Month: February 2011

Los Links 2/4

Dana Hunter

Ye gods, what a week.  The GOP’s dropping the “forcible” from in front of “rape” in front of its noxious little bill, but I’m posting the links I collected regarding that for two reasons: to remind people what these fucktards think about women, and to make sure everyone knows that what’s left of the bill is no better.  What they’ve left intact eviscerates Roe vs. Wade.  Everything we fought for, they’re trying to take away by force.  And I have to tell you something: I think far more highly of my rapist than I do of these misogynist asshats.  I’m not joking even a little.


So please, ladies and those who respect us, make sure your representatives know that attempts to take our choice away are unacceptable.  We’ll not give up the fight simply because they took out the most outrage-inducing bit.  The whole thing is an outrageous attack on women, and it’s not to be stood for.


Happier links follow.  There was a hell of a lot of great stuff this week.  Everybody at my regular haunts included, so do avail yourselves of the geoblogs in the Blog Roll! This week, I kept the focus (mostly) on folks I don’t link to as much.

Shorter GOP: Tax breaks for everyone, except those pregnant teenage rape victims, the dirty whores: “Functionally, there is no rape exception when there’s a ‘rape exception’.  If you’re raped, and abortion is restricted to people of your class, rape exceptions are meaningless.  You could define rape as broadly as you wanted, and still the number of women who’d get past the exception would be virtually none.  The only real result of narrowing the definition of ‘rape’ to exclude women who were asleep, drugged, cornered with little chance of escape, minor children, and basically anyone who didn’t fight within an inch of her life is mostly symbolic, and what it symbolizes is support for rape culture and hatred of women, particularly rape victims.  It’s the GOP (and some anti-choice Democrats) signing off on the idea that you asked for it.  And because you’re a bad girl who asks for it, you should be punished further with forced childbirth. Even if you’re a child.” (Pandagon)

House GOP: Not All Rape Victims Were Really Raped, So They Should Bear Their Rapist’s Child: “So merely being forced to have sex without your consent isn’t the same as being raped as far as access to health care is concerned? Can we stop hearing about the Deep Moral Principles of anti-abortion fanatics now? And even more so, can we please stop hearing about how criminalizing abortion is really about protecting women? Can anybody deny that opposition to legal abortion is deeply intertwined with sexism and reactionary beliefs about sexuality at this point?” (Lawyers, Guns and Money)

Redefining Rape–A list of resources related to the #DearJohn campaign: “Sady Doyle of Tiger Beatdown and #MooreandMe fame has begun another Twitter campaign to draw attention to this sick state of affairs. People are posting a lot of useful links, and I wanted to gather them together.” (Chunky Monkey Mind)

#DearJohn: More Links From the Trenches: “Meanwhile, at bill at least as heinous is H.R. 217, the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act, the brainchild of Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN). H.R. 217 prevents federal funding from going to any health care provider that provides abortion services, EVEN THOUGH those providers do not use federal funds to actually pay for abortion services or anything involved in them (like equipment or nurse’s salaries or what have you). Shakesville has a rundown of the bills.” (Smart Angry Women)

GA State Rep.: There’s No Such Thing as a Rape Victim: “Georgia Republican state Rep. Bobby Franklin (of gold-standard-wannabe fame) has introduced a bill to change the state’s criminal codes so that in ‘criminal law and criminal procedure’ (read: in court), victims of rape, stalking, and family violence could only be referred to as ‘accusers’ until the defendant has been convicted.
“Burglary victims are still victims. Assault victims are still victims. Fraud victims are still victims. But if you have the misfortune to suffer a rape, or if you are beaten by a domestic partner, or if you are stalked, Rep. Franklin doesn’t think you’ve been victimized. He says you’re an accuser until the courts have determined otherwise.” (DLCC)

Democrats and Allies Missing the Big Picture on “Rape Redefinition” Bill: ” Obviously changing the definition of rape is horrific and astonishing, but fighting the bill on those terms merely gives up the real fight over allowing American women the ability to afford a medical procedure they may choose. With the exchanges about to come on line, and small business subsidies and all the other public money sloshing around in the health care system, passing this bill would stop all private insurance companies from covering abortion services in their plans, not to mention setting in statute the ban on abortion services through Medicaid, TriCARE, the Indian Health Service, federal prisoners, women in the Peace Corps and even Washington DC residents.” (Firedoglake)

