Victoria Helen Stone

My Own Half Past

When I started thinking of my second Victoria Helen Stone book, I knew I wanted to write a family mystery, a story of secrets. I just didn’t know what the secret should be. I puzzled it over for a couple of weeks, and then I had a strange dream: I dreamed that...

Solitude in Big Sur: Research for Half Past

Half Past takes place in two main locations: a small town in rural Iowa and the coast of Big Sur. I didn’t have to do any research on the first location. My family is from a tiny farming community in southern Minnesota. I only had to look up a couple of details to get...

The Rarest of Birds: a domestic post!

I’m not the most domestically inclined person, but I can cook a few things, and sometimes I actually do. Every five to ten years, I mention this on Twitter and someone asks for the recipe of the thing I cooked. The thing is always in a crockpot. I’m...