Book Research

Instagram and Research

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If someone would’ve told me a year ago that I’d be using Instagram for anything but entertainment…

 

I wouldn’t have believed them.

But here I am, telling you that it is now one of my favorite forms of research. And not only for contemporary. I use it for historical research too. “Back in the day” I used Pinterest a lot and it is still a great resource, but now I love Instagram because I can watch videos that are real life examples of what I want to to know for my books.

Want to know how often a rancher feeds their cattle in Wyoming in the winter? Sure you do, and you might get to watch an adorable kid honking the tractor horn at his mother while you’re at it.

And this isn’t the only thing! There are so many ranchers I now follow. I grew up watching my mom and dad raise sheep but they sold them when I was about eight (so my memory was faulty at best). But I watched videos on Instagram that showed me how farmers do it now. When I wrote about the two types of dogs in To a Brighter Tomorrow, some to protect and some to herd, that was all from watching videos on Instagram!

I don’t want to advertise any specific content creators here (because I don’t feel like it’s right to endorse anyone) but if you like Instagram or are open to it, you can find so many interesting things. You can learn how to construct period clothing in period ways. You can learn about woodworking. You can watch short videos about the weather and landscape in Cody, WY. It really is fascinating.

There are two things you have to be wary of though on Instagram

  1. It can be a time suck. Just like Pinterest or YouTube. You can go on there to find a specific thing and realize an hour has passed and you now know more than you ever thought you would know about cats with neurological disorders….
  2. While the Instagram algorithm learns very quickly what you like and don’t (within a few weeks they were serving me Amazon clothing ads that were spot-on, even though I never bought a thing) you will still occasionally be served content that you won’t like. They are very good at finding similar content, but similar does not equal ‘the same’.

    I know quite a few of the Fillies are on Instagram (I follow many of them). If you’re on Instagram, be sure to follow us!

Are you on Instagram?

One surprising thing I learned there was about ranching in Montana and how cowboys dress in all seasons there. The non-fiction part of Instagram is really interesting and can be a lot of fun. If you do follow me, you can even see who I follow to help you find interesting content in a safe way.

You can find me Here: https://www.instagram.com/karitrumboauthor/ 

Turn of the Century Texas Homes

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I’m down to the last week before my deadline and things are crazy! However, as any professional writer will tell you, we’re never just thinking about one project. We are writing one while marketing another. We are working on edits for a third a researching plot ideas for a fourth. Thankfully, I’m only juggling three of those balls instead of all four this week, but it still requires a mental dexterity that can be as taxing as it is exciting.

Next week I will turn in my current manuscript and start work on the next project – one that took me to Gainesville, TX last week to research their wonderful history in person. My story will feature a Harvey Girl heroine working at the newly opened Harvey Lunch Counter in 1902 Gainesville, TX. The people of Gainesville have done a fabulous job of preserving their history, and last week I blogged about walking the very halls of the Santa Fe Depot that my character will. You can find that blog here.

Today, I thought I’d share some of the other wonderful finds I discovered in Gainesville. Not only did I need to know what the lunch counter and depot were like, but I needed to learn about the city itself, and I found a treasure trove. Gainesville has numerous preserved homes from the late 1890s and early turn of the century, the era that I will be writing about.

We took a driving tour of the town, and I took lots of pictures. These are my top 8 houses. The hero in my story is going to have a slightly snobbish mother who looks down on the heroine, viewing a waitress as not only being beneath her son’s station as a lawyer and wealthy rancher’s heir, but as a morally loose woman as well. Which of these houses do you think such a woman would live in?

If YOU were going to live in one of these houses, which would you choose?