Well, I'm finally, finally, almost done with my rewrite of Masks & Shadows. Whew. And the good news is, I think it's really improved. I've figured out a new opening that I like, smoothed out some lingering character questions, and tied up a few loose ends. The lovely thing is, it's all stuff I can do while lying on the couch, without moving much. Novel revision: the fun new game for invalids!

I have a major incentive to get better, too--I really, really want to visit the Wallace Collection in London, ideally next Saturday (for their "A Day in the Eighteenth Century"), but definitely before they close down their special display on Marie Antoinette's furnishings. I discovered the collection on the web as I was looking up paintings by Fragonard, because they're wonderfully evocative of the period I'm writing about. I particularly love these two images: Fragonard's The Souvenir and Fragonard's The Swing. Can't wait to see them in person, as soon as I'm well enough to get on a train...

And I've also been looking a lot at the lovely photographic postcards I got at the Museum of Costume in Bath. There are some great displays of clothing from just the right time period. I have one postcard of a model that I swear was based on Charlotte, my heroine (which is unfortunately not up online for a link); I also love my postcard of their collection of "extra" eighteenth-century dresses in storage, which just feels wonderfully inspiring to me for some reason. I like setting that postcard up on my knees or the couch beside me as I type away on Campion.

After I finish Congress of Shadows (set in 1814), I am definitely going back to the eighteenth century. Love it!