The Writer As Eternal Student

For the next roundtable let's talk about how writers are eternal students (though usually on self-study courses). 

The first side of that coin is that we can only write what we know. How has that been evident in your work? Are there topics/interests/specifics that you find your work covering over and over again?

Bobby Nash: I always take the “write what you know” advice to be the beginning of the journey. I didn’t know much about FBI agents or serial killers when I wrote Evil Ways, but I knew about the relationship between two brothers so that’s the foundation for the story. If the relationship between them is solid, the rest I can build on from there. I’ve had demeaning day jobs. I can use that as a basis for a story or character, even if it's not the same job, I can extrapolate from real life to make the story feel real. If I took “write what you know” literally, my stories would be very boring.

Ef Deal: I write steampunk, which has the advantage of being set in history. There's a lot to know about history, and the information is readily available. My plots involve an element of social conflict, an historical setting including historical figures and events, scientific dvelopments of the time period (1840s), and paranormal features as they were understood at the time. Research is essential to nail down all of those elements in such a way as to find a nexus where they present a plausible plot for me to pursue. I like to get down to the personal level, so I often read journals of the time, memoirs of the historical figures, newspaper articles. These often give me significant lines of description or dialogue. When I saw Eugene Delacroix's comment about the Paris-Orleans railway being "a blessing to my rheumatic bones," for example, I knew that line had to be in the book and that the story would begin there. In researching conditions for child laborers in the coal industry, I learned of the disaster that drowned 30-some kids, and I learned their names so at least one would be immortalized.

Paul Landri: Buckle up because this is a long one! 

One of the best compliments I’ve gotten so far for the first book in the Crimson Howl series came from an up-and-coming comic book writer friend of mine named Patrick Reilly (he’s got an anthology series coming out later this year everyone should check out,) who told me that I write “white rage” very well. Now, I don’t normally talk politics but art has been and always will be political by its very nature.

I am not an angry white man in the sense that I feel my privilege is being eroded by outside influences. I am angry at the injustice I see all around me perpetuated by thoughtless and ignorant men who feel like the march of progress is somehow an affront to their identities. In Howl book 1 I wanted to channel that feeling because I grew up around this type of thinking. The Jersey Shore where I lived, Atlantic Highlands, is a pretty blue-collar area despite its status as a tourist town. Lots of fishermen and old salts who’d spend their late afternoons and evenings at the local watering hole lamenting about how the good days were behind them. These were people from an older, less tolerant generation who had no filter and didn’t care, after a few Miller Lites, who knew their opinions. Of course, this was constantly brushed off because they were “from another generation” (as if that was any excuse!) So when I came up with the character of Arnold Grant, the titular character of the Crimson Howl series, I wanted to see how a character with superpowers from a “different” generation would exist in the modern era. I came up with the idea of the Crimson Howl as a character in 2014. Two years before the MAGA movement usurped the Republican party and transformed it into something unrecognizable. I like to joke (although it’s becoming much less funny as time goes on,) that the Crimson Howl was MAGA before MAGA was MAGA.

I have a degree in history from Monmouth University. My senior thesis was on propaganda during World War 2 in America. You can read it at the Guggenheim Library in West Long Branch if you’d like. I found the subject fascinating (and got an A on it, to boot!) and wanted to incorporate as much of my WW2 knowledge and nostalgia into the book as possible. When creating the world for Return of the Crimson Howl I had to marry my love of Golden Age comic books with my fascination with World War 2. How to do that, though? Well, the answer is simple: make superheroing a part of the New Deal. I don’t seem to recall if this had been done before, but it definitely worked in my narrative. I currently work with the estate of Joe Simon, who along with Jack Kirby created Captain America. My work has a heavily anti-fascist bend that I’m very proud of.

Despite also being very anti-mafia in real life, I find mafia stories fascinating because it’s a shared part of my Italian-American heritage for better or worse. I’m a big fan of Mario Puzo and wanted to honor his style when I wrote the origin chapter of Rudyard Sinclair, our magical/mystical character named The Swami (He’s on the front cover of Return of the Crimson Howl, done up in full color by Terrific Ted Hammond). In that chapter I got to bring the knowledge of the mob I learned while living out in Nevada and bring it into the story in a fun way. It’s always great to name-drop Kefauver and the hearings that helped destroy the prestige of the Italian mafia.

