It's All in the Family

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  Where do you do your research? People ask. And I have to smile. Sure, there are the places we all go,  libraries and courthouses and the like, but one of my best sources is my husband Jonathan. A complete legal expert, with experience and savvy and stories and—most important—answers. And I don’t even have to leave home! Or pay to make copies.

The wonderful Friend of Reds Judy Penz Sheluk has also discovered the joys of using your own family for research. When she began to step into murky story waters, she knew exactly where to turn.

A Tale of Three Nieces

Judy Penz Sheluk

I have three beautiful nieces. While relatively close in age (mid 20s to mid 30s), they’ve followed completely different paths in life. Ashley works in cyber security, Leah is a personal trainer, and Rebecca is a social worker. And yet each of them garnered a credit in the Acknowledgments in my latest Marketville Mystery, A Fool’s Journey, featuring protagonist Calamity (Callie) Barnstable and her team at Past & Present Investigations.

With a background in journalism (2003 to 2018), I’m well aware of how important research is, and as an author (and avid reader), I’m equally aware how one false fact can spoil the literary broth. And so when I was creating the character of tattoo artist Sam Sanchez, I knew I needed help: I’ve never been inside a tattoo parlor, and the closest I’ve come to voluntarily getting pricked by a needle is getting my ears pierced when I was twelve.

Enter niece Ashley, who, when not fighting crime, running ultra marathons, or parenting her four-year old son, participates in local theater. More recently, she played the role of Gretchen in the regional TV show Kitchener Sync, where a housemate referred to her as “Tattoo Barbie.” Enough said!

At any rate, Ashley was able to come to the rescue with a primer on tattoo talk. Now, I knew that a complete arm of tattoos was called a “sleeve” but what I didn’t know was that one inside the elbow is referred to as a “ditch” tattoo (apparently quite painful) and symbols on the fingers are known as “finger bangers,” whereas the generic tattoo artwork is known as “flash”— though Ashley assured me that most folks want custom designs these days. Further research revealed that tattoos became mainstream following the airing of the TV show, Miami Ink, in 2005, and that vintage flash art has now become quite collectible. Did all of this information make it into the book? Of course it did!

Niece Leah came to the rescue when I was trying to find the perfect spot for an auction and art gallery that specialized in tattoo flash. I wanted the gallery, aptly named Light Box (a piece of equipment used in tattooing), to be situated in the scenic town of Burlington, Ontario. When she’s not building bodies (including bench pressing her own weight), Leah hangs out with her equally ripped-abs, fit hubby at their home in Burlington. Her Google maps links to various spots in downtown Burlington were instrumental in helping me fine-tune the details that allowed me to imagine, and subsequently describe, the gallery and surrounding area, right down to the stucco-fronted, awning-covered buildings and street parking. In fact, the street parking led me to write a somewhat humorous scene where my protagonist, Callie Barnstable, is trying very hard to avoid parallel parking, given her last attempt was when she got her license 20+ years earlier. (What can I say? Sometimes Callie’s a bit like me…)

Niece Rebecca’s MSW was put to good use when Jeanine Westlake, stepsister to Brandon Colbeck (the man Callie has been hired to find) explains various parenting styles to Callie. Jeanine, you see, is a social worker, and the owner of New Beginnings Center for Life. Her childhood was also vastly different from that of her stepbrother…even though they were both raised in the same house. For this, I’d done a ton of research on my own, learning about styles defined as authoritarian or disciplinarian, permissive or indulgent, and authoritative, and I sent the chapter delving into all of that to Rebecca, quite sure she was going to say it was perfect, and giving me 5 stars for research.

Well…not exactly. While I had the facts right, the way Jeanine explained the various parenting styles to Callie was completely wrong. “We wouldn’t talk in such absolutes,” Rebecca wrote me, and proceeded to offer suggestions on the way a social worker would offer information and counseling. It was a perfect example of how online research should never be used without consulting with an expert.

And that’s how my three nieces made it into the acknowledgments of A Fool’s Journey. Could I have done it without them? Probably. But it wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun.

HANK: Love this! And “one false fact can spoil the literary broth” is hilarious. Reds and Readers. Have you ever gone to a family member for advice on writing or a decision you were trying to make that fell outside of your knowledge zone? Not just in writing, of course!  
ADDED LATER: In fact: we ALL have something special we could contribute to each other--volunteers, anyone?  I can consult about--TV, of course. Journalism. How about you all, reds and readers? What do you have for the research bank?

 In March 2000, twenty-year old Brandon Colbeck left home to find himself on a self-proclaimed “fool’s journey.” No one—not friends or family—have seen or heard from him since, until a phone call from a man claiming to be Brandon brings everything back to the forefront. Calamity (Callie) Barnstable and her team at Past & Present Investigations have been hired to find out what happened to Brandon, and, if still alive, where he might be. As Callie follows a trail of buried secrets and decades-old deceptions only one thing is certain: whatever the outcome, there is no such thing as closure.

Now available for pre-order, A Fool’s Journey, book 3 in Judy’s Marketville Mystery series, will be released on August 21 in trade paperback at all the usual suspects, and on Kindle.

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Judy Penz Sheluk is the author of the Glass Dolphin Mystery and Marketville Mystery series, and the editor of The Best Laid Plans: 21 Stories of Mystery & Suspense. Her short stories can be found in several collections. Judy is also a member of Sisters in Crime, International Thriller Writers, the Short Mystery Fiction Society, and Crime Writers of Canada, where she serves as Vice Chair on the Board of Directors. Find her at judypenzsheluk.com.