Researching... for my stories

• Murder
• Torture devices and techniques
• Weapons
• Poisons
• Fighting styles
• Horses

These are the main few things I do research on.
Since mine is a magical world born entirely in my head I don't need to track technological advancements of a certain century or delve into the rules and etiquette of a certain era. What I do need is to be as realistic in details as possible.

I have demons with wings. I have gods who can freeze time. In a fantasy world, it's only natural. But when I write about things that also happen in our (real) world I need to be careful.
A horse can't run for three days straight, nor can we pick a lock with a wooden stick. At least I haven't seen any evidence of it being possible.

Then, there are the fighting scenes. And magical fights aside, I do have characters using fists and legs. I have to admit that I trained in taekwondo years ago. I remember countless hours of practicing kicks, but the safe gym environment and monitored fights are definitely not the same as a fight in Hell for survival.
In a real situation you wouldn't waste energy for round-house kicks no matter how amazing they look. (I am guilty of adding a few of those while writing my Book3. We'll see if they stay there.)

What about fighting with swords? Daggers? I have no experience there whatsoever.
So... I turn to Google.

And just for the fun of it, I'm going to show you a few of my questions.

• How to defend yourself from a dagger/knife attack?
• Torture devices
• How to make a sword?
• How to pick a lock?
• What are the symptoms of slow-acting poisons?
• How long does it take for a person to bleed out?
• Where to hit on the head to knock someone out?
• Photoshop tutorial for creating a map
• The distance a horse can run in a day
• The amount of manure a horse creates...  Yes, that's something I have been researching. The answer is about 50 pounds of manure per day (if anyone was wondering :D )

The last few inquiries aside I have seen some pretty disturbing things. I have watched countless videos of people forging weapons and showing how to wield them. How to attack with a knife.
All for my books. I promise!

One last thing I wanted to share - I decided to do an impromptu sale.
If you haven't tried my books yet, here's your chance to get Till Death and Beyond only for $0.99!
It's a limited time offer, so be sure to take advantage of it.