(no subject)

Just so we're clear on this, it would be a BAD idea for me to use up all the rest of my vacation time to take a whirlwind trip to Japan and visit the old silk filature that's been preserved as a heritage site. For research.

And I am more likely to fix my book by actually fixing my book.

ETA Oh, gosh, airfare is cheaper than I thought it was. Now I actually have to think about it. (Never mind that getting out to Tomioka and then Takarazuka would add up to Not So Cheap...)

(no subject)

I have done what I should have done a long time ago, and acquired an old book which is basically a social justice manifesto on behalf of workers in textile factories -- 女工哀史, or, "The tragic story of factory women." It is very socialist -- and if I were writing real historical fiction I'd want to check it against a couple of other sources to correct for bias, because its purpose is not to inform but to provoke pity and outrage, and that's not necessarily a good thing even if I agree with the point of view.

Still, it has a LOT of good chunks of information, like real fliers that were used to recruit workers, descriptions of contracts and working conditions, salary information, etc. But it was published in 1927 and is accordingly tough to read.

It's not that I didn't do enough research for my earlier drafts, incidentally -- it's just that my previous drafts were focused away from the factory work and this draft is bringing the focus back to that a little bit. This IS a fantasy, so I don't necessarily have to be accurate to how things were at one particular filature or another, but the facts are more interesting than anything I'm likely to make up. And things fit together, too -- if I made up my own facts I'd be more likely to hit upon inconsistencies and contradictions and, "But if X, then why doesn't she just Y?"