Science Online 2011: Underrepresentation hurts us all: “Second, you know the isolation we talk about as women scientists and science writers? Multiply that times a million and you probably have the isolation of being a person of color in the sciences. There are some different ways in which sexism and racism play out in the public sphere, at least in the US: people might be a bit more willing to make sexist comments than racist ones. However, the impact of racism is at least as harmful, probably more harmful in most ways, because it leads to social disparities in education, health, salaries, living conditions.” (Context and Variation)

Sex, gender, and gender identity: “It’s possible that I could identify as a homosexual male of the non-flamboyant type who spends his time non-flamboyantly in a woman’s body. Sure, that’s possible. Like I said, it’s complicated. What I do know is this: I’m not writing as a Specific Binary Sex Representative in Science, and I bet no other women–or men–who write about science are, either.” (The Biology Files)

On women science bloggers, in chronological order #scio11: “The women science bloggers conversation is getting so long and elongated, I thought it would be interesting and, I hope, useful to put all the posts in rough chronological order. By rough I mean that I haven’t attempted to order the posts within each day of publication. Perhaps I’ll take another pass at the list later on for that.”  (Confessions of a Science Librarian)

Let’s talk about sex (in science): “Sci has been really thrilled to see so much talk over the past few days on women science bloggers, where they are, and why they appear to fly under the radar.  But I’ve noticed that, while female science bloggers and female scientists aren’t big fans of comments on their appearance…most of them have no problem with using some sexy to sell science to the public.  What is the difference, and can the two options of trying to get people to ignore looks in favor of content, and using cool and sexy to sell science actually coexist without one harming the other?” (Neurotic Physiology)

The scientific method, in chromo-logical order: “My delight with the paper stems not just from the actual findings — although they are very cool — but also with the flow of the piece of work, the ‘story’. It’s just such a neat and satisfying illustration of how science is done, and why it’s so cool.” (Punctuated Equilibrium)

Bubbling Up… by Kathy Cashman and Alison Rust: “Gas bubbles (or pore spaces) are a fundamental component of many earth materials, yet processes that control bubble formation and migration are rarely addressed in basic earth science texts. Understanding bubble formation and migration is particularly critical for understanding volcano behavior, where gas expansion provides the primary driving force for volcanic eruptions. However, bubble behavior also affects magma chamber processes and ore deposit formation. The physical properties of bubbles that make them such effective drivers of magma motion are their buoyancy, their volume sensitivity to pressure and temperature, and their deformability, properties that are easily explored in the kitchen.” (Earth Science Erratics)

A confab with the faithful: “The destructive nature of faith stems from certainty: certainty that you know God’s will and God’s mind.  It’s that certainty that leads to suicide bombing, repression of women and gays, religious wars, the Holocaust, burning of witches, banning of birth control, repression of sex, and so on.  The more doubt in a faith, the less likely its adherents are to do harm to others.” (Why Evolution Is True)

Bill O’Reilly: tidal bore: “Look, I know. Bill O’Reilly is a far-right ideologue who couldn’t grasp reality with a hundred meters of velcro and a ton of Crazy glue. He’s mean-spirited, loud, and wrong, wrong, wrong. Debunking him is like debunking the Tooth Fairy; so easy and obvious that it’s almost mean on my part to do it.

“Yet here we are.” (Bad Astronomy)

Science Through Stories: Allowing The Rediscovery Of Wonder: “Wonder and curiosity. Those two simple words exquisitely describe what drives me in my work, and what keeps me readily tangled in my love affair with research. Wonder and curiosity is what fuels me in my relentless pursuit of answers, hours upon hours of searching, just for the potential reward of finding something out that has yet to be discovered.” (The Rogue Neuron)

Teaching Human Evolution at a Public University in Boston: “Though this may go beyond our charge as educators, I think it’s also important to show students that biologists believe that life is beautiful too. Evolution is not bleak nihilism. To me, the fact that the fossil and genetic evidence points to our species’ recent appearance on an ancient planet leaves me feeling awed and inspired, not degraded, at what we can know and how far life has come.” (Patrick F. Clarkin, Ph.D)

