Writers Tricks of the Trade Issue 6, Volume 6 | Page 24

F IS FOR FACT FINDING (CONT’D)
OTHER GREAT REFERENCE
BOOKS

non-fiction,.

erroneous unless the bullets are old. I decided to do my own research to see if
that was true. I found varying reports, but a June 30, 2005 post to Shakey Pete’s
Shootin’ Shack blog stated:
A factoid about Cordite that some may find interesting is that a large
amount of ammonia was used in its manufacture, along with other
chemicals, that gave it a strong, peculiar and unpleasant smell when the
cartridges were fired.
This gave rise to the term "the stench of Cordite," a term that is still
used today by the ignorant.
It's been a VERY long time since Cordite was used. The smell of today's
propellants is nothing like that.
Never rely on just one source. I continued to check and found a blog entitled
Kill Zone written by eleven mystery authors. In a March 9, 2009 entry by John
Ramsey Miller entitled The Smell of Cordite in the Air of Inaccuracy he states that
he researched and found Cordite was rarely used after World War II, being
replaced by more modern pro-pellants. He also refers to the term still being used
as a clue on a CSI TV show among other inaccurate references.

WHERE TO FIND INFORMATION
Fortunately in this day and age finding information doesn’t necessitate a trip
to the library or ownership of a shelf full of encyclopedias. The internet is a
fantastic source for authors, but heed this word of caution: Many of the sites, like
Wikipedia, have a wealth of information but not all of it has been vetted or
verified.
That is clearly stated on the site. Sometimes professional or educated
interpretation is called for, or the result could be totally off base. It is risky to rely
on a site with disclaimers about accuracy because information could be
ambiguous or stated in terminology you don’t understand. Be sure to check the
details with someone in the know before treating them as though they were
gospel and including them in your story. With the avalanche of fiction released
every day, many of the manuscripts are poorly researched and quickly published.
Don’t let your baby be one of those.
There are many ways to double-check. In one instance I had to know how an
inmate who had been severely beaten would be treated if that inmate wound up
on life support. That doesn't sound too difficult on the surface, but to complicate
the matter, that part of the story takes place more than thirty years ago in Illinois.
I researched the prisons in Illinois, and determined where the villain would be
incarcerated.
Then I called their public affairs officer and explained what I needed. She was
more than willing to help even though it meant she had to do some research. I

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2016

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WRITERS’ TRICKS OF THE TRADE