Beverley is a town in East Yorkshire, England. Often overshadowed by York, 30 miles to the northwest, Beverley is home to a number of medieval buildings and sites. Beverley is also 10 miles south of where I lived in England. I visited quite often, volunteering at a charity shop, researching my thesis in the Minster … Read more Medieval Sites to Visit in Beverley England
Research has changed in the 21st century. With the internet and an ever-expanding collection of online resources, the ability to learn about events, people, and places has never been easier. These changes were obvious when I began research for my novel, The Stonemason’s Secret. With degrees in history and art history, I want to be … Read more Researching My Novel with 21st Century Technology
Thinking of participating in NaNoWriMo? Below I share my experience of doing it for the first draft of The Stonemason’s Secret. What Is NaNoWriMo? NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. The goal is for participants to write 50,000 words on their novel during the 30 days of November. That averages out to 1667 words … Read more Writing the First Draft During NaNoWriMo
The Stonemason’s Secret, my forthcoming novel, follows the adventures of art historian Sarah Walker. While doing research for her dissertation, she discovers mysterious symbols carved on several of the minstrel figures in Beverley Minster. She has to find the clues, figure out how to read them, and recover the powerful Cup of Jamshid before the … Read more Medieval Minstrel Carvings in Beverley Minster
“I’ll never write fiction,” I said. “I have no interest in writing fiction and besides, I have no ideas for stories.” This is what I told myself when I started writing two years ago. At the time I was drawn to personal essays, to telling my stories. I wrote and I wrote, pages and pages … Read more The Stonemason’s Secret – Beginning Idea
After the thrill of printing off the first draft, I took a couple of days off then began a read-through. The idea was to sit back and catch the big things – where the plot didn’t make sense, information that needed to be added in, things like that. But I kept seeing, and marking, misspelled … Read more The Stonemason’s Secret – First Revisions