Elements of My Life In The Stonemason’s Secret

Elements of My Life in The Stonemason's Secret with photo of west end of Beverley Minster.

Authors often use part of their life experiences in creating their novels. What elements from my life are woven into The Stonemason’s Secret? Quite a lot! This post is an answer to the question posed for the Open Book Blog Hop – what elements from your life are woven into your latest book? All posts … Read more

Researching My Novel with 21st Century Technology

Researching my novel with 21st century technology with images of a map, a Wikipedia entry and the west end of Beverley Minster on computer screen.

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

Writing the First Draft During NaNoWriMo

Hands typing on keyboard with blank screen.

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

The Stonemason’s Secret – Beginning Idea

The Stonemason's Secret Beginning Idea with image of medieval carving of man playing drums.

“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