The Yellowstone Media Storm: We’re all gonna die! Oh, well sure, but…: “Is Yellowstone gonna blow? Sure. Will everybody die? Sure, absolutely. But there is pretty much no connection between the first question and the second. Yellowstone caldera will in fact erupt again some day; it’s a forty mile wide caldera with a huge magma chamber miles deep in the crust. That’s the reason there are geysers there, and all those hot springs. And everyone will die, eventually. That’s kind of a rule about living. But worrying about whether I’m gonna die from an eruption at Yellowstone is so far down my list of concerns that I am more worried about being gnawed to death by a pack of angry prairie dogs. It could happen, but it is highly unlikely.” (Geotripper)

Less God and more democracy: “Those countries whose population rated God as less important in their lives, were also the countries where democracy is strongest.” [ed. note: ha ha, suck it, Cons!] (Epiphenom)

20 Neil Gaiman Facts: “3. If you write 1000 words and Neil Gaiman writes 1000 words, Neil Gaiman has written more than you.” (Jim C. Hines)

Los Links 2/4
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Impostor Syndrome

Dana Hunter7 Comments

So, there’s this thing I’ve been struggling with for a while, now.  Stephanie Zvan left me this comment:

Please do me a favor. Take your Sunset Crater post and another one that you love, and go promote yourself at Ed’s. His pool needs widening, and it’ll be good practice for you. :) 

At Ed’s?  This Ed’s?  Holy impossible missions, Batwoman!

I went there.  I looked at some posts and some comments, and then I fled like a right bloody coward.  I mean, you are talking to the woman who freaked out when the geobloggers claimed me for their own.  I spent days going to ScienceSeeker.org when they called for blog submissions, reading down the list of member blogs every night, trying to picture myself there and failing miserably.  You know why ETEV’s up there now?  It’s because Chris Rowan submitted the All-geo feed, which for some inexplicable reason I am on.  It sure as shit wasn’t because I took my courage in my hand.  Couldn’t find it.  Maybe never would have.

You see, I’m a layperson.   I troubleshoot phones for a living, people.  I’m not in college, and when I was, I was a bloody history major.  I don’t have undergrad or grad student creds, I’m not a scientist, not a professional science writer, and I got my start on the intertoobz as a potty-mouthed political blogger.  So when people consider me part of the science blogging universe, I get this feeling like I’m a miniature pony trying to run in the Kentucky Derby.
Tiny Horse is Tiny

Yes, my darlings, I am suffering from Impostor Syndrome.  Big time.

Couple that with a native dislike of promoting myself to anyone at all for any reason, and you can see why it’s a bit difficult for me to do anything so bold as to saunter over to Ed’s and say, “Oy, I’m leaving links to two of my totally awesome posts.”

What it comes right down to, I think, is that I’ve got this feeling that it’s not for me to judge.  I could strut about believing myself to be the greatest writer evah, I could shout from the rooftops how incredibly awesome I am, but that wouldn’t make it so.  It’s not for me to judge.  It’s up to my readers.  They’re the only ones qualified to judge the worthiness of my words.  And when they deem something of mine worthy of their time and attention, I’m so shocked by it that I just sit paralyzed, wondering “How the fuck did that happen?”  It doesn’t occur to me to then go forth and shout from the rooftops, “Oy – my readers have deemed me a decent read!  Y’all are missing out!”

Then again, if I fall to the ground wailing, “I’m not worthy!” when the geoblogging superstars decide that, despite short legs and a silly-looking forelock, I’m welcome to run with them, that’s rather an insult to them, innit?  When incredible bloggers like Stephanie Zvan tell me I should go strut some stuff, isn’t it a little rude to say, “Um, no”?  What a dilemma!

(Makes me worry about what shall happen should I achieve fame and fortune as an SF writer.  I’m afraid I’ll be hunched down behind the table at book signings suffering from terminal embarrassment.)

And I put this out there not because I’m looking for sympathy and assurance – I’m not that neurotic, and you don’t owe me a damned thing.  I’m spilling my guts because I know I’m not the only one.  I’ve run into plenty of people suffering Impostor Syndrome, and I know it’s desperately difficult to overcome.  I haven’t done it yet.  But the road to recovery begins with listening to your readers.  When I, as a reader, leave a comment telling a blogger that something they’ve written has moved me, I’m not doing it because I’m trying to bolster their self-esteem.  I’m saying it because I mean it.  When I link to something, it’s because I felt it worth linking.  And I have to face facts: you guys are probably saying nice things about my writing for the same reason.