Lance Stahlberg: If I only wrote what I knew, my books would be pretty boring. I do not live an exciting life. I go out of my way to make sure that not every character has all of my interests and such. Though of course there are elements of me in each of them. I know Chicago, but I've only set one of my books there.

Nugget #115 -- Shades of Research

Like with so many issues we writers face, it comes down

to research. If you don’t know the truth of the time period

you plan to write, then look it up. Find out the hues of

that world. Then paint with all those shades.

[Link] 875 Words (More or Less) About Getting Caught Up In Researching

by Derrick Ferguson

Now we fast-forward to the Internet Age where I can now simply Google any information about anything at all and do my research in my pajamas in the comfort of my home because now the library comes to me. And that’s a good thing. Maybe too much of a good thing.

Let me explain: the current project I’m working on is set during World War I during what was one of the most important conflicts in the history of warfare: The Battle of Cambrai. Cambrai is a town in France that is distinguished due to the fact that it was first time tanks were used in large numbers in combat successfully. Now, I know as much about The Battle of Cambrai as I do about the dark side of the moon. But that’s where things get interesting.

I go ahead and Google up The Battle of Cambrai and there’s a whole lotta good articles and information on the battle. I breathe a sigh of relief and dig in. The trail of research even leads me to YouTube as there’s a goodish number of documentaries from the History Channel about The Battle of Cambrai. I’m encouraged now, y’see? I hungrily absorb everything I’m learning and putting into the story as now I feel much more confident being armed with dates, names and maps to give my story a solid foundation.

So what’s the problem?

I re-read the first three chapters of the book and it occurred to me that what I had actually done was bury the story under the weight of the dates, names and maps. So intent had I been making sure I had the historical stuff right I sacrificed doing the stuff that I know how to do: dialog, characterization, action. Y’know…the stuff I had been asked to do on this project as that was the reason I had been engaged to work on it in the first place.

Read the full article: https://dlferguson-bloodandink.blogspot.com/2015/06/875-words-more-or-less-about-getting.html

Researching Steampunk — And More

By Stephanie Osborn

I’ve spent a good deal of time researching history for my science fiction writing, which is funny, really, because history was my least favorite subject in school. But when you’re writing a story, somehow it takes on a completely different focus, becomes less dry and dusty and more malleable. And I’ve done it quite a lot by now, actually:

• Burnout (postWWII to the present, military and space)
• The Fetish (Native American post-European history)
• “The Bunker,” Dreams of Steam (Victorian era UK and USA)
• The Displaced Detective Series (Victorian era London)
• The Adventures of Aemelia Gearheart (as-yet unpublished; Victorian era Europe, Asia Australia, Revolutionary War America)
• Extraction Point (scientific history, Middle Ages to present)
• The Sherlock Holmes: Gentleman Aegis Series (coming soon; Victorian era worldwide)

For our purposes, let’s focus on the Displaced Detective series. The Displaced Detective series has been described as “Sherlock Holmes meets the X-Files,” in that it is a series of science fiction mysteries in which Sherlock Holmes is yanked from an alternate reality into the modern day and can’t be sent home again. Instead he settles into the 21st century and, together with the chief scientist of the project that brought him there, solves scientifically oriented mysteries. So I had to start with a purely Victorian British man, and compare and contrast his world with a modern American one. It entailed considerable research on the Victorian era, and London specifically.

Building references

Did you know that if you went to Great Britain and got a hotel room on the first floor, you’d need to look for the elevator, or the stairs? That’s right. Their ground floor is our 1st floor.  Their 1st floor is our 2nd floor! In the Victorian era (and in Baker Street!) the ground floor in London would house the servants, kitchen, possibly the water pump (if it was indoors) – and of course, Mrs. Hudson’s living area, as well as possibly a shop of some sort on the street. But the principal, formal living area would be on the first floor and above. We know this is where Holmes’ rooms were, as well as the sitting-room; Watson’s bedroom was on a floor above this, judging by references in the stories.

