Being on the ground in Mongolia and traveling with the horse culture and sleeping in yurts, I was able to pick up a lot of detail. But I brought in advisors to work with our horse master to make sure the fighting strategies both on the Chinese and Mongolian sides were very accurate.
Understand tipping culture. Whereas Americans tip 15-20% when dining out, most European countries don't tip, as a service charge is typically included in the bill. Make sure you're not over-tipping by doing research before traveling.
The research. It is always the best part of writing. And, of course, it is the great excuse to travel.
I'm passionate and I travel the world not just as a tourist but to understand cultures... I've lived with Masai tribe... I travel the world and bring it back in the form of a research book that would become the starting point for the collection.
I like to do some research and learn about the destination before I travel there. I read up on its history, culture and food, which is most important. Being informed makes the travel so much better.
The very first thing on the docket is to have the opportunity to travel to look at spiders in other parts of the world. I know there are really cool silks out there.
So it was doing all this research or going to the archives or doing all these interviews or traveling, and then trying as much as I can to delete all of that research in a later draft so that all the reader cares about is the characters.
My best sources are my travels and my collection of National Geographic.
Whenever I was planning a trip or a holiday, flights and hotels were easy. But when it comes to the stuff you want to do when you get there, working that out was really hard.
