Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Researching Ghosts by Diane Burton

Have you ever started researching a topic only to discover you’ve spent the better part of an hour going from one site to another to another? Those pesky side links. If I'd been at the library, my table would've been covered with books.

In a HubSpot (marketing site) article about bad habits, the author wrote about Black Hole Browsing. Although I’d never heard of that term, I knew exactly what it meant. I’ve fallen victim to that bad habit more than once. In fact, while researching the topic of ghosts for this post, I visited way too many sites.

Casper is my idea of a ghost. Although I’ve never seen a ghost, I believe others have because they believe they did. What how could I possibly write about ghosts when I write science fiction? That took some researching and before I knew it—Wham!—I’d fallen into that Black Hole.

Back on topic. I do believe the spirits of our deceased loved ones still care about us and watch over us. My main character in Mission to New Earth does, too. (Funny how that works.) An only child, Sara was suddenly orphaned at 26. We don’t think of adults as orphans, do we? After author Pauline Baird Jones wrote about losing her parents and thereby making her an orphan, I thought about myself. I guess you could say I’m an orphan, too, since both my parents are gone, though not as traumatically as Pauline’s or my character, Sara. My parents died of old age and complications of COPD and Alzheimer’s. My sibs and I had plenty of time to prepare.

Losing her parents made Sara’s decision to sign up for a one-way trip to a new planet a lot easier. Then I started to wonder. What would Sara’s folks think about her leaving the teaching world and going into training to be an astronaut? Would they approve, be fearful for her, or caution her to be safe and stay home? Would they like her choice of mate, Marsh Rayburn, former SEAL and her second in command on the mission? I never go into that in the story, but I like to think they would watch over Sara, keeping her safe. More like guardian angels than ghosts.

Mission to New Earth

Blurb:

Would you go on a one-way trip to explore a new planet? Would you do it to save humankind?

Earth’s overpopulation and dwindling resources force the United Earth Space Agency to expedite exploration of new planets for a possible new home. When new crises ensue—a giant tsunami and the threat of nuclear winter—the timeline changes. Eight years of training crammed into four. Sara Grenard and her team prepare for launch, but are they ready for the one-way trip? Will the Goldilocks planet prove just right for Earth’s inhabitants? Before time runs out.


Throughout the month of September, I’m running a Giveaway for a $10 Amazon Gift Card. Pop over to my blog to enter. 


Diane Burton writes science fiction romance, romantic suspense, and mysteries. She blogs here on the 13th of each month. She is also a contributor to The Roses of Prose blog, posting there on the 30th. On Mondays, she muses about various topics on her own blog.

3 comments:

Maureen said...

Great post Diane! I too, fall into that black hole of cyber-space too often. Casper is about the only ghost I'd like to actually meet- and it would still freak me out, lol.

Diane Burton said...

I would freak, too, if I saw a ghost--even Casper.

Lucy Naylor Kubash said...

It's so easy to go down that hole, especially if the research suddenly becomes very interesting. I recently researched the incidences of people who claim to have seen mountain lions in Michigan. Amazing! The comments and stories just went on and on, and I spent several hours reading them....and avoiding writing the story, lol! I've written one ghost story and plan to write another one. They are fun, too.