Researching the expat novel

I’ve known Anne Louise O’ Connell for a while now, first meeting her when I visited Dubai to run a writing workshop that she had offered to run for me. That was when I realised Anne was both efficient and a great researcher. Since then Anne went on to write @home in Dubai for us, which was published in 2011.  Non-fiction seemed so much her natural genre that I was pleasantly surprised she went on to not only write and self-publish a novel, Mental Pause, but that it won an award too. Now, fiction seems very much her comfort zone and Deep Deceit was published earlier this year. I’d loved Mental Pause because not only was it a witty tongue-in-cheek stab at what menopause can do to a woman’s sanity but because it was a page-tuner. Plot and pace are Anne’s watchwords.

Deep Deceit by Anne Louise O’Connell

As someone who knows Dubai fairly well, I am always attracted to books that use settings I know. Having lived there for a few years I was always fascinated by the fact that two worlds live there in parallel – the locals and the expats. It is rare that the two combine and therefore I am always intrigued to find a book that explores this. Deep Deceit, like O’ Connell’s previous novel, Mental Pause, is a page-turner with a good old plot. Although I was not as gripped by this one initially, by half way through there was no way it was going to be put down. Its cast of characters were not always likeable, but that was intentional. As a mother, what other mother would not empathise with Celeste, the expat mom whose 18-yr-old daughter goes missing, supposedly kidnapped from Dubai and whisked away to Saudi? What other mother would not go almost out of her mind with worry? The twist here, is that Celeste’s husband, here, Ryan is a thoroughly nasty piece of work. I really enjoyed the use of Arabic words, the local colour, the food and the glimpse inside an Arabic wedding. A good read!

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​To move from the efficiency and research of @home in Dubai  to two novels reliant on research was maybe not such a leap for Anne. However, while she wrote about Dubai while living there, I wonder whether she had first hand experience of peri-menopause and how she managed to write in such detail about Dubai and Saudi while no longer living in Dubai and never having visited Saudi. Intrigued, I will hand you over to Anne, who will explain how she tackled her research:

Use Research for Fact-Checking and Adding Spice
All authors do research to a certain degree but it’s become a big part of my writing process. I do it as I go with the need cropping up as a scene develops. It’s often a method to shake off writer’s block or to help fill in details too.

If I’m writing about something that I’ve never seen personally, I need to visualize it in order to create the scenario in a way that draws the reader in. I talk to people who have ‘been there, done that’, and use the almighty Google to comb through hundreds of websites. In my latest novel, Deep Deceit, I had never been to a Saudi wedding before, so I searched for photos of traditional Saudi wedding gowns and descriptions of the parties (which I knew were divided … men went to one and women another). I looked at five-star hotels in Riyadh to get a feel for the opulence of entryways and ballrooms. I kept track of the cultural details that would be common in all weddings and then let my imagination take over.

I often draw on personal experience, but still do research to verify facts in case my memory isn’t accurate, like the order of exits off Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai; the correct spellings of Arabic phrases I used; and the names of traditional dress and food.

In my first novel, Mental Pause, I could describe some of the worst symptoms of peri-menopause because I was living them at the time and they were freshly chiselled in my brain. However, when it came to medical terminology and whether or not ‘extreme’ menopause was a ‘thing’, I hit Google again to search for expert testimony that would support some of the plot line I had in mind. When Abbie and Rachel were planning to volunteer at a 5K race, I wanted it to be located near a body of water. I pulled up a map of New Bedford Massachusetts to find a lake nearby with a park. I searched for gay bars to make sure that there was at least one close to where the fictitious one I created would be located and I also had to find a border town in another state that would be a reasonable driving distance for her to make it to the hunting cabin in just a few hours.
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I know it’s fiction and readers must suspend reality, however, it’s important to me to fill holes and for those who have experienced similar places and scenarios to nod their heads in agreement. As an author, that makes me happy 

Did you know that Anne runs the Phuket Paradise Writers’ Retreat?
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As if I ever need an excuse for a holiday disguised as work, I was delighted when Anne started this weekly retreat in Phuket, where she now makes her home. Each year I run a workshop on the last day and this time, in October, I’ll be teaching about writing memoir, while Anne teaches fiction for the other days of the retreat. This will be my third year in a row and takes place at the end of October this time. Come and join us!