Through purest serendipity, there will be a conference on Germaine de Stael here in St. Louis in May. About five years ago I started working on an alternate history set in 1923 French America. The conceit is that Napoleon never sold Louisiana to the United States, but managed to keep it. There are several reasons for this, a few of them historically legitimate, but it is a science fiction novel after all. In the course of researching the whole Napoleonic era, I stumbled on this woman, de Stael, and came to regard her as a phenom. She was one of the few people toward whom Napoleon seems to have shown actual fear and the only woman, as far as I can tell, and I became intrigued. I found one—count it, ONE—biography, an old thing from the Fifties by a writer whose specialty was the Napoleonic period, and it gave me enough to expand my single novel into a trilogy, the last volume of which I intend to be almost entirely historical.
Needless to say, this would entail considerably more research. The plan was to sell the trilogy as a package to a house big enough to pay me well enough that I could embark on the research and do justice to the matter. Alas, I’m still waiting for that sale and now publishing is in something of a tailspin, etc etc etc.
Anyway, I started making notes for the second volume anyway and decided to see if there were any blogs on the subject. Plenty, but mostly about de Stael’s views on romance—de Stael ran a salon and collected around her quite an impressive circle of intimates and there was a lot of diddling and dallying going on. (One of her closest friends was Juliet Recamier, a great beauty and apparently one of the Major Teases of Europe.)
One blog leapt out—from an academic, Karyna Szmurlo—announcing an international conference on de Stael. I contacted her and she responded kindly, suggesting I attend. Since it will be held at Washington University—practically my back yard—I am going. I have subsequently discoverd a small uptick in the popularity of Germaine de Stael, with several new biographies and at least one novel, all published pretty much since I started this project (trust me, they weren’t around when I was looking) with one or two exceptions. Serendipity indeed. Check the schedule. Heavyweight academic. I doubt I will learn as much there, on the spot, as I will if I can make a couple of good contacts.
Of course, the major work in this area won’t take place on my part for a couple years yet—the second volume is still to be set in the 1920’s, but it will inbtroduce de Stael on stage (yes, I said it was SF, didn’t I?)—but I don’t think that will be a problem. The trilogy will sell or it won’t, no matter when I finish it. Naturally I’d prefer that it sell. Naturally.