Mission Accomplished: My Research Trip to Canada

When it comes to writing historical fiction, I can research using books and Web sites until the cows come home, but there is something so special about on site research. Going to museums, historical sites, and local archives makes the history come alive to me, which makes it so much easier to breathe life into it when I portray it to you in my books.

My recent trip to Montreal and Quebec City was no exception. I already turned in the manuscript of Between Two Shores (releasing spring 2019), but there were still some details that were fuzzy to me. So while my editors are reading the book for the first time, I flew north to get my facts straight. There will be plenty of time to make corrections and rewrites in the coming months.

So, what did I gain in person that I hadn't already learned through months of book research? I walked the land myself, and felt the incline sloping up and away from the harbor, toward Mount Royal, for which Montreal is named. I saw the architecture of the time period with my own eyes. At the Pointe-a-Calliere museum, I even saw stones from the original stone wall of the first fort in Montreal.

At Chateau Ramezay, I saw rooms set up with period furniture, and learned details about daily life that were not included in the history books, from alcohol consumption to hygiene habits. I saw dishes they would have used, learned herbal remedies available for common illnesses, saw the tools they used for chores.

Other details I learned that will help me build the storyworld:

• Unpaved streets were muddy. (I always want to know what my characters are walking on - it makes a big difference!)
• Churches had glass windows but not stained with colors yet. If they didn't have enough candles, they filled glass flasks with fireflies. 
• No outhouses; chamber pots were emptied into the street gutters. (Another important detail of daily life!)
• The weather would have been very humid in the timeframe of my story. I'll need to have my characters sweat more. haha

Larger-than-life maps and artistic renditions of the time period were hugely helpful to me, too! I also took pictures of dozens of book pages I found in local archives. The information will help me color in my story with better shading and brighter colors.

In Quebec City, we had a wonderful guide for a walking tour. She had been doing this for 24 years, and was willing to answer all my obscure questions afterward. What a gift!

I was incredibly blessed on this particular trip to be able to stay with my writer friend Ann-Margret, who lives in Montreal. She was my companion and research assistant, helping me snap pictures of books and museum displays! I was only there for a few days, but we certainly packed a lot in. Can't wait to rewrite Between Two Shores with my new discoveries!

For more photos from this trip, visit my Facebook photo album here.