Perhaps
an explanation is necessary regarding my chosen title for
this site and the blog created to go
with it.
Most everyone is familiar with the
story of
The Pied Piper of Hamelin, by
Robert Browning. In a nutshell, the
town was completely overrun with
rats. The town council was
desperately seeking a solution when
a stranger, colorfully dressed in
many colors, appeared at their
meeting. He claimed he could get rid
of the rats—for a fee. The price the
stranger asked was outrageous, but
the desperate leaders agreed.
Anything to have the rats gone.
So, the strange man stepped outside
and started playing a tune on his
flute.* As he wandered through
the town, playing his instrument,
the rats emerged from all over the
place, following the music. The
piper moved out of town and down the
road, and turned toward the river
and all the rats following him
drowned.
When the piper returned to the town
council to collect his agreed-upon
fee, they refused. Why not? The rats
were gone, their problem solved, so
why pay out anything? At this, the
piper went out into the streets
again and began playing a new tune
as he walked through the town. And
one by one all the children in
Hamelin left wherever they were and
started to follow him, dancing and
laughing as he led them out of town.
But not to the river. Instead, he
led them to a mountain. At their
approach, the mountain opened wide
and the piper AND the
children went through that opening.
As soon as they were all inside, the
mountain closed again and there were
no more children left in the town of
Hamelin.
Well, maybe
it's a bit of a stretch, and I'm not
drowning any rats or stealing
children, but as a writer of
historical fiction, I thought the
parallel might suit my purpose. You
know, pulling out the facts to make
the fiction ring true, and writing
about the adventure. When I
expressed my desire to (basically)
journal about the research
process—'piping' out the
facts, if you will—someone suggested "The
Pied Phifer" - a fun play on the
story title and my last name. I
loved it, so there you are.
And, of course,
my first bit of 'research' was to
find some pictures and colors. And,
the definition of "pied" which is:
adj: having
sections or patches colored
differently and usually brightly.
Syn: calico;
multi-colored; painted;
parti-colored; vari-colored
So, I found a
sketch of a
little flute-player sitting on a
rock, but she was in blue. I re-sketched it,
filling it in
with the colors I needed, cut out a
stained-glass pattern and scanned it
into my computer, et voila!
And the
site's description, 'Adventures in
Research - Truth in Fiction' - just
kind of fell in place right along
with everything else.
The next bit of
research will be seeking out writers
who know some things about research
and who would be willing to
contribute some secrets in addition
to my own notes.
Thanks for
visiting. If you have things,
resources, sites to contribute, send
an email to the link on the side
bar. And thanks!
*From what
I've been able to learn, at the time
of this story, the instrument the
Piper most likely carried was
something more like a panpipe.
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