Research for the Night Stalkers series

There are stories inside an author’s comfort zone and outside. There are stories that we could tell from the world we know. And then there are the stories we need to tell even though we don’t know the world. When that happens, when the author doesn’t have that direct knowledge, I think there are three real options open to them:

1. To “wave their hands.” I’ve read authors who can do this magnificently. Many of these writers land in the fantasy world. “I’m telling you a military story, but I’m setting it in an elfen realm so that I can work with the emotions, not the hard facts of reality.” These can be future set, alternate reality, or a myriad of other paths as well.
2. Down the middle. These authors will do sufficient research to make it sound real, but again, there is a certain amount of distraction of the reader with other events rather than going down into the details. This allows them to come at the story and worry less about the details of the world.
3. I always choose the third path, maximum realism. I do everything I can to make the background information as real and accurate as possible. In Take Over at Midnight there is a scene where they crash land on an oil rig. I spent days studying the different models located in the Gulf of Mexico, how their helipads were positioned, how high were they out of the water while actually working a site, and so on.

Setting out to write a story in this third style has more challenges than finding out the information; the Internet has solved many of those issues. Reading many books and doing the occasional personal interview plugs the holes. Granted, there is the challenge for a writer to not get lost in the research and forget that their job is actually to do the writing. I admit, I have occasionally looked up and realized I’ve lost a day or more, but that doesn’t happen very often, for it is the storytelling I love and not the research.

The real challenge of research for me? Figuring out when not to use it. I have ten times the detail that I put in the books. I’ve read Black Hawk service manuals that have allowed me to add a dozen paragraphs over four novels. I have also read a single article and watched two three-minute videos in order to install the pivotal ADAS camera technology in my earlier book, Wait Until Dark, the third Night Stalkers novel that alters the very course of the love story.

So, perhaps the oddest bit of research I do is studying just how much research I can do without and still make the story feel real.

TAKE OVER AT MIDNIGHT

by ML BUCHMAN

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Name: Lola LaRue

Rank: Chief Warrant Officer 3

Mission: Copilot deadly choppers on the world’s most dangerous missions

 Name: Tim Maloney

Rank: Sergeant

Mission: Man the guns and charm the ladies

The Past Doesn’t Matter, When Their Future is Doomed…

Nothing sticks to “Crazy” Tim Maloney, until he falls hard for a tall Creole beauty with a haunted past and a penchant for reckless flying. Lola LaRue never thought she’d be susceptible to a man’s desire, but even with Tim igniting her deepest passions, it may be too late now…With the nation under an imminent threat of biological warfare, Tim and Lola are the only ones who can stop the madness–and to do that, they’re going to have to trust each other way beyond their limits…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

M. L. Buchman has worked in fast food, law, opera, computers, publishing, and light manufacturing. It’s amazing what you can do with a degree in geophysics. His Night Stalker Series have garnered starred reviews, top picks and have even been named an NPR Best Romance of 2012 (I Own the Dawn). He lives in Lincoln City, OR, with a loving lady and the coolest kid on the planet. For more information, please visit http://www.mlbuchman.com/.

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