I was a history major long before I began thinking of myself as a novelist. I've been studying local history, old tax records, old maps, first settlers accounts for years. But I continue to research, forever dipping back into VMI's archives and other on-line resources, to make sure that when my fictional people touch the real ones in the story, that I got every straight!

Also, if I find a good on-line resource for my pre-civil war era novel, I love sharing it. I dread having to rebuilt my bibliography, as I lost a huge notebook of photocopies and printoffs when I got fired from a stupid job as a desk jocky for a small and failing ISP. oh well...