So when Stephanie Zvan tells me to go out and do the impossible, when she says “please do me a favor,” despite the fact I’m a bloody coward when it comes to self-promotion, there’s nothing for it but to sneak over to Ed’s and quietly drop in a line saying, “Stephanie Zvan made me do it.”  Then flee for my life.

And that, for any of you, my darlings, who are suffering the same uncertainty, is what you must do as well.  Trust your readers.  Trust their judgment, even when you can’t bring yourself to believe you are what they say you are.  The readers are the final judge of the writer. 

Impostor Syndrome

Oregon Geology Parte the Sixth: Three Capes

Dana Hunter3 Comments

In less than twenty-four hours, we’d managed to pack in a lot of geologic yumminess.  We’d seen the mouth of the Columbia River, seen the Columbia River Basalts plunge into the ocean at Ecola State Park, hugged our geology at the north and south bits of Hug Point, and I’d just spent the early morning playing at the shortest river in the world.  Now, intrepid companion in tow, we headed back up the coast to meet Suzanne for the first time and walk into a lighthouse.

Of course we went the scenic route.  The Three Capes Scenic Loop, to be exact.

You can see an astonishing variety of geology in a very short amount of time along this loop, including one of the rarest of sights on the Oregon coast: a sandstone cape.  But if you’re driving north up the loop, the first thing you’ll notice upon reaching Cape Kiwanda State Park is sand.  Lots and lots of sand.
Dunes at Cape Kiwanda

After a day of seeing nothing much but basalt alternating with flat sandy beaches, it was rather a shock to see so much sand.  You don’t get many sand dunes like this along the northern Oregon coast.  But sand working its way down from Sand Lake to the north piles up here to spectacular heights.  And depths.  This is one of the deepest sandy beaches I’ve ever walked across.

Here, you’re catching a glimpse of what the beaches were like fifteen million years ago, before the basalt came.  And yet, basalt is the reason it’s still here.
Haystack Rock (not to be confused with the other Haystack Rock)

This monolith, at over 300 feet tall one of the tallest stacks in the world, is a remnant of our old friend the Grande Ronde Basalt.  It used to be firmly attached to dry land, but not firmly enough.  It’s connections eroded away, and what we’re left with is this sentinel, which takes the brunt of the sea and prevents the softer sandstones behind it from eroding away.  So let’s spend a moment paying our respects before moving on.  Besides, it’s just mind-boggling to stare at.  It looms over the sandy beach and dunes like a hulking great chunk of basalt set down from nowhere.  Of course, you and I know it came from about four hundred miles away, and was awfully warm when it got here.

Right.  Let’s see what it’s protecting.
Cape Kiwanda

I have to tell you, I wasn’t expecting this, and I was rather shocked when I saw it.  Hug Point was one thing – the sandstones there were so threaded through and buttressed by basalt that you weren’t surprised to see them.  But this huge finger of nothing but lithified sand, along with the remains of some hapless clams and marine snails, jutting out into the ocean like that…  It’s nothing short of astounding.

Until now, all we’ve caught are glimmers and glimpses of the Astoria Formation.  Here, it’s bold and beautiful, standing naked and proud without so much as a stitch of basalt on.  And with that jaunty cap of vegetation, it looks positively saucy.  It seems to know it’s special.

We didn’t have time to trudge through the sand to get to it, but even from a distance, through a misty morning, the butter yellows and russet and umber colors stood out. 

Cave and Color

Hard to believe all those rich hues are the result of weathering.  The Astoria Formation, in all its micaceous sandstone and tuffaceous, sandy-shale goodness, is actually gray on fresh surfaces.

Oh, how I wanted to go play in that cave!  Run my hands over the sands, trace its history, drink it all in.  It’s got stories to tell of a time when the Oregon shore had finally made it almost all the way west.  In the Miocene, sand piled up offshore in bays, submarine fans spread out from the young coast, and sea life lived it up for a while.  Then came the Columbia River Basalts, which proceeded to throw a clam bake on a scale never before seen in these parts.  Happily for the sea critters, the basalt stopped coming for about ten million years.  Unhappily for it, sea levels dropped in the late Pliocene, and spent the Pleistocene bouncing up and down like restless kids on a trampoline while glaciers advanced and retreated.