Also it’s good to know that Baker Street had an Upper (north) end and a Lower (south) end. Upper Baker Street had no numbers, nor any real dwellings, in Victorian days. In fact, it didn’t get numbers until about 1932 or thereabouts. So 221b never really existed in our world. What exists where 221b should be? That’s heavily debated, and the property keeps changing hands, but there is a large block of buildings that started out as a bank headquarters sitting where the number should actually be. The mailing address is heavily debated between the bank and the Sherlock Holmes Museum, a little way farther up Baker Street.

So did the Baker Street Irregulars really exist? As a matter of fact — yes, they did, but not as street urchins. In WWII the headquarters of the Special Operations Executive, an espionage, reconnaissance and surveillance organization that eventually merged into MI6, and with which certain “names” (such as the late Sir Christopher Lee, and the celebrated author Ian Fleming) were reputed to have worked, was located in Lower Baker Street. It took on the nickname of the Baker Street Irregulars, which is not to be confused with the international fan organization of the same name.

Is there an Underground station nearby that Holmes and Watson could have used? Yes, the Baker Street Station, one of the world’s oldest — and which was refurbished and remodeled in recent years so that one part of the station (which connects two Underground lines) is Sherlockian-themed, and the other once again displays its original Victorian styling.

Is there anywhere nearby where Holmes and Watson could have simply strolled, as is mentioned in a couple of the Conan Doyle stories? Yes, Regents Park is at the upper end of Baker Street and is quite large.

What about household furnishings? Well, the ones that would most puzzle us today are actually all still in existence but use different names. The gasogene (aka domestic time bomb) was a seltzer maker. It consisted of two bottles held together with wicker or wire, one containing tartaric acid and sodium bicarbonate which reacted to produce carbon dioxide, and the other containing water. When the handle was depressed, carbonated water emerged for mixing into drinks – when the thing didn’t explode from pressure buildup, that is. The tantalus was simply a liquor cabinet, often portable (in an awkward, bulky sort of way). It contained crystal decanters rather than bottles, with metal labels on chains. The gasogene was typically kept here too. The tantalus was usually kept locked unless it was being used to pour drinks. (No sense in encouraging the hired help to raid the liquor cabinet, you know! Seriously, that would have been one of the rationales behind keeping it locked, in the day.)

Alcohol and Tobacco

If a gentleman were out and about, he might have ale, beer, or stout, typically at a pub. After dinner, or at his club, it was whisky, scotch or brandy, usually with a cigarette, cigar, or pipe. The combination was used because tobacco potentiates any other drug with which it was used, so the host could provide a nice buzz with much less expensive alcohol. (It was also why opium was usually smoked with tobacco in a hookah. An expensive drug, as it was imported, the tobacco enabled the same high with a lesser amount.) Cigarettes were hand-rolled, and there were tricks to handling a pipe: lighting it, keeping it going, and maintaining it are all more difficult than one would think if one hasn’t tried it.

How do I know? I learned to smoke a pipe expressly to be able to write Holmes’ use of it properly. This includes sipping whisky or brandy with it, which resulted in my learning first-hand how well tobacco potentiates the alcohol! I am NOT a heavy drinker, and I have never been so drunk before or since, nor do I wish to be.

There are a myriad of variations on a pipe. Holmes is usually depicted smoking a Meerschaum Calabash pipe, but this dates from the first stage portrayal of Holmes by William Gillette. He found that such a pipe had several useful advantages for stage use:

• It was heavily curved, and so the bowl stayed out of the way of the face. This both enabled the audience to see the actor better, and the actor’s expressions and emoting to come through as a consequence. (It is sometimes debated how much of Gillette’s ego went into the choice.)
• It was well balanced, and allowed the actor to speak around it even with it in his mouth, sometimes even without the aid of hands.

In all likelihood, however, Holmes would have smoked a long-stemmed briar pipe.

Then there is something called the dottle. This is the slightly charred, often soggy remains of the bowlful of tobacco left at the bottom after smoking. It can be removed, dried, and smoked, though it is often a bit harsh. Doyle tells us that Holmes had a habit of collecting the dottle from a day’s worth of pipe use, drying it on a corner of the fireplace mantel, then using this as his first-thing-in-the-morning smoke.

