Why research is fun.
One of the coolest things about researching a new book is watching the idea you sold to your editor begin to take shape. You have a sketch, an outline if you will (oh hush, like I could resist), and every fact you dig up adds another line until you hit something that snaps those lines into a shape and it's like that optical illusion where you stare at a pattern until your eyes cross then all at once a message appears. (Okay, they never appear to me but the point stands.)
The other day, I was taking notes from Dancing into Battle; A Social History of the Battle of Waterloo by Nick Foulkes when I hit this:
"What fascinates me about the battle is its unique situation straddling two centuries. In it's role of closing the eighteenth century and heralding the nineteenth, the battle belongs to both eras: the barbarously elegant England of the Regency with it's relaxed attitude toward alcohol, sex, and violence; and the imperial England of Queen Victoria with its improving zeal, conspicuous virtue and high (albeit occasionally hypocritical) moral values."
And my brain said Yes! And my eyes crossed (metaphorically). And the message appeared.
There isn't a single fact in there that's relevant to the book, but what those facts say? That's going to take me places.