Not long ago, I was discussing with a fellow author the various sorts of odd research we’ve done that might raise a few eyebrows (or perhaps suspicions of wrong-doing) if someone who didn’t know we were writers looked at our web history. How odd? Well, I’d say these are the most eyebrow-raising topics I’ve googled in the past year (for five different books):

-where to shoot someone so they die instantly
-Japanese swords and other weaponry
-how to draw your own blood (there are Youtube videos!)
-famous Middle Eastern rebels
-common foal deformities
-least painful ways to commit suicide
-the gas mileage of army trucks

It’ll be interesting to see what new and bizarre things I’ll need to look up this year…

If you’re an author, or do research for other purposes — what’s the strangest topic you’ve ever looked into?