This part of the coast has been rising since the Miocene, and now bits of the Astoria Formation stand out above the waves.  Most of the nekkid bits of it got eroded away for their troubles, but thanks to the Grande Ronde, this bit of it can stand up to the waves and laugh.  Not that waves don’t still attack it.  You can stand on the beach and watch wave after wave hit, gradually sculpting the cape into fantastic shapes.
Waves Hit the Cape

Waves here are tall enough for surfers to take advantage of.  The shore is gentle enough for dories to launch right from it.  And all the time, the dark bulk of Haystack Rock bears the brunt of the abuse so the rest of this coast doesn’t have to.  It’s a remarkable little spot.

On your way out, don’t forget to stop by and pat the massive sandstone wall.
Sandstone Wall Goodness

I like that wall a lot.

Back to the Three Capes Scenic Loop we went, and swooped inland a bit, then climbed and climbed and came through a haunting little forest that gave out on one of those views that make you look wildly for a pullout.  And as we stepped from the car, we saw a plaque.
Gammon Launch

Here at Anderson Viewpoint, you can see where hang gliders hurl themselves over precipitous cliffs.  They can thank the Columbia River Basalts for giving them such a lovely launch.

Oh, yes, we’re back to basalt.  But what makes Cape Lookout special is its shape, and what that shape tells us about it.  If you look at a map of the coast, you’ll notice most of those massive basalt headlands are blunt and round.  This one sticks out like the paw of a very eager pointer.

View Larger Map

It juts two miles into the sea, with cliffs up to eight hundred feet high.  Alas, we didn’t get a good view of it, but a hell of a view from it.
From Anderson Viewpoint

Okay, so maybe it would’ve been a better view on a clear day, but still, pretty spectacular.  And what’s even more spectacular is what we’re standing on: hundreds and hundreds of feet of Grande Ronde Basalt that hurtled down an ancient canyon or valley and plunged into the sea.  Now, that low bit has become the high, all because it got filled up with lava.  Nice example of inverted topography, that!  If you’re so fortunate as to be able to walk down it, you’ll see nice basalt columns, and also pillows interbedded with sand and mud where the lava plunged into the ocean.

Even on a misty day, even just on a ten-minute stopover, you can see an amazing amount of geology.  So let’s feast our eyes, then, shall we?  We’ll begin with a nibble at a wave-cut bench:
Wave-cut Bench

The sea, you see, likes to chomp away at those tasty basalt headlands.  It masticates with waves, pounding air, sand and stones, and when it’s chewed bits down to a nub, you’re left with a wave-cut bench such as the above classic example.  That’s the remnant of what must have once been a considerable hunk of Grande Ronde Basalt.  And it’s the fate of all headlands along this coast, eventually.  Think of that when building a house along the coastline.

Now, let’s take a broader view.
Netarts Spit

That narrow, hummocky bit of land there is Netarts Spit.  It’s a sand spit that stretches six miles up the coast and protects Netarts Bay from the open ocean.  You can see the dunes covering the ridge, and you can see the chunks the ocean’s taken out of them.  Spits form from waves hustling sand along the coast.  It’s all in the angle.  One bit is connected to the mainland, in this case the south bit, close to where we’re standing.

Now, the really neat thing about Netarts Spit is that it’s merely an erosional remnant of a maclargehuge elongate dune that marched northeast.  It used to be connected to the mainland at its north end.  Then the seas rose at the end of the Pleistocene Ice Age, and the dune, stabilized by vegetation, found itself getting sliced open by the newly vigorous sea.

Those risen seas were also responsible for what you see looming out of the mists in the distance.
Three Arches

When sea level rose, it got to work carving out arches and stacks and wave-cut benches and all that lot.  Keep in mind that all those independent bits of rock jutting out of the ocean used to be headland, just like the bulky Maxwell Point to the right.  That’s the power of water, my darlings.  It can take something massive and reduce it to ragged bits, and on a geologic timescale, it takes no time at all.

Speaking of no time, we had none.  Time to meet up with Suzanne in Oceanside.  You’ll think it’s a new day, but this is how rapidly the weather changes in Oregon.  It took us just half an hour to drive up by Netarts, collect Suzanne, and enthrone ourselves in a very nice coffee shop with a view of the ocean.  By then, the sunshine shone and the whole world sparkled.  And Maxwell Point basked.
Maxwell Point and Three Arches Rocks

Remarkable, right?  But not half so remarkable as that headland.  Have a closer look.  A fault runs through it.



