Novel planning in progress. I don’t have a lot of study wall space but what there is is starting to fill up! Above – locations and maps for the key settings and journey from medieval Toulouse, to Pallars Sobira in the Pyrenees, and the Iberian kingdom of Aragon.

Moving upwards images are San Sernin in Toulouse; Chateau Narbonnais and bridge across the Garonne, Toulouse; the chapel of Sant Pere del Burgal in Pallars Sobira; the abbey of Santa Maria de Gerri de Sal in Pallars Sobira and Jaca in Aragon.

Next, I’m working on a gallery of characters and a timeline. Contexts I’m researching for the novel include the development of the pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostella, the lucrative medieval salt trade, power struggles among the Occitan and Catalan nobility, and the pressure for both church and secular reform coming from the Pope.