Strange things writers research

Image by pkeleher via
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My Slipstream Network series is set on Earth in the not too distant future. There are multiple dimensions, an Earth used as breeding experiments by aliens, and people fighting for the right to live their lives as they want instead of how they're told.

I've had this fascination with professional football for many years, and it took a major upswing when Tim Tebow was starting for the Broncos and I started finding behind the scenes books about life in the NFL. Then there was the lockout, Bountygate, the Super Bowl being in New Orleans (I live in Louisiana and root for the Saints no matter what).

Shortly after the Super Bowl last year I started brooding on a new idea. I knew one of the characters would be in the NFL, but it's taken me awhile to nail down his story and find his heroine.

My alien-DNA-enhanced-humans have their home base in our dimension set up in Colorado. I have a thing for the Rockies there, and it's a great excuse to indulge in my love of looking at pictures of said Rockies. In my fictional universe I can have my University of Arkansas quarterback drafted anywhere I want, so of course he ends up in Denver.

Last week the football and research gods aligned. I have plenty of stuff from last year on New Orleans preparing to host the Super Bowl. I'm from Louisiana, there's no way I'm writing about a fictional Super Bowl in a city I've never been to. What I lacked was watching the Broncos prepare for a Super Bowl. A lot's changed in the sport and the size of the event since 1999.

The Broncos are going to the Super Bowl. I'm watching them prepare. I'm in research nerd heaven!