Last week you may recall, I started scoping out the village and county that will be the main setting of my new regency series. I decided to set the inn and village sort of generally in the Midlands and plodded along creating roads and inventing a river and other natural features, but when I began adding businesses, I again scratched my head.
My good friend (and much admired fellow writer) Jude Knight came to my rescue with a treasure, The Staffordshire General and Commercial Directory for 1818. It has everything I could want to know about industry, agriculture and small tradesmen—and then some. It will be one of my companions on this journey. It turns out there are a few versions. One can be found on Google books.
That done I now determine in spite of holiday prep, grandson coming, going and needing rides to extra practice, and travel in ten (10!!) days, I hereby begin Book One and vow 1000 words a day until done. (But maybe not so many when visiting relatives…) But first, coffee.
