If you're a writer, you're always working.
The printing presses of the state treasuries cranked out reams of paper currency- showing wise kinds and blissful martyrs- while bankers wept and peasants starved.
I don't really write plots. I use history as the engine that drives everything.
If you can live in Paris, maybe you should.
I invented the historical spy novel.
Once you have your characters, they tell you what to write, you don't tell them.