I love starting to plot new books. I begin always with my time period, my location and any historical event I may be focusing on, and that's fine.

But then every page of research turns up a new historical character or weird titbit, or oddball event etc, all of which I really want to weave into the plot.

It's like buying a pinball table, then setting it up and discovering that the balls are all diamond and every buffer plays a tune. It's glorious in its wonderful potential.