I carefully research all of my writing, but Dangerous Revelations has been extremely easy to research because I grew up on a very similar family ranch in the Nebraska panhandle. My maternal great-grandfather homesteaded the ranch before the 1920s. It was passed down to his daughter and son-in-law. After my grandfather retired, my aunt and uncle operated it, and then, in 1973, my parents took it over. At the age of 13, I learned to ride horses, round up cattle, drive a tractor to hay and feed cattle, help a calf into the world, and many other day-to-day tasks.
My favorite ranching task was haying in the summer. I both mowed the grass with a sidebar mower and raked it into windrows. The days were long and hot, but I didn’t mind because the wind was blowing through my hair and I had plenty of time to plot and plan stories. At that time, I never wrote them down, but in my mind I lived them. I never thought about how I was preparing myself for the future.
Over the years, I have taken a number of courses offered to writers. I have taken several classes on crime scene investigation, injuries to victims, plotting suspense, and others. My bookshelves and my Kindle app are also full of research books that I can turn to at any time.
With each new novel I embrace the opportunity to research and learn new facts and techniques.
Jacki Ring 