Lighting tobacco could be a risky proposition in those days. A smoker would have used a match, a hot coal held awkwardly in fireplace tongs, or possibly the jet of a gas lamp. There WAS the precursor of a modern lighter: the fusee, a kind of a flintlock or flare; it was bulky and dangerous, especially if the smoker possessed a beard.
   
For emergencies, brandy was used to “revive” a victim, I presume in much the same manner smelling-salts were and are used. Modern well-known liquors were available at the time, such as Glenlivet (a relatively new distillery at the time) and Hennessey, a British brandy as opposed to a French cognac, but it is the same beverage for all intents and purposes. (The difference arises from the requirement that “cognac” be applied only to those products of a certain region of France.) I thought Holmes might be an Anglophile, although possibly not; his grandmother was French (Vernet). Besides, Watson references brandy, not cognac. As a result, I chose Hennessey for my experiments with after-dinner tobacco pipes and brandy.

Clothing and modes of dress
   
A gentleman's dress varied depending on where he was or where he was going. If he was in the city, his outerwear would include an overcoat, top hat, frock coat, ascot, cane, and possibly spats. But if he were in, or traveling to, the country, he would attire himself in tweeds; a boater, deerstalker or flat cap; and an overcoat, cloak, Inverness cape, or duster-type coat, depending upon weather. All of these would fasten with buttons or hooks & eyes; there were no zippers and no belts. Trousers were held up with suspenders, or “braces” as they were usually called. Jeans were just being invented, and were not used in the UK. The cloth was produced in France (twill de Nimes — “denim”). The first cowboy hats by Stetson in the US had avid competition by Christy's in the UK, who is still a provider to the Crown.
   
A proper gentleman such as Holmes would be attired from the skin up as follows: vest and pants (these today would be called boxers and undershirt – NOT a t-shirt, but a tank-top style), stockings (socks), a shirt with replaceable collar (ring around the collar? Throw it away and get another), button-up trousers (modern pants, trousers, or slacks, but with a button fly) held up by braces (suspenders), a double-pocketed waistcoat (“WES-kət,” now known as a vest), and if in public or with visitors, a suit-coat of various styles, and a tie of some sort, approximating the modern bow or regular tie, or something even fancier. The tie was often referred to as a cravat. Shoes were leather, usually ankle height, and buttoned up. Note also that some men of the era wore corsets, although there is no evidence that Holmes or Watson did so.
   
Accessories would include cufflinks and a pocket-watch. The watch was properly placed in one waistcoat pocket; the chain (if the wearer was of sufficient means to afford a long chain) was threaded through a buttonhole in the waistcoat and over to the other pocket. On the other end of the long chain would be some necessary trinket such as a pipe tool (for cleaning and/or tamping one’s pipe) or a jack-knife (pocket knife), and this would be tucked into the waistcoat pocket opposite the pocket-watch. If the wearer could not afford such, then a single swag ran from the waistcoat pocket to hook around one of the waistcoat buttons. In addition, when going out, no London gentleman would be caught dead without his cane (young or old, handicapped or no), kid leather gloves, and silk hat (top hat). Optional accessories included studs instead of shirt buttons, a stick pin for the cravat, spats (to protect expensive leather shoes from the mud on the streets and in the gutters, which not infrequently still contained the contents of chamber pots, at least in certain parts of London), watch fobs, and overcoats and wool scarves in winter.
   
The only skin which showed on a PROPER Victorian male or female in public – if they were of any station at all – was the skin of the face and upper neck.

Personal hygeine
           
The era had very little running water. Instead they used pitcher and basin, with water from a pump (often outdoors). There were, of course, no hot showers, but there were clawfoot tubs with water lugged from the ground floor; if heated water was desired, it was heated on a wood or gas stove.

Straight razors and soap with a brush to lather it did for shaving; the “safety razor” had just been invented — the ancestor to the modern razor. In addition, one could get periodic touchups by the corner barber.
   
