Recently, I led a one-night course on crafting fiction based on actual events. While I don’t claim to be an expert on the subject, my research for A Letter in the Wall spanned several decades and was made up of bits and pieces of truth mixed in with a ton of speculation. It required me to continually decide how much I wanted to include what I knew about the individual whose letter inspired my story.

I recently resumed a daily practice of writing “morning pages”, the exercise suggested and elucidated by Julie Cameron in her 1992 book The Artist’s Way. A year or two before I hunkered down to write what would become A Letter in the Wall, someone told me about Cameron’s inspirational course/workbook/guide, and it definitely was instrumental in helping me form the habits which would lead to my starting, and completing, my first novel.

I was recently interviewed by the illustrious Hank Phillippi Ryan, the USA Today bestselling author of thirteen suspense novels, winner of five Agatha awards and one Mary Higgins Clark award. She is also an on-air investigative reporter for Boston’s WHDH-TV, with 37 EMMYs and dozens more journalism honors. It was a thrilling and entirely new experience for this novice author.