That Hilarious Moment When You Realize You Effed Up Your Novel

On November 23, 2025November 23, 2025 By Mark PerigardIn Writing2 Comments

I recently finished the second draft of my novel, and I was feeling satisfied.

*The fall of the Bastille, courtesy of historycollection.com.*

The hard-won result of two years of research and writing, my story is set in the years leading up to the French Revolution and follows my lead character into the Reign of Terror.

The second draft, in my humble opinion, was a massive improvement over the first. I had fleshed out character motivations and dropped some plot swerves that I hope will one day surprise readers.

But I decided to compare the timeline of actual events to the events in my novel.

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Trump Crosses (Another) Line

On March 31, 2024 By Mark PerigardIn PoliticsLeave a comment

For the last several months, as background for a novel I am working on, I have been researching the French Revolution.

The question that fascinates to this day, historians and lay people alike, is just how it happened: How did the state justify sending so many thousands of people to their deaths?

King Louis and Marie Antoinette were seen as living symbols of despotic rule, and so they were beheaded. Some nobles and clergy also met their ends at the guillotine.

But hundreds and hundreds of average people, from soldiers to journalists to actors to farmers, also were swept up in the Terror and destroyed.

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