Toothbrushes were uncommon but existed, made of natural materials (wood, boar bristle). No toothpaste — they used tooth powder made by their neighborhood chemist (apothecary, pharmacy). This powder ranged from baking soda to powdered pumice and sometimes did as much harm as good. The first commercial deodorant came into being about this time — Mum, later known as Ban, it was a paste or cream applied by the fingers. Colognes, aftershave, personal fragrances, all were compounded at the chemist's. Aftershave was probably no more than a simple alcohol and/or witch hazel blend with possibly fragrance added. For men, bay rum was a popular fragrance of the day; women’s fragrances tended toward the single-note florals.

Non-London Research: Colorado

Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs (~6000ft) pre-white-man were literally areas of springs, some of which are naturally carbonated, all of which are artesian. They were natural winter havens for Native Americans (mostly Utes). Ute Pass (US 24) was used by the Utes to get to the summertime pasturage behind the Front Range, in the high meadows (~9000-10,000ft). Lots of bison were in the area then, at low and high altitudes, so there was plenty of food.
   

The Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument (used in book 1, The Arrival) was an ancient Eocene redwood forest valley. A massive volcanic eruption from numerous volcanos in the area (part of the 39-Mile volcanic system) dammed a stream and flooded it, killing the redwoods before “petrifying” (remineralizing) them; it also fossilized insects and animals. When the first settlers came through the area, there was so much petrified wood they had to move it just to make a road, and often took souvenirs with them. There’s very little left now except what is preserved in the Monument. The conjoined Hornbek Homestead, moved to the site from its original location nearby, was a frontier homestead run by Adeline Hornbek. This amazing woman was widowed once, married again, and her second husband Hornbek disappeared, leaving her with a ranch and kids. She made a go of it and had one of the wealthier frontier homes, complete with:

• glass windows
• 2 stories
• 4 bedrooms
• ornate Victorian furnishings
• a milk house, chicken house, and stables!

She even ran the local mercantile and was a contemporary of Holmes — or rather, would have been.
   
Cripple Creek & Victor were gold/silver boomtowns. They sit in the middle of an ancient volcanic crater, where to this day, miners dig into the volcanic neck for ore. (Yes, I’ve been down in one of the gold mines in the area.)

Non-London Research: RAF Bentwaters & RAF Woodbridge

Now we get into WWII history.  RAF Bentwaters & RAF Woodbridge (used in books 3 & 4, The Rendlesham Incident & Endings and Beginnings) were built for emergency landings returning from Germany over the Channel. The ancient Rendlesham Forest is in between the two bases. There was even an accidental German bomber landing there due to an inexperienced crew! They got turned around, lost over the Channel, and thought they were over Nazi Germany. The crew was immediately taken into custody as prisoners of war, and the aircraft was stripped down for secrets.
   
In the late 20th century they became NATO bases. In late 1980, “England's Roswell” occurred. UFO appearances were documented by base security, and soldiers’ IR night goggles indicated a “hole” in the center of the unidentified object. Under regression hypnosis, a military sergeant indicated the beings were time travelers. There were many explanations, but there was enough there for me to take it and run for The Rendlesham Incident & Endings and Beginnings!

Where Did I Find All That?
   
Lots of places, really. In most of this research, I found that Google was my bestest friend. Sometimes it takes a bit of trial and error to find the right combination of keywords on which to search, though. It’s definitely worth sitting down with the browser open to your search engine and trying different combinations and permutations of keywords on your subject. Sometimes you need to exercise a bit of discretion on the results; I try to avoid the obviously over-the-top websites — you know the ones I mean — unless, of course, I am actively LOOKING for something over-the-top.
   
Wikipedia is a surprisingly good jumping-off point. Given my background, education, and experience, I know enough of certain sciences to tell if a Wiki article is “on” or not, and if I can trust it; history and culture, different ball game. However, within certain limits it can give you an overview of your subject (don’t trust political commentary, etc.), and the references at the bottom of the article are invaluable. You can chase reference trees for hours, if you aren’t careful and lose track of time. And learn a lot in the doing. I know, because I have!
   
