The letters C, O, A, and L, yes, but more than that, they’re the current focus of my research. I’ve gotten distracted by something new (again, I know), and it’s… Well, it’s kind of annoying is what it is.
After my Hornblower marathon, I’m kind of fascinated by the French Revolution/Napoleonic Wars era/War of 1812 portion of history. So my new thing is set in Brittany, France, right around the end of the 18th century/beginning of the 19th. Bretons tend(ed) to be devout Catholics, and basically all I know about the history of the church’s arrival in the area is bupkes. There’s the remains of a beautiful abby near Clohars-Carnoët, France, but outside of inspiration… Yeah.
I need to know how long the church has been in the area, when it arrived, when formal confessions began being heard/taken, whether your typical farmer would attend mass every day/week, how often they’d go to confession, etc. etc. etc. (Also, the standard form of confession would be nice; I’m fringe Episcopalian, we’re not big on bureaucracy so I’ve never done a formal confession.)
As for the coal mining, all I really wanted to know was whether or not one of my characters would be in any danger of being an underground coal miner if he was currently-as-of-the-conversation-in-the-story living in Wales. So far, I think the answer is yes, but I was immediately distracted by finding out what ‘drift mining’ involves. And then I decided to write this… And now I’m going to try to get back to actually writing.
(although I am thinking about writing another post for a different blog… No! Must write fiction! Now!)