Keith asked Michael Slade:

I was always amazed at the level of background research in your books. How much time do you spend on research?

Michael Slade Hi Keith.

The glib answer is "a lifetime." But that's also the best answer. Every thriller, in some way, comes out of my childhood. If a subject interested me as a boy, it still interests me today.

For instance, gladiators hooked me in Grade 4 (age 9) and I've added to that knowledge ever since. So there's where the Roman scenes in BURNT BONES originate.

On top of that, however, I took a research trip to Britain, saw Stonehenge, and climbed all over Hadrian's Wall. (And picked up a dozen non-fiction texts at Foyles on Charing Cross Road.)

ZOMBIE (EVIL EYE) took me to Africa, and BED OF NAILS into the cannibal caves on Atiu, one of the Cook Islands.

And then there's the local library - which I've haunted since I was 9 - and now, the Internet.

A major reason why I had to do HEADHUNTER Reimagined ...

http://www.specialx.net/specialxdotne...

... was to work in what I've learned online since that book was originally published in 1984.

Slade

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