Below is a writing from Tess describing how she researched her book, The Bone Garden. I know this is a few days early but I received it today and knew you'd all be just as excited to read this as I was.

Tess wrote: "THE BONE GARDEN presented a completely different set of research challenges than did GRAVITY. This time, I had no living sources to consult, no cutting-edge technology to understand, because BONE GARDEN is set largely in the past -- 180 years in the past. I was inspired to write it because of my interest in a disease called childbed fever -- now more commonly known as puerperal fever. Before the era of antibiotics, it was an infection that terrorized young mothers-to-be. During epidemics of childbed fever, up to twenty percent of new mothers died of it, sometimes so many at a time that women had to be buried two to a coffin.

The death was excruciating. Within a few hours to a few days of giving birth, patients developed fevers, shaking chills, and abdominal tenderness so acute that just to turn in bed was unbearable. Foul uterine discharges made the smell of the hospital wards so awful that families would not visit, even to say goodbye to their dying loved ones. The most disturbing part of these epidemics? They were caused by medical personnel. This was the age before microbial theory, so doctors and nurses did not realize they were carrying infectious agents on their hands. Doctors would go straight from the autopsy room to the delivery wards, without washing their hands, and pass bacterial infections from patient to patient -- killing thousands of women.

The BONE GARDEN is set during one of these epidemics. Not only did I want to write a murder mystery, I also wanted to show the struggles that doctors had in understanding this disease. And I wanted to introduce a real-life character who would one day change the face of American medicine. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, a mere medical student in 1830, would one day deliver a groundbreaking scientific paper advising doctors that the simple habit of washing their hands would save women's lives. Why was he one of the few doctors who noticed the link between filth and disease? What sort of young man was he? Was there something he saw as a student that inspired this revolutionary thought? I wanted Holmes and medical history in my story, and much of my research centered on these two topics.

In some ways, the research was far more difficult than for GRAVITY, because I was dealing with a different society, with characters who spoke differently, dressed differently, even interacted differently. Details that I wouldn't normally have to think twice about -- say, the social rules governing the interaction between a man and a woman -- required my careful consideration.

First, the language. How did people in 1830's Boston speak? How could I make the dialogue believable? I turned to contemporary sources from the times to guide me. I read stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I read 1830's newspaper articles. I tried to absorb their far more flowery style of speech.

Second, Holmes himself. This part was again a challenge. Although there are several biographies of him, most were of the "and then he went to Paris" recitation of facts. To get a better handle on his personality, I read his poetry and essays, studied his photos, and gradually began to form my own impressions. I came to see him as a man with a lighthearted sense of humor, one who wasn't above playing a practical joke on his friends. A man who longed to escape the stultifying control of his minister father. I don't know if I managed to capture a true sense of the man -- but Holmes in THE BONE GARDEN is the personality that shone through for me.

Third, the medicine. This was the most fascinating part of my research. I read books on early medical education and the industry of grave-robbing. I read an account of just how one does go about digging up a corpse from a cemetery. (It's not as Hollywood shows it!) I haunted used-book stores and found a wonderful old biography of an obstetrician who practiced in the 1830's. I was able to locate a copy of an 1819 surgical textbook, complete with detailed instructions of how to amputate various limbs. (These instructions informed the hair-raising amputation scene in BONE GARDEN.)

Fourth, the geography. Boston has, of course, changed since the 1830's, and it was something of a challenge to figure out exactly what the streets looked like back then. I visited the Boston Public Library and was able to find a number of old maps. I copied and greatly enlarged an1830's Boston map and kept it mounted in my office, so that I'd know exactly which streets my characters were walking, and where their homes might be located. I also read a number of books on Boston history, so I'd know what current events my characters might be talking about and which notable figures might be in the news.

Finally -- everything else. From 1830's foods to fashions, from early police work to the Irish immigrant experience, it all had to be researched. I collected so many reference books for Bone Garden, that I've filled two bookcases. Many of these books are quite old and disintegrating, but they contain information I found nowhere else.

Libraries and used bookstores ended up being my best friends for this project. The internet was also invaluable, because I was able to locate rare books from online antiquarian booksellers. And I have to give credit to the internet for helping me with some of the most obscure details. In one old book on fashion, I came across the term "acrostic jewelry." Having no idea what that was, I went online and found plenty of information on it. Here's to Google for making a writer's life easier!"
Tess

While the purpose of the Summer Community Read is meant as pure enjoyment for us adults and we will discuss it for pure pleasure I found myself reflecting on how I conduct research and how I bring and use research in the classroom with students. If this is something you were thinking about also take some time to reflect on how you and your students conduct research and how you incorporate technology into this process. And how can you use a piece of literature such as The Bone Garden to guide scientific research, dialogue, explorations? What are your thoughts on this?