The joy of research

Writing is intermittent at the moment (because of Stuff that's higher on the priority list for the next few weeks, not because of failure to write). Nevertheless I did 2000 words on Sunday, in the course of which I discovered that Google is not good for everything. I have a fairy who has been abducted by Bad Guys, and it occurred to me that they'd probably use a mix of modern pharmaceuticals and old herbal lore when they stick a syringe full of tranquillizer into him. My memory refused to cough up specifics of herbal lore relating to controlling fairies, and the books I might have skimmed through are mostly in storage. Alas, my Google-fu failed me, and I couldn't think of search terms that didn't result in hundreds of results in the class "twee modern nonsense" and no serious folklore research.

I think I'll have to go and hit the mythology section in BookBuyers this afternoon. And if that fails me, I'll have to do it the old-fashioned way, and go to a library...

I know I said I wasn't buying any more books this month...

brooksmoses and I had lunch in downtown Mountain View today, followed by a trip round Books Inc (the new bookshop) and BookBuyers (the used book emporium next door, which appears to be a branch of L-space).

We admired the entire shelf of Strossian works in Books Inc before deciding that it was definitely going to be short the copy of Toast by the time we left. I bought it, in the end, though if I hadn't brooksmoses would have.

Also pleased to see a couple of copies of desperance's Bridge of Dreams in stock, though we didn't do a serious scan for anyone else we know. Then wandered off to the remainder shelf to look for the signed hardback copy of Simon Winchester's A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906 I'd been told about -- still there, in spite of it having been a week or two since I was told about it.

Then on to BookBuyers, where I nobly restrained myself from buying more than three books in the mythology section, much to brooksmoses's amusement. Didn't get the specific book I was after (though I can get it from Amazon at a reasonable price at the moment, so merely nuisance factor). But I did find a book about silkies, The People of the Sea, which would have been Jolly Useful about 30 months ago. Bought it anyway -- I do plan to write more in the Spindrift universe some day, and I may want to write a pure fantasy piece at some point.

Oh, and they once again have stock of How Much for Just the Planet? by the late, great and very much missed John M Ford. I've already got a copy, but it's in storage. I'm sure I can find a home for a spare copy.

And bringing up the rear (ooh er, missus), a first print run copy of Killing Time. Yes, the Trek one where it's rather obvious that the author wrote slash fanfic. :-) I already have a copy, but a good home can always be found for a first print run copy of this book -- the one from before it was hastily reissued with the purplest sections edited.