Over the past week I’ve obtained three books from the library for research: Cities & the Sea: Port City Planning in Early Modern Europe (for the mapping of Searoyal), Dudley: The Seventeenth Century Town (for planning the town of Holyfell; actually an article, bound in this weird cardstock binding), and English Country Houses: Baroque 1685-1715> (for the planning of Faradris’s family home; a bit later than I’d like but it’ll work.) The latter is sorta falling apart, but the damage is noted on the slip so I think that means they’ll remember not to punish me for it.

So I’m reading all of these in hopes of getting some more world-building done. I’ve sort of stalled on revisions of A King’s Wedding, but I think that’s more in response to some personal-life stress than to the story itself. I did see a scene that I think needs cutting; I’m deliberating whether it’s better to send it to my critique group as-is and see if they agree with me, or to go ahead and snip-snip-snip. The scene places undue emphasis on an object that isn’t going to be important at all to the plot, so I guess it should go. *le sigh*

Because of aforementioned personal issues, I’m having some trouble getting back into writing. I am, basically, putting it off. In an attempt to preserve my sanity, I need to focus on other things. I’ll continue world-building, but I don’t know if I’ll dive into a manuscript in earnest for a little while. We’ll see. Things usually change more quickly than we can imagine.

For now, I’m putting my focus back on reading. That might even give my life some semblance of stability and routine. Wouldn’t that be a change?