I couldn’t find much on that fault, alas, but one thing’s for sure: when the ocean gets done carving away the basalt buttress, the rest of Maxwell Point’s not going to be long for this world.  Looks distinctly sedimentary, that stuff on the right.  One day, I’ll get back there and have a good long look at it, and scare up some geologic info.  There’s supposed to be a tunnel through it, even.

For now, let us turn our attention to the Three Arches.
Three Arches

Granted, from this angle, they don’t look much like arches.  In fact, you won’t see how archy they are until we make it up to Cape Meares State Park.  But they have got arches, which likely began their lives as little sea caves or tunnels, back when this was all part of the headland.  Time and tide have dissected them neatly, and now they’re a refuge for all sorts of local wild life: sea lions and murres, mostly. 

This is a good place to stand and watch the waves work.
Working Waves

The waves still whittle, and you can watch them worry at the base of the rocks, exploring crevices, driving holes through, and continuing the long job of planing off the knobbly bits.  Nature may abhor a vacuum, but oceans seem offended at the idea of knobbly bits standing up in them.

You can see the sea nibbling at Maxwell Point’s toes, where they’ve got a good start on a wave-cut bench.
Wave-cut bench at Maxwell Point

And yes, all of that nice thick basalt you see is our old friend the Grande Ronde.  It’s what you might call ubiquitous around here.  In fact, we’re about to see great gobs of it.  On the other side of Maxwell Point lies Cape Meares State Park, where we shall look a lighthouse in the eye and see an upside-down waterfall.

Ye olde indispensable volumes of reference as the author was trying to make sense of it all:

Fires, Faults and Floods – one of the best roadside guides to the Columbia River Basin evah.

In Search of Ancient Oregon – simply the most beautiful book written about Oregon’s natural history.
Hiking Oregon’s Geology – chock full o’ adventurous goodness sure to help you get your rocks on.

Northwest Exposures – tying the whole shebang together in one easy-to-follow narrative.

Cataclysms on the Columbia – the book that truly helped me comprehend the incomprehensible.

The Restless Northwest – short, sweet, and yet comprehensive guide to Northwest geological shenanigans.

Roadside Geology of Oregon and Roadside Geology of Washington – indispensable references and inspirations.

Glacial Lake Missoula and its Humongous Floods – not only an informative guide to the discovery and history of the Floods, but an apt title, too! 
Oregon Geology Parte the Sixth: Three Capes

Dana's Dojo: The Joye of Research

Dana Hunter

Today in the Dojo: How does one make research more fun?

I do a great deal of research – particularly in the apartments of tall blondes.
-Raymond Chandler

Research gets a bad rap.  Writers make it sound like work.  They seldom see it as an excuse for a Fun Day Out.

There seems to be a perception that work involves pain.  If we’re not suffering, we’re not working.  If it doesn’t cost us time, money and sweat, it’s not work.  If we do it with other people, it’s not work.  Say the word “research”, and most writers will envision endless hours spent hunched over dusty tomes in a dimly-lit library somewhere, eyes crossed from fine print, fingers bleeding from over a dozen papercuts, and neck as stiff as if we’d been in a twenty-car pileup on the freeway.  And if we’re doing research, that means that we’re in solitary confinement, with only brief human contact with librarians and other such folk who will only make us read more books with tiny print.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

In fact, it shouldn’t.

Oh, research will entail a lot of reading.  It will also include those horrible slogs through thousands of only vaguely useful search results on Google.  But it doesn’t have to end that way.  And in this age of multi-tasking, we can make research pull double-duty for us.

As I so often do, I’m going to use my own experiences as an example.  You’ll learn how I went from research-as-chore to research-as-opportunity-for-fun, and hopefully get inspired to go out and play – um, research – in ways you never considered before.

Before you can get started, you’ve gotta look at the potential.  Can your research get you out of the house?  Surely.  Even for SF authors such as myself.  Granted, I can’t travel to strange new worlds, but there are plenty of things in this world that will do.  I’m fortunate in that I lived in Arizona and now Washington, which are both close to many different types of geology.  I don’t have to travel far to find parallels to whatever part of the universe I’m writing about.  But wherever you are in the world, you can find places that will evoke the place you’re writing about.  You will find folks who do the sorts of things you’re writing about.  And you don’t have to spend a lot of money to get to them.

