The wonderful Melissa @ Quill Pen Writer tagged me for the Blood Stained Search Bar Tag (which she created), and I am really excited for this. What could possibly go wrong? Thank you, Melissa!
The Rules
Dig deep into your computer history and list five of your most recent and interesting searches for writing research: how to murder someone, is the sky blue, anything! And if you please, share a little about what you learned from these searches.
Thank and link back to whoever tagged you.
Have fun.
Perfectly-Preserved Corpses
*cough* Ahem. This is…this is not what you think. I know how it looks. I do. But I promise you, I am mostly perfectly sane. I was simply curious about the assorted methods of embalming used throughout the centuries, and I was especially interested in the remarkable successes, as well as the various corpses that failed to rot even without being embalmed. 90% of my reason for researching this was for a story (granted, the other 10% was morbid curiosity, but let’s not talk about that). Something tells me including pictorial evidence would not be my brightest idea, so here’s a link to a lovely example if you’re morbid like me (be forewarned though, it’s a picture of a dead body, in case you weren’t paying attention and are bothered by these things).
Let’s, um…let’s just move on to the next one shall we?
Famous Women Serial Killers
*clears throat, more nervously this time* I know what you’re going to say. I just, I just really wanted to get an idea of the psychology behind various serial killers, women especially, and I figured looking up the famous ones would be a great jumping off point. And yes, I took mental notes, but they were for my story and definitely not for real life or anything. My favorite woman serial killer is probably Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed because we have the same first name because she is a special sort of messed-up.
Maybe the next one won’t be so mor—
Never mind.
Flowers that Smell Like Corpses
*awkward laugh* I happen to be extremely interested in botany, thank you very much. And it strikes me that if a serial killer were to store decomposing bodies in their home for some reason, they might also like to keep a giant vase full of voodoo lilies, so when the police come by asking about the foul smell, our precious serial killer can just blame it on the floral arrangement. I’m not planning anything, I promise. No, I have not put too much thought into this. I’m a writer. Please don’t arrest me.
Abandoned Lunatic Asylums
This one is more innocent, right? So I’ll just neglect to mention that I was specifically interested in seeing all the abandoned torture devices medical equipment from back in the days when they used shock therapy and various other medieval methods of curing madness (which, for your information, usually made the madness worse). I don’t find abandoned asylums at all beautiful or morbidly intriguing, what are you talking about? *awkwardly moonwalks out of the room*
Krokodil
Again, I’m not going to provide pictorial evidence (and I’m not going to give you a link either) because some of the shots of people who are addicted to Krokodil are…graphic. Extremely so. DO NOT look them up if you are at all squeamish. (That's okay, I'll sit here while you look them up anyway.) And while I have a strong stomach and am not bothered by these sorts of things, I absolutely do not blame you if you are a normal person not the same. Krokodil (also known as desomorphine) is a drug that has been especially popular in Russia. It is highly-addictive and simultaneously much cheaper and easier to make at home than other street drugs, such as heroin. Typically it is made by mixing codeine with such lovely substances as hydrochloric acid, paint thinner, ethanol, gasoline, and other fun stuff. And because it is made with hydrochloric acid, it will literally eat away your skin, muscle, and other soft tissue. (I’m great at dinner conversations, what are you talking about?) It will often turn your skin green and scaly, hence the name, which is Russian for crocodile. No I do not know way too much about this drug. I would tell you why I was researching this for my writing, but you probably don’t want to know. *casually deletes entire search history*
Runners up in this search history include: rabies in humans, ergotism, lobotomies, and “How long does it take to burn a human body?”
Now that we have established that I am deeply psychologically disturbed well-researched on a myriad of morbid curiosities, it is your turn to pull away the veil from your dubious writerly search histories.
I therefore tag:
What about you, my little coffee beans? What are some slightly-suspect facts you’ve looked up for your writing? On a scale of one to ten—one being the lowest, ten being the highest—exactly how frightened of me are you right now? Be honest. Your answers will be most useful for my research. *tents hands*
