I wasn't sure if collaging a book at this late stage of the game was going to net me any insights, but it was a good break from the slog. And, as it happens, yes, it did net me some insights. The gold woman with her arm extended and the gold man pulling his sword--why, hello! So that's how those two characters relate to each other. Gold woman is clearly Persephone. Gold man is clearly Frumos. Clearly, Persephone caused Frumos's downfall. I mean, I don't know HOW yet, but clearly. Also, I learned all about Lacrimora's secret past as a cross-dresser. It makes perfect sense. She was totally the kind of girl who would dress up in boy's clothes and run around trying to break her own curse. Reveka just had some better resources. Talk about a villain who is the hero of her own story! I barely know how to keep her a villain in Reveka's story as is!



(If you click through, there are Notes.)

So, why book collaging? Jennifer Crusie does it. She does it a bit more elegantly than I do, apparently, which I only vaguely remembered after I finished mine. I've mostly been paying attention to Stephanie Burgis's book collages instead, which seems like a much more practical way to go about it for me--paper and glue--rather than building a dollhouse/shadowbox. In any case, I've always been intrigued by the notion that different plot and character connections than you knew might show up in a collage, and I confess, I'm a little surprised by how simply/accidentally that happens. I slapped two of the bigger pictures down, and immediately realized they were facing each other, and a whole 'nother dimension of backstory dropped into the book. Something that will only show up in maybe two sentences of this book, but is probably the lynchpin of the next one.

Anyway. Back to writing.