So, in the middle of today's writing session (sitting in a café, drinking a frappucino - these are directly linked to much of my productivity!) I had a breakthrough, one of those moments writers live for: suddenly I understand it all! Of course, when Patrick found out what my fabulous breakthrough was, he started laughing. "That?" he said. "That's your big breakthrough?" Apparently, believe it or not, not everyone gets wildly excited by figuring out which particular novelist a character is hopelessly addicted to reading...but believe me, for a lifelong book geek like me, it really was a revelation. The thing is, there's one character in Kat by Starlight about whom I had always been a little nervous, until today. I felt like there was something about her I wasn't getting in the first draft, some layer I couldn't unpeel. Then it hit me: her deep yearning for adventure and romance (despite her seemingly contradictory exterior) is completely fueled by her total passion for Sir Walter Scott, and especially for Ivanhoe. The heroism! The exotic tournaments! The disguised identities! The sheer excitement! I won't bore you with all the details, but suddenly, when I realized that one detail about her character, everything fit together in my head. It may sound tiny, but it unlocked a whole bunch of stuff for me, and I couldn't wait to start working on rewriting her earlier scenes. Until...

...well, until I got home, buzzing with inspiration, looked up Sir Walter Scott - and realized that he didn't publish his first novel until 1815, twelve years after KbS is set. Gaaaarghhhhh! (And Ivanhoe came even later. Curses!) But now, of course, I'm obsessed with finding a suitable replacement author for her to love and constantly check out of the Bath circulating library. I do know that this is a tiny and relatively unimportant detail, but it's driving me crazy at the moment. So I have a research methodology question for anyone who might be able to help:

Does anyone know of a way to find out which books were published in England between about 1790 and 1803? I'm not asking for anyone else to do the work for me - but does anyone know of a place I could go to look up lists like that? I do know of a few authors from the right time period (Mrs. Radcliffe, of course, and Charlotte Smith), but none of them work for what I want from this character. (I don't want Gothic novels as much as I want romantic adventures.)

And yes, I realize that even admitting to how much I care about really trivial little details like this probably reveals some really embarrassing truths about my geekiness...but let's face it, that was never much of a secret anyway.

In the meantime (quick distraction!), here are a few fun links I found today, completely unrelated to historical novels of any sort. First of all, not only has my brother Ben had his science fiction story T-Shirts, Tentacles, and the Melting Point of Steel published online at Atomjack, but they've also published a cool interview with him. (Note: if you're sensitive about issues related to 9/11, this story will probably not be right for you, but if you're up for a very smart, scathing SFnal political satire, go forth and enjoy!)

And second of all, Laini Taylor just posted a recipe for lemon layer cake with raspberries that looks decadently FANTASTIC! Ohhhh, I drooled over that recipe (and the pictures that go with it). Sadly (or safely?), it's completely non-vegan, so there's no point in me making it - baking a whole cake that only I can eat sounds like the recipe for total caloric disaster - but I figured I would pass on the link for the sake of others who aren't limited in the same way. Wow, does it look good.

Happy Sunday!