Research blues

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I love the research required to write a fact-based novel, but there are times when it becomes overwhelming ... like this morning. Not only does my heroine possibly have the heart of a murderer, but the convoluted relationships between two of my other characters — Corneille and Molière — have suddenly become far more complex than I ever imagined. Corneille and Molière were in competition for the king's favour — and my current plot dramatizes this competition — but now there appears to be evidence to suggest that Corneille was in fact writing a number of Molière's plays. In short, that they were collaborators, not competitors. Groan.

All of this will require more study and digestion (and, no doubt, indigestion) -- and no doubt, as well, an hysterical call or two to academics who have offered to help. But right now I feel that this subject is impossibly big.