Shortly after discovering that my “clan of cats” that will appear in my upcoming novel, Junkyard Dogs, reside in the abandoned Renwick Smallpox Hospital on Kennedy Island, I shared this research with my wife, Ann, who’s always ready to share her own ideas, many of which appear in my stories as well.

As I finished sharing my research with her, she added, “And the cats that now live on Kennedy Island migrated from the Island of Cats in Japan.” I smiled and replied something glibly like, “Sure thing,” or “Maybe. We’ll see.”

But later, I began to wonder where would a clowder (yep more research revealed this little nugget that a group of cats is called a clowder) of a hundred or more cats come from, so I did a quick Google search for “Island of Cats in Japan,” and found my next background info to fold into my story. Check out this link:  https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2015/03/a-visit-to-aoshima-a-cat-island-in-japan/386647/.

Isn’t life grand? What’s your favorite nugget of gold you gleaned from research you’ve conducted while writing a story that added flavor to the finished piece?