Blogs by Lucille Bellucci
home and spirit rituals
9/27/2011 8:32:46 AM
research begins
All there was of an English-language library in Rio were the IBEU (Instituto Brasil Estados Unidos) and a private library owned by Faith Motley, a British subject who became my friend. She stocked the latest fiction titles, but what I needed were research materials. Having access to these in California was heavenly. And that was before the Internet became such a large part of my life. Even Renato pitched in. For my historical novel The Year of the Rat he dug up U.S. military lore on uniforms, the patches on them, and medals and ribbons. For The Snake Woman of Ipanema, he brought back works in Portuguese about Umbanda, Candomble, and--the sect prohibited by the government--Quimbanda. I studied them all, and with the one on how to undo the forbidden rituals of Quimbanda I worked them backwards and came up with the final rituals that raised the hair of the heads of a couple of readers. One lady told me she had to put the book away. That pleased me no end.
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