{"id":3450,"date":"2023-03-13T14:47:15","date_gmt":"2023-03-13T14:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/douglaswatkinson.com\/?p=3450"},"modified":"2023-03-14T13:49:56","modified_gmt":"2023-03-14T13:49:56","slug":"the-pleasure-and-pain-of-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spiffingwebsites.com\/douglaswatkinson\/post\/the-pleasure-and-pain-of-research\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pleasure and  Pain of Research"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve cranked myself up to write another Hawk book.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>It&#8217;ll be the seventh in the Nathan Hawk Murder Mysteries and an element of it will involve a small &#8216;coven&#8217; of modern &#8216;witches&#8217;. I use quotation marks because these characters will turn out to be the vain, fashionable, hobbyist kind of witches &#8211; a million miles from the real thing.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3476 aligncenter lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/douglaswatkinson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2023\/03\/Facebook_banner-300x132.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"448\" height=\"197\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/spiffingwebsites.com\/douglaswatkinson\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2023\/03\/Facebook_banner-300x132.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spiffingwebsites.com\/douglaswatkinson\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2023\/03\/Facebook_banner-1024x450.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/spiffingwebsites.com\/douglaswatkinson\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2023\/03\/Facebook_banner-768x337.jpg 768w, https:\/\/spiffingwebsites.com\/douglaswatkinson\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2023\/03\/Facebook_banner-1536x674.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/spiffingwebsites.com\/douglaswatkinson\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2023\/03\/Facebook_banner.jpg 1640w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 448px) 100vw, 448px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 448px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 448\/197;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So, as usual I set about doing some research, only to find that there&#8217;s an overwhelming amount of source material. Most of it is &#8230; indifferently written, I have to say, then I stumbled across &#8216;What Witches Do&#8217;<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>by Stewart Farrar. It&#8217;s an excellent piece of writing though it suffers from so much that&#8217;s wrong with self-publishing today. It has a dull, lacklustre cover and<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>is badly typeset with as many words as possible crammed into each page.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>That said, with perseverance it reveals that modern witchcraft is an ancient, highly moral and complex belief whose purpose is for good. I hope that explains its recent rise in popularity. I have doubts.\u00a0Like all beliefs it can be distorted and used for evil &#8211; and this of course is the edge I&#8217;m looking for.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3466 aligncenter lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/douglaswatkinson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2023\/03\/gettyimages-942781374-612x612-1-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"592\" height=\"395\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/spiffingwebsites.com\/douglaswatkinson\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2023\/03\/gettyimages-942781374-612x612-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spiffingwebsites.com\/douglaswatkinson\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2023\/03\/gettyimages-942781374-612x612-1.jpg 612w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 592px) 100vw, 592px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 592px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 592\/395;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But there is so much to know about the Craft. It goes back thousands of years and has always been subject to incredible influences and diversity. However,<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>like all research, when you begin it you soon get drawn in.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3468 aligncenter lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/douglaswatkinson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2023\/03\/1065357.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"218\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 250px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 250\/218;\" \/> <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-3469 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/douglaswatkinson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2023\/03\/8744981-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"297\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 250px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 250\/297;\" \/> <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3470 alignright lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/douglaswatkinson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2023\/03\/2211030-220x300.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"220\" height=\"300\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 220px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 220\/300;\" \/><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And sometimes when you don&#8217;t really want to be.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>When I was writing Lovejoy (a television series about an unconventional antiques dealer) I would tap into the numerous television antiques shows for info and ideas. One such programme was &#8216;Bargain Hunt&#8217;. It&#8217;s a show in which two teams of punters buy<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>three items at antiques fairs and then sell at auction for a hopeful profit. \u00a0 I&#8217;ve often wondered why I&#8217;m so hooked on it and have been for thirty years. After all, it&#8217;s the BBC at its cheapest and ranks alongside cookery and gardening programmes.<\/p>\n<p>So why am I drawn to it? \u00a0One reason is that it airs just before lunchtime and I defy \u00a0any writer not to at least catch a glimpse of it. Habit is my lame excuse but more to the point\u00a0it has provided me with so much raw material about \u00a0human foibles, aspiration, and, of course, dirt cheap antiques. And it keeps on giving. I can point to at least five Nathan Hawk Murder Mysteries characters who &#8216;began their existence&#8217;, as it were, in episodes of Bargain Hunt. \u00a0Contestants and experts alike!<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a confession. I once suggested to the producer that she choose two teams from among the Lovejoy writers, if only to see how much or little they really knew. She thought it was a great idea &#8230; but then the a problem arose. She couldn&#8217;t get the writers to agree to do it. We&#8217;re a funny lot, writers. We&#8217;re either always out there showing off, or skulking away behind the arras for fear of being recognised.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know if the latter explains why Russell Lewis didn&#8217;t appear in the documentary about the ITV series <em>Inspector Morse<\/em> and its prequel <em>Endeavour<\/em>. \u00a0He should have done and if he quibbled he should have been dragged into the limelight. \u00a0He wrote every episode of <em>Endeavour<\/em>, and never put a foot wrong. Brilliant!\u00a0 I heard once that he wanted to get a prequel to Lovejoy up and running. Great idea, but it never happened.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve cranked myself up to write another Hawk book.\u00a0 It&#8217;ll be the seventh in the Nathan Hawk Murder Mysteries and an element of it will involve a small &#8216;coven&#8217; of modern &#8216;witches&#8217;. I use quotation marks because these characters will turn out to be the vain, fashionable, hobbyist kind of witches &#8211; a million miles&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":3212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiffingwebsites.com\/douglaswatkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiffingwebsites.com\/douglaswatkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiffingwebsites.com\/douglaswatkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiffingwebsites.com\/douglaswatkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiffingwebsites.com\/douglaswatkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spiffingwebsites.com\/douglaswatkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiffingwebsites.com\/douglaswatkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiffingwebsites.com\/douglaswatkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiffingwebsites.com\/douglaswatkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiffingwebsites.com\/douglaswatkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}