she has twenty-three, in cat form, less. It’s the in between phases that we’re seeing as the most interesting. The drug, Bite, has been laced with something which is forcing the shift and then the cells refuse to shift back.” She answered, frowning at the screens. “What I have playing is a loop. I’m trying to determine when and if I can counter it.”
“It’s a genetic blocker. Once the pairs decrease, this thing is blocking the proteins from building up the cells to re-establish the original human pairs. That’s…damn, that’s awful.” Ryan stared at the 3D model in fascination.
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I can get sucked into my research in so many ways. But, I love it, because once I’ve done the hours on google, I can weave tidbits in here and there.
Let me know when you find the flea demons in the series 😉 What do you love to research?
