Yet More Fun With Research

Although forced to re-schedule my vacation trip, I DID get to keep my research appointment at the Margaret Herrick Library, i.e. the research library of the Academy of Motion Pictures. And thanks to the advice of a friend about the best way to get there that didn't involve freeways and rush hour (my appointment was from 10-3, i.e. going into downtown during the morning rush hour and leaving during the afternoon rush hour along with several million other drivers going in the same directions), getting there was fairly painless and un-stressy.

The library itself is LOVELY. The staff is helpful, friendly, extremely knowledgeable and scrupulous about COVID protocols. And, I got to look at silent film scripts (which showed that my portrayal of them in Scandal in Babylon was accurate, insofar as at that point there were evidently SEVERAL different ways of numbering scenes), and sources that clarified various other small points. When you're writing a murder mystery, or in fact any fiction, you need these impossible little picayune details (like, what did the film labs smell like? How did studios recruit what they called "race" extras? At what point did shooting-stages start to become enclosed rather than open to daylight?) A lot of stuff you can find on-line, but things like, What did the ladies in the costume-shop get paid? Not so much.

I was able to get the information I needed, make an appointment to see the REALLY nit-pickety stuff from Special Collections next time, and at 2:10 I was heading out of mid-town like an action-hero outrunning a fireball.

This Friday - July 22 - The Silent Tower and Stranger at the Wedding will be on sale, digitally, through Open Road Media, US only, $1.99 apiece. The following day, Saturday, George's collection of his best short stories, Live! From Planet Earth, will be downpriced, digital, US only, $1.99.

And I am FINALLY able to get back to writing Further Adventures while waiting for the editorial notes to come in on the new Hollywood mystery, One Extra Corpse. And fluff up class materials for Fall Semester, which begins at the end of August. 

Take care.
 

Comments

  1. LibWeirdnessAugust 14, 2022 at 3:15 AM

    Dear Barbara Hambly,

    Long, long ago, when fiction still interested me,
    I found your Ladies of Mandrigyn to be wonderful a wromance,
    & later, I changed my name to Antryg.

    ANtonym of TRYGonometry,
    itself,
    the *entire system* of it.

    Thank you for your understanding of,
    & writing into our world, renditions-of,
    meanings that have mattered to me.

    I seem to remember the Silent Tower being mentioned
    in one of those books...

    Finally, I am breaking-free from mine.

    & thank you, also,
    for cutting through the falsity of "charlie's angels",
    telling us about The Broad Squad, the *real* women,
    who were hirable for protecting us flimsy males,
    eh?

    : p

    Thank you dearly for helping me,
    indirectly,
    in so many ways,
    for so long.

    It is truly delightful to think that maybe you still live,
    & I get to have this message actually reach you.

    Salut, as the French say,
    & Namaste, & Kaizen!

    🙏

    ReplyDelete
  2. Barbara HamblyAugust 17, 2022 at 8:24 PM

    Glad that I can pass along at least some of what was passed along to me by JRR Tolkien, L Frank Baum, Dorothy Sayers, Mary Renault, Katherine Briggs, Fred Pohl, a thousand other sources - plus my senseis and my friends. I'm glad I've been able to help.

    ReplyDelete

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