Well, Wales is back in lockdown on Friday. No chance of any research trips further away than the bottom of the next street. Actually that's an exaggeration - but not much further than a walk down to the prom to look at the sea. I'm lucky that I have a park and the sea five minutes away. But the walls do close in at times. And research in lockdown has its own peculiar charms!
It's times like these that you need the Internet and the all powerful Zoom, which can actually open things up, even in lockdown. I chew my nails every time that it is not going to work, and I seem to have found at least six different ways to actually make the connection, but so far, so good.
In the last week I have been/will be 'out' every night. I went to a bookshop talk about Halloween on Monday. It was in London, so I would not have been able to attend in normal circumstances. Yesterday it was an RNA chapter - with members logging on from all over South Wales plus Italy and Norway! It was great to see everyone. Tonight I'm going to a British Library talk about Agatha Christie, provided I can find the link. That's London again. Tomorrow I have an evening class, but otherwise I would have been at the CWA Dagger Awards, which I probably wouldn't have been IRL. Next week I have another set of talks and courses. I'm very tempted too by offers of a diploma in Egyptology that has appeared on my Facebook feed. Will I resist?
In the gaps, there is writing research. The WIP is set in Portofino, and I have been able to find some really good videos to help me check on things that I remember from when I was able to visit. That's one of the things I mentioned when I was a guest on the Nut Press blog yesterday, talking to Kath and Squizzy about ways to research in lockdown - you can find it here if you would like to read it.
Travel is the best and most fun way to research, but when you can't you just have to improvise.
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