With the second Precursor book out, I’m going to take a short break from that series and work on something else.

Not that I don’t have ideas for where Jon, Anneliese, and the others are going. But I’d like to give those ideas a little gestation time in my subconscious before locking them down on paper. Which makes this the perfect time to dust off “A Quantum Chronology”. I started this book before “The Preceptor” and got to the 50K mark and then stalled; not because I didn’t know where the plot was taking the characters, but because they’d just arrived in Paris in 1832 and I realised that I was seriously lacking in basic knowledge of the era.

I didn’t know simple things like what kind of money people used, how much things cost, how they got around, what they wore. And the list went on.

As you might have figured out, “A Quantum Chronology” is a time travel novel. I have a completely unique, consistent, and very hard science time travel mechanic. It’s given me, and the characters, some really tight constraints, and as a result some great options for dramatic tension and twists. It’s going to be a fun book.

So while I was beavering away on “The Preceptor” I was also reading about 19th century Paris, and reading Honoré de Balzac. Balzac was a French 19th century author whose works are credited as influencing the greats like Dickens and Dostoyevsky. In fact, Dostoyevsky made his name by translating one of Balzac’s most famous novels “Eugénie Grandet” (which is a delightful read, if a trifle melancholy). If you want to read a classic, you could do a lot worse than “Eugénie Grandet”.

Even after twelve months of “research”, I’m am still far from a subject matter expert on 19th century Parisian life, but I think I’ve got just enough rope to hang myself now. And if anyone reading this is an expert on the place and time, please get in contact. I will undoubtedly make mistakes and having a beta reader who knows what a “sou” is would help.