So, let’s start exploring.

1.  Make Your Day Job Work for You

Work has provided me with more than a paycheck.  It’s put me cheek-by-jowl with people who know things I need to know.  Somehow, that makes it easier to get through the day, and makes it a hell of a lot more interesting.

When I worked for a pittance of a wage at B. Dalton Booksellers, I got more than a deep discount on books.  I got Valerie.  She’s a weaver.

At the time, I was needing to know about weaving.  I needed to know all about how different fibers are made into thread and then cloth.  I could have read a book about it, but there are few topics more boring than weaving to read about.  Valerie and I got into a conversation about it during a slow time at work, and the next thing I knew, I was invited to a lecture she was giving at the local SCA meeting.  (That’s Society for Creative Anachronism, for those of you not familiar with people who like to pretend they live in a bygone era.)

So there I was, watching men in homemade armor beating each other silly with swords as a sort of prelude to a lively and informative lecture on weaving, complete with slides and samples.  Didn’t cost me a penny aside from the gas, and it was a fun night full of fascinating folk to boot.

Your coworkers are a goldmine with rich seams.  I’ve used mine to learn things I needed to know about computers, photography, other countries, languages, and a myriad of other things.  If they don’t know what you need to know, chances are they have family or friends who do, and they’ll be thrilled to give you an introduction.  Which brings us to

2.  Get Out and Meet New People

We writers may not be a socially graceful lot, but we have to get over our shrinking violethood if we’re going to get anything done.  We need to Put Ourselves Forward.  And really, it’s easy.

It’s easy because most people’s favorite topic is themselves, and they love to brush up againt fame, even if you’re not famous.

Folks don’t know that the vast majority of writers are a sad lot of scribbling hacks who aren’t earning a dime.  You say you’re writing a book, and most people will view you as an instant celebrity.  You say you need their help, and they go nova with excitement.  I’ve met very few people who aren’t willing to break their backs helping you.

So let your coworker or friend introduce you to a perfect stranger who has some information for you.  Need to know what being a doctor is like?  Ask your family doc, or get an introduction to the specialist of your choice. 

I’ve found the internet to be best for me, here.  I can put my best foot forward in writing.  So I find a likely website and hit that “Contact Us” button.  Or I get into the forums and ask a question.  Most of my friends online were once perfect strangers who answered a question for me, after all.

But face-to-face is good, too.  I remember when I was trying to come up with a scientific explanation for reincarnation, and getting nowhere with all of my reading.  My friend Adara listened to me pour out my woes, and said, “My friend Josh is a physicist.  He could probably help you.”

Well, of course, I was young and shy then.  Couldn’t possibly take up his time, silly of me, oh, god, would you introduce us?  You know the patter.  Next thing I knew, she’d brought this nice young man to my house, and we sat on the porch while he listened to my dilemma and then worked through it with me.  That was the day I stopped feeling guilty over asking perfect strangers to do my research with me.  He was excited by my questions, loved answering them, and thanked me for the opportunity afterward.  He’d gotten as much out of it as I had. 

I reiterate: people love to talk about themselves.  More specifically, they love to talk about the things they love.  Believe me, you won’t stay strangers for long once you’ve gotten them talking about their passions.  And you might just end up with good new friends, which is something every writer needs.

3.  Combine Research with Socializing

This is the best thing ever.  What can be better than having friends or family along while you do research?

Well, maybe to them it won’t be so great, but that’s why you have to carefully match research to temperments, and be prepared to compromise. 

I’ve done this many, many times.  Several years ago, for instance, I needed to visit Seattle.  I set a good number of my books and stories there, after all, so I needed to see it.  But I couldn’t afford to go alone.  And I hadn’t seen my best friend Garrett in years.  One night on the phone, the two things came together: instead of one of us coming to see the other, we’d meet in Seattle.  He had a friend living there he wanted to see, I needed to see the city, we needed each other – perfect solution.

What made it better was the fact that his sister worked for a hotel chain and was able to book us cheap rooms.  We had a blast.  He and I explored parts of the city that were of mutual interest together, and separated for those spots I needed to see that he was either not interested in (he is not big on hiking four miles through Discovery Park, and I can’t say as I blame him) or was too tired to get dragged along to (like Mercer Island, although he did go with me later).  Research accomplished, saw my best friend, perfect!

