I needed to get the wheels going once again on my concept-outline of The Next Novel. In no time at all I had fallen, like Alice in Wonderland, into what I think of as The Black Hole of Research. I emerged at 1:30, eyes-crossed, brain-numb, having forgotten to eat, much less even move.
1652: young Athénaïs is at her family chateau in Lussac and the Court is near-by in Poitiers. All I wanted to know is what Lussac was like, and what her family chateau looked like (and if it still existed). As well I wanted to know where the Court would likely have been housed while in Poitiers. In all this day, I didn’t find out very much about Lussac, and I didn’t even get to Poitiers.
As for the family chateau—there is a museum of prehistory that claims to be housed there (or what’s left of it): so I got that far. But no images. Perhaps the most sparky bit of information I got in all this is that her family’s motto was “Ante mare undae”—”Spirit surpasses matter.” That’s a sweet little detail.
Go for it, Melissa! You will have a wealth of resources, true. Start with the most reliable — and that might be enough (if you can control yourself).
That is a great detail! I imagine it has sparked all sorts of ideas.
I have a rumbling of an idea to write an 18th century novel, set in America during the Revolution. It would be quite the change, given my last two novels have been in the 1940s. I am so worried about all the research I’ll have to do, though I think I would enjoy every minute of it. :-)