Ideas and Libraries and Free Stuff!

Ideas came at me hot and heavy today.  Love that.  Even better is that I've had a little time to actually work with them, which is even more rare than having them to begin with.

To work with them, I did a bit of research and came upon a true gift of this writer's writing life: free e-Google books.  Stuff that's so old, the copyrights have given out, and you can save them to your Google stash.  Not only does this save trips to local libraries, college libraries and bookstores, but it also saves lots of money I'd have to spend on the gas and books themselves.  And, as if that weren't cool enough, I can also save these books (28 and counting) to my Google site so I don't even have to take up hard drive, flashdrive, or CD space.  How cool is that?  Also, since not every page of these books is necessary, I can print out only the ones that I need.

Second very awesome thing discovered today: HeritageQuest Online, a great research and resource tool that allows you to access tons of books for no cost.  Most of the books themselves are free, if you're researching something before the last 75 years or so, so you can do what I described above.  But you can also access the database free via your local library account, so you don't even have to pay for the access!  (Normally it's a substantial amount.)  Again, free is good.

The last very awesome thing discovered today: Local library access.  Turns out, there are 4 branches in my town, and five more in neighboring towns, all within a 10 to 15 mile radius of me.  So I can go to any of them either after work or after I visit a family member in a nearby facility, and I can stay at one of these libraries for at least a couple of hours, either researching or getting writing done.  (I've practically given up trying to write at home.  No one's fault but mine, but I can't seem to focus there to get anything done.  But I can research, read, and do other writing business from there.)  Anyway, all of these libraries have free WiFi access, too, so I can write, read, research, check out HeritageQuest, or read any of my free e-Google books--free!

Three important, helpful and interesting things--all free!  What else can a writer ask for?

As for the actual writing, plopping into the historical record, using actual and made-up names, and all of their POVs, and maybe shifting between eras is what's gonna happen.  (It'll be better than it sounds, I promise.)