Another friend of mine loves the Arboretum in Flagstaff, but never can persuade anyone else to go.  All he had to tell me was that it had a labyrinth.  At that time, I was working on a story centering around labyrinths.  We had an excursion out there that satisfied both needs – mine for a wander through a maze, his for sharing his love for a very beautiful place to photograph. 

The excursion that prompted me to write this article was the need to see a vineyard up close.  But who wants to drive several hundred miles and drink wine all alone?  Victoria, however, loves to do new and fun things.  Wasn’t hard to persuade her to take the jaunt with me.  And we had a delightful afternoon of being wine snobs. 

Chances are, whatever you need to research, you’ll be able to find a friend or family members who will enjoy researching it with you.  Just make sure you set their expectations at the outset.  Nothing’s worse than letting them believe you’re inviting them out for a social event and then burying your nose in your notebook while they feel snubbed.  And remember to get your nose up out of the notebook often enough to enjoy the time you’re spending with them.

4.  Public Interest Is Also Your Interest

There are organizations, events and programs galore designed to enlighten the public regarding various and sundry things.  Take full advantage.  They’re often free, extremely informative, and you get a chance to do something good while you’r

e at it.

My prime example is police ride-alongs.  I’ve got characters in law enforcement, and I realized early on that I had no idea what their day was like.  Reading about it is not the same as living it.  However, I’m too scrawny and sedentary to be a cop.  What could I do short of joining the academy?  Have a ride-along.

Simplest thing in the world.  I picked up the phone, called the Prescott P.D., and before I knew it was tucked into the front seat of a police cruiser with a young female officer, responding to calls with her and even sitting in on the paperwork.  I spent several hours one evening with her, and it taught me much more than any number of the shows and books I’d sampled.

I came away with a new appreciation for the men and women in blue, and a realistic view of how life as a cop is lived.  And it was free.  All I had to do was sign a form saying that if I got myself killed, it wasn’t their fault.  Nothing to it.  And they’re careful of their riders – if they think there’s a chance you could get hurt, they leave you in the car.  Good thing!  A writer must be alive to write.

So if you need to see the inner workings of something, call up the folks who do it and see if they’ll let you tag along.  You’ll have a great time and be able to write with greater authority.

You can use these programs to see the world for cheap, too, if you’ve got the time.  Think about volunteering for something.  If a group of folk are headed for Cambodia on a humanitarian mission, and you need to explore Cambodia for your book, what better way to afford it than to pitch in?  I’ve never explored this avenue myself, not so far, but it’s quite possible you’ll see my ugly mug on a website for some humanitarian cause someday getting myself dirty and having the time of my life while exploring a place I need to go.

5.  Life Lived Richly

Finally, and most importantly, research is an opportunity to enrich your life.  You never know what you might like until you’ve tried it.  You never know what your state has to offer until you’ve looked around to see if it has parallels close by to somewhere you need to go but can’t afford.

I’ve mentioned loving Arizona because of its variety.  After all, this is a state where I can get lost in pristine forests in the morning and go shake hands with cacti in the afternoon.  Its geography closely mimics places found all over the world.  And what Arizona doesn’t have is usually just a state or two away, within easy reach.

However, any state can offer you hidden treasures.  Never assume your state doesn’t have something before you’ve looked.  Need a vineyard?  Who expects to find one in Arizona, for gods’ sakes?  But we do – and so, it turns out, does Washington, Upstate New York, Ohio, and other places you’d never expect.  Need a rocket scientist?  Your state’s probably got one for you.  Any kind of people, any kind of places, any kind of food, sights, sounds, smells, experiences…  Right there, and within your grasp.

What about new things?  We get pretty locked into our lives.  We do what we do and rarely try anything new.  Research gives us an excuse to do crazy things.  Most of my passions now come from things I got involved in only because I had to.  And my life is better for it.  I have listened to music I never would have tried, eaten foods I never would have touched, enjoyed people I would have snubbed, and learned things I didn’t even know I wanted to learn. 

I have also discovered a love for this world that I never felt until I had to get to know it better.  And that is probably the most fun of all.

So get out there.  Go research something.  And don’t worry if you’re enjoying yourself too much for it to be work.  It counts no matter how much fun you’re having.

Dana's Dojo: The Joye of Research