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Question:
If you had access to all the research in the world you would need, who is the person you would want to write a book about and why?
Welcome to my blog from Stevie’s page, and I hope you enjoyed your time there browsing her books. I’m glad to have you drop by and read my answer to the question!
When the question was first posed, I touched my bottom lip in that pensive manner. The skin between my eyes likely pinched deepening the line that I have had there since I was 27. It’s a great question, but when you take it seriously, and I love to take deep questions quite seriously, you find yourself gone silent for a time, reflecting inward on the person you are and who you want to be. As much as this is a question about who I’d like to research given unlimited resources, that essentially boils down to my interests. So many would name some great men or women, probably Jesus being the most popular, followed by Abraham Lincoln and Elvis Presley. I’m sad to say that I would fall into that trap myself. So many names flittered through my brain. I was overwhelmed.
Then, I realized that what the opportunity would be is to learn about someone and something I don’t already know much about. Though my choice is quite popular, the writing on him quite numerous, I feel that there isn’t much really that I know about him. I often find myself, when his picture rolls by on the Facebook newsfeed, or crops up during a obsessive pinning session, that I am mesmerized.
This man’s dark brow and eye is deep–deep with the answer to the world, or at least to many human problems. It is also deep with kindness and deep with suffering. Books tell of his unerring humility, a desire to only do good by his fellow man, that while he was being stepped on by those seeking to profit from his know-how, he forgave them. Still, the suffering shows in those dark eyes, despite the slight hint of humor on the lower quadrant of his face near the corner of his mouth, the edges of his eyes.
Invention in his time was rife with competition. One man towered above them all, and is heralded to this day as a great genius. If opportunism is a genius, then by all means, the man was a genius, but he was not the genius he is made out to be. A mastermind thief and showman was what he was good at. He used that ability against the man I would research, impoverishing him, using the legal system to hobble his work–torturing animals to prove his way was the better way. The people presented to bought it, because he was the right kind–acceptably WASP in a nation that has always struggled with ethnicity and the meaning put into it.
So, although there is much I already know about him. Unlimited resources would give me means to study for years and learn a great deal more about the man who invented the AC Motor and a number of other 19th century marvels, as well as things we’re still attempting to work out today. My research would delve into the personal side of the man. His thoughts and aspirations, his roots and where he grew. In my upcoming trilogy, I quote him at the start of each book. His thoughts on the world were always insightful, sometimes spooky. The quotes that I chose reflect the blending of science and the unknown that my books contain.
Similarly, I share with him the struggle to do my work. Although he may not have been standing there with his hand out for accolades, some recognition would have been nice, and he is finally getting some, though posthumously. This is a struggle I am all too familiar with. When I put out my first book, customers did not believe that I had written a book about the United States Civil War. They would look at me incredulously. To this day, I am not certain how my appearance suggested to some that I was incapable, but when I think of this man, I think of how his appearance and traits were not as acceptable as those of a man who stole from him, who posed as the genius instead of being the genius. I just hope that I don’t have to wait to be acceptable until death, as he did.
It is for our similarities and my awe of him that I’d like to research Nikola Tesla.
“Tesla circa 1890” by Napoleon Sarony – postcard (radiographics.rsna.org). Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
Thanks for reading! Please do go check out what Author Traci-Wooden Carlisle answered on her blog.
Born in Los Angeles, California, Mrs. Wooden-Carlisle desired to be a poet and novelist at the age of 11. Today, Mrs. Wooden Carlisle lives in San Diego with her husband, serving as a church Office Manager, teaches fitness classes, celebrates her faith through dance, and is currently writing her third book in the Christian-fiction series, Promises to Zion. Check out her other books here.
Stevie Turner hails from East Anglia, UK, and attributes the countryside of her home with giving her the inspiration to write. She has found her unique voice writing the kind of novels women like to read. To date she has self-published seven books, mainly dealing with the darker side of relationships and always a bit of humor. You can find details of her books on the website http://www.stevie-turner-author.co.uk/
Stevie is married, with two sons and three grandchildren. If she isn’t writing or working, then you’ll find her walking around her pretty country village.