Travel is one of my favorite sources of information. I love to travel and explore, and often used business trips as a springboard for exploration. The extensive knowledge of the Colorado Springs area I use in the Displaced Detective books, as being one of the homes of the detectives, is partly because of such business trips, and partly because I had a friend living in the area at the time. It was easy to tack on a weekend to the business trip, taking advantage of my friend’s spare bedroom, and explore the area, sometimes with her, sometimes on my own. There are very few places in Colorado that I mention in the books that I have not visited myself. And I have several future books in the series planned around other locales I have visited as well, such as New Orleans and the Pacific Northwest.
   
Believe it or not, I’ve been learning to use social media as a really good source of information. For instance, I now have a selection of Facebook groups where, if I’m stuck on a particular detail, I can post a question and have expert historians, keepers of museums, and re-enactors, all providing feedback on the “sticking point” — and I’m soon past it and writing on!

This is just a sample of the information my research has uncovered, as well as how I dug it all out, and I continue to explore history, looking for cool things to work into stories. It’s been a fun ride so far, and I’ve no doubt it will continue to be!

Stephanie Osborn, the Interstellar Woman of Mystery, is a veteran of more than 20 years in the civilian space program, with graduate and undergraduate degrees in four sciences: astronomy, physics, chemistry and mathematics, and she is “fluent” in several more, including geology and anatomy. She has authored, co-authored, or contributed to more than 20 books, including the celebrated science-fiction mystery, Burnout: The mystery of Space Shuttle STS-281. She is the co-author of the Cresperian Saga book series, and currently writes the critically acclaimed Displaced Detective Series, described as “Sherlock Holmes meets The X-Files.” In addition to her writing, the Interstellar Woman of Mystery now happily “pays it forward,” teaching math and science through numerous media including radio, podcasting and public speaking, as well as working with SIGMA, the science-fiction think tank.

(© 2013, 2015 Stephanie Osborn)

Who are better writers, women or men?

Editor's Note: I should mention that I disagree with the rationale behind the word "better." After all, Hemingway and Raymond Chandler would both be quick to point out that shorter, more direct sentences are far superior to longer, more descriptive (or flowery) sentences (of course, it is telling that they are men). As a comparative infographic about the differences between male and female writers, I find it particularly useful. However, as a superlative one extolling the virtues of one gender over the other, I find it very much a straw man argument. 

Credit: The poll and graphic were produced by Grammarly, the world's leading automated proofreader. Using elite natural language processing technology, it checks writing for more than 250 types of spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors, enhances vocabulary usage, and suggests citations. Grammarly delivers a passive learning experience that identifies writing patterns and sends users personal recommendations to help understand their most common mistakes and opportunities to develop their writing skills. Grammarly is also the creator of GrammoWriMo, a collaborative writing project to celebrate National Novel Writing Month (November). Last year the project brought together more than 300 writers from 27 countries to create a group novel, which was then sold as an e-book on Amazon and benefitted the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now (#244) -- Write What You Know?

Which is more true for you, “Write what you know” or “Research, research, research”?

Get ready for another of my trademarked non-committal responses.

I’m a big believer in both of these writing truths. I think that you can’t write what you don’t know, but inversely, research can only give facts and can only go so far. So, where does that leave a writer?

With the imagination to take what he or she does know (“we can only possess what we experience… truth, to be understood, must be lived” -- thank you Charlie Peacock), add to that facts about the topic or time period or people involved in the tale, and stir vigorously to create something tasty for a reader’s brain to digest.

The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now (#213) -- Research Adventures

What non-book research would you most like to do in preparation for your writing?

I love to get down and dirty in the field to research for what I'm working on, and when I was writing about cavernous trolls once I took the opportunity to visit caves and walk through part of the tour with my eyes closed just to be able to write about the feels and smells rather than just sight details.

But the two most adventurous research excursions I'd really love to experience would be:

1. A ride-along with a police detective.

2. A paranormal ghost hunt.

If I could find a police detective on a paranormal ghost hunt, even better, but that might be dropping too big a hint...

