Doing Research

I should really pay more attention to what’s happening in Dutch fiction.

For the story I’m working on, I contacted the public information service of the Amsterdam police force for details on how they handle 112 calls* and homicide scenes. After a few weeks, I received an extensive reply from one of their detectives. I thanked him profusely. In his return email, he mentioned that I was very welcome to get in touch for more information, and added, meaningfully, that he might know a bit about storytelling himself. Only then did I think to Google his name, which in itself meant nothing to me.

To discover that besides being a police detective, my source is also a award-winning writer.

* The European equivalent to 911.