Well, What Do You Know?

by Anna Sugden

It always amazes me what people know, the things that people are interested in and the hidden experts there are around us.

Take my current work in progress as an example. I needed information on dead bodies, so I knew I could turn to our very own Jeanne. Choosing the right gun for my villain, meant a quick email to Cassondra. For details on hunting knives, I was able to use a friend of ours who used to work in an abattoir (or slaughterhouse), so is pretty handy with big knives! By strange coincidence, his wife's best friend studied forensics and was able to help me out with my crime scenes.

I've also had people asking me for help with their work - especially about things English (for obvious reasons *g*) and Irish and Scottish, but also about marketing, teaching young kids, football (or what you'd call soccer), fitness boxing and hockey (again, for obvious reasons *g*).

I got to thinking about all the expertise we have in the Lair - not just the Banditas, but also our BB's. We are rich in information on location alone! With our Aussie gals, our Finnish gals, our Canadian gals, Kim in Hawaii and our travel experts AC and KJ to say nothing of all the different states we have represented. Which reminds me - anyone live in South Dakota?

We've got people who know all about dogs, cats, birds (yes, including that pesky rooster) and other creatures.

Then, we know that Barb is a quilting expert, Helen is a Rod Stewart fan-girl (hope you like the pic!), P226 is a guru on things military and computer forensics, Louisa knows all about opera, Marisa and Maria are TV production experts, Dianna Love knows all about painting large signs and motorbikes, Donna is Ms Accoutant, Suz and Joanie are our nursing angels ... again, just to name a few!

I know there's loads more out there, so I want to know - what are you an expert in? Don't be shy and self-deprecating, you may not be the world's leading expert, but there are things you know a lot about and could help a struggling writer if she/he needed research information. Or, what information do you have access to through friends or family members? I'm sure you can all mention at least two things!