The Watson Report: The Baffling Story of Spring-Heeled Jack

By I.A. Watson

Every pulpster should know about Spring-Heeled Jack. He inspired the rise of the shock newspapers like London Illustrated Crime Weekly and the Penny Dreadfuls, the forerunners of the pulp magazines. And he's a great bogeyman.

According to the broadsheet newspapers of October 1837, a house servant called Mary Stevens was returning from visiting her parents in Battersea to her employers' house in Lavender Hill. At that time the sprawl of London hadn't yet engulfed these villages so she'd be travelling along winding hedge-lined country paths. She cut across Clapham Common and was grabbed by a dark figure that leaped from an alley. He pinned her, kissed her  face, and tore at her clothes and bare flesh with "claws" that were "cold and clammy like those of a corpse". The girl screamed, people came, and the assailant fled.

The next day the same man struck again at another maid quite near to Miss Stevens' Lavender Hill address. This time his escape included impossible leaps, including over a nine foot high boundary wall. He was laughing manically. At some point during the chase he bounced in front of a horse and carriage, causing it to swerve and crash, seriously injuring the driver. The press took up the description of him leaping as if her had "springs in his heels" and he got his name.

Sightings and attacks continued, and fear spread. A written complaint submitted by "a resident of Peckham" to Sir John Cowan, Lord Mayor of London, brought the matter to official attention and has become the much-quoted staple of Jack-lore:

"It appears that some individuals (of, as the writer believes, the highest ranks of life) have laid a wager with a mischievous and foolhardy companion, that he durst not take upon himself the task of visiting many of the villages near London in three different disguises — a ghost, a bear, and a devil; and moreover, that he will not enter a gentleman's gardens for the purpose of alarming the inmates of the house. The wager has, however, been accepted, and the unmanly villain has succeeded in depriving seven ladies of their senses, two of whom are not likely to recover, but to become burdens to their families.

"At one house the man rang the bell, and on the servant coming to open door, this worse than brute stood in no less dreadful figure than a spectre clad most perfectly. The consequence was that the poor girl immediately swooned, and has never from that moment been in her senses.

"The affair has now been going on for some time, and, strange to say, the papers are still silent on the subject. The writer has reason to believe that they have the whole history at their finger-ends but, through interested motives, are induced to remain silent."

The Times reported the case on 9th January 1838, elevating its profile to a national level. A flood of claimed sightings followed from all parts of London. By now Jack was said to have iron claws with which he disfigured his victims. Some women were said to have been driven to fits and others to have died of fright, although no names were given for the latter. Vigilante patrols began to search for Spring-Heeled Jack after dark and several “suspicious characters” were beaten within inches of their lives. When the Brighton Gazette reported that a Sussex gardener had been terrified by “a four footed apparition” that had escaped over a high wall the papers were quick to proclaim that Jack was now roaming the country at will.

On February 19th of that year, pretty Jane Alsop answered urgent knocking at her father’s door to someone claiming to be a policeman, shouting, “Bring a light! We have caught Spring-Heeled Jack here in the lane!” When she hurried out with a candle, the visitor cast off a dark cloak to reveal tight-fitting “oilskin” clothing, a helmet, and eyes like “red balls of fire”. He vomited blue and white flame into the girl’s face, then tore at her with iron claws. She struggled free but he caught her again at her doorstep, tearing her gown, arms, neck, and breasts. When Jane’s sisters answered her screams the attacker raced away. A subsequent search did not locate him.

On February 28th, 18 year old Lucy Scales and her younger sister cut down Green Dragon Alley on their way home from visiting their married brother in Limehouse. A stranger in the alley blocked Lucy’s way and breathed blue fire into her face, blinding her. Lucy fell to the floor in a fit that lasted for hours. Her sister screamed and her brother responded. The stranger, dressed like a gentleman and carrying a bulls-eye lantern, slipped away.

Police treated these cases very seriously. A self-confessed Spring-Heel Jack was tried at Lambeth Street Court then acquitted. “Spring-Heeled Jack – the Terror of London” became an early Penny Dreadful. He even began to appear in the popular Punch and Judy puppet shows, taking the role usually reserved for the Devil in those gory morality plays. The first Spring-Heeled Jack stage play debuted in 1840. By 1885 his fame had crossed the Atlantic, with “Spring-Heel Jack; or The Masked Mystery of the Tower”, appearing in Beadle's New York Dime Library #332.

