Saturday, February 2, 2013

how to make a Molotov cocktail

If Google and facebook target ads based on site content and internet searches...I could be in real trouble! Not because I have been researching the native foods, dress and customs of the Maasai in east Africa for my WIP.
 

  
www.demofix.com
Not because I've been exploring weather cycles, indigenous wildlife, and tribal culture there, but because of what happens there in my story. Suffice it to say, I have had to learn a lot about the sex tourism industry, deadly snake attacks...




www.livescience.com



...and how to commit arson in the remote Africn bush.

Wait. How to commit arson? In a place where there are no explosives? Where I need a long, slow-burning fuse to ignite the fire that will destroy the safari lodge where children are traded for sex?



Well, it turns out that it can be done, except that the process of creating the saltpeter that the process requires takes months...much like composting...and my protagonist only has a couple of days to make this happen.

Which is how I arrived at the idea of siphoning gasoline out of the bad guy's safari vehicles...gasoline that can be used to burn his infamous lodge to the ground...by setting the whole conflagration off with a Molotov cocktail. Who knew how easy they are to make?? YouTube is full of instructions and demonstrations! Only...as I learned...you have to provide verifcation of your age before you're allowed access to those sites. After all, we wouldn't want Molotov cocktails to make it into the hands of children, would we?



Needless to say, I've enjoyed doing this research. I imagine the ad execs scratching their heads wondering why an unassuming woman "of a certain age" wants to know about childhood prostitution and international aid organizations. Why she needs to know how pythons kill their prey. What she plans to do with a Molotov cocktail!

I can hardly wait to see what ads appear in the margins on my facebook page!
 
Have you ever had to do research that made you nervous? Have you ever entered a restricted site?
*
"Every production of an artist
should be the expression
of an adventure of his soul."
--W. Somerset Maugham--
*
If this post picques your interest, wish me luck as I work on the last couple chapters, the revisions, the queries, the edits, etc., etc. Thanks.
jan
 

4 comments:

  1. Wow...I would never have suspected it of you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Delores. Writing brings out the best in us.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I always crack up at the ads that appear on blogs for me... God only knows where my searches have been. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sounds like a great adventure you're writing. If the feds come after you for visiting those sites I'll be a character witness.

    ReplyDelete