In 1843 he was reported in distant Northamptonshire. Later that year he was attacking lone coachmen in rural East Anglia. Some linked him with the mysterious “Devil’s Footprints” in Devon in February 1835, where miles-long tracks of bipedal hoof-marks snaked over the snow-covered landscape, including passing across rooftops and over high walls.

Various theories competed in public opinion. For every one that proclaimed Jack a demon, spectre, or vampire there were those who thought him a lunatic butcher, a mad nobleman, or a cabal of rich men’s sons reviving the antics of the famous Hell-Fire Clubs. Several copy-cats were caught; some were dealt with severely without recourse to the authorities.

The various traits of Jack’s numerous claimed attacks were conflated: classic Spring-Heeled Jack had iron claws and burning eyes, belched fire and leaped great distances. He could change shape and melt into shadow. Weapons did not harm him. He dressed like a gentleman except when he was a bear or a ghost or wore tight-fitting oilskin beneath his flowing cloak.

So Jack entered folklore. His appearances diminished but his fame grew. He returned again in 1872 in Peckham and the next year in industrial Sheffield where a huge crowd turned out to see him jumping across the rooftops. But surely his most outrageous exploit was his haunting of Aldershot Army Base, then and now one of the UK’s top-security military training camps.

In August 1877 a sentry there challenged a cloak-swathed figure that raced up and slapped him. Bullets appeared not to harm the assailant. The intruder disappeared into the night with uncanny bounds. A series of other appearances in and around the camp provoked news articles about “The Aldershot Ghost” and are mentioned in memoirs of officers serving at the time. Lord Earnest Hamilton’s Forty Years On offers details but seems to fudge dates, and posits that the culprit was a prankster called Lieutenant Alfrey.

Jack sightings continued into the 20th century. His last “official” appearance after a couple of decades touring the country was in Liverpool in 1904. The most recent claim was of a family travelling home by car who encountered a “dark figure with no features” that climbed a fifteen foot wall in seconds “just like Spring-Heeled Jack” – in February 2012!

See what I mean about the pulpiness of Spring-Heeled Jack? From him proceeded Varney the Vampire, the Mad Gasser of Matoon, Pérák, the Spring Man of Prague, Jason Voorhees, and a host of other characters claimed as real or creations of fiction. There is even a shadow of him in the Shadow’s chilling laughter.

So a tip the pulp hat to the scary old ghost – but don’t look him in the eye lest he blind you with his fire!

The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now (#89) -- Most Interesting Research

What's the most interesting thing you've learned recently while researching for a story?

Every time I research for a story I tend to learn something interesting, but the most fascinating tidbit I've picked up recently is from researching pre-WWII planes for my Lance Star comic book story for All-Star Pulp Comics #2 to be published by Redbud Studios and Airship 27 Productions.

You see, back when I was a preteen, I had a stepfather for a few years who was a pilot, and during that time, I had a strong fascination with airplanes. Well, when I started researching war planes and stunt planes from the 1930s, all that youthful fascination came rushing back to me.

And I also learned about the Russian Yakovlev UT-1, a very, very cool airplane of the time period. 

I always love the research phase of my writing, in part because I'm a history minor and a history nut, and my research is typically far more intriguing than my actually history classes (weapons, planes, poisons, and serial killers just sadly weren't in our curriculum as KSU). I always find some tidbit that makes me almost squeal with childish delight at some new knowledge learned. Like in kid in a candy store, I tell ya.

The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now (#79) -- Research

How much live research do you do vs. book and Internet research?

I very rarely do live, in-person research, but when I write about superheroes and WWII Nazis, it'd be a be difficult to literally get in those shoes. I have, however, researched settings for my work, from caves to cities to urban structures, taking note of the specifics (feelings, atmosphere, etc.) indicative of each. I've also visited certain vehicles at parks, such as planes and tanks for reference.

Most of my research, however, comes from hands-off stuff though instead of hands-on. I should get frequent flyer miles on Google. I really should.