Stonehenge & Surprising Revelations about Three Famous Authors - October 2026
Updated: 2 hours ago
IN THIS POST
Stonehenge
Three Famous Authors
Tribute to Our Beloved Kitty
Writer’s Corner - introducing Kellie M. Parker
Stonehenge
We recently took a trip to the British Isles. One of the sites we visited was Stonehenge, the most famous of the stone circles that dominate the landscape. Stonehenge was built over 4000 years ago. It famously tracks the rising of the sun at the summer and winter solstice, a nineteen-year cycle of the moon, and the largest stone in the circle, the altar stone, came from 465 miles (750 km) away. The voice of someone standing at the exact center of Stonehenge is amplified. Yet, if you stand outside the circle their voice is inaudible. Besides Stonehenge, we enjoyed hearing firsthand about three famous authors.
Jane Austin
Jane Austin, a believer famous for novels like “Pride and Prejudice,” “Sense and Sensibility,” “Emma,” and others, lived in Bath, England for five years between 1801 – 1806. Bath, named after the Roman baths built there, was the party town for London’s elite during the Victorian Era. One of the buildings on the square, the Pump Room, was even built with overlarge windows to ‘see and be seen.’
Not surprisingly, Bath loves Jane Austin. Adores her!
Every conceivable souvenir you can imagine with Austin’s picture on it is available in Bath. Besides her novels, you can purchase Christmas ornaments in the likeness of characters from her books, jewelry, gloves, purses, cushions, even a guide on how to make cocktails to enjoy while reading her novels.
All of this is quite humorous because according to our guide, Jane Austin hated Bath. Loathed the town!
Her father, a pastor, retired and abruptly moved the family to Bath. This forced Jane to leave her beloved childhood home in the country. Jane found Bath noisy, pompous, and superficial. Not surprisingly, she did not complete a single novel while living there. I’m so glad she moved and went back to writing!
Robert Burns
A resident of Edinburgh, Scotland, and also a preachers kid, Robert Burns is most famous for writing the lyrics to “Auld Lang Syne” in 1788, the love song, “A Red, Red Rose” in 1794, and many other lyrics and poems. The public saw Burns as a “romantic.”
Although Robert Burns was supposed to be a believer, his extra-marital lifestyle would argue otherwise. The first thing two of our guides told us about Burns was he was a misogynist. My understanding of the word didn’t go beyond, that sounds really bad.
I discovered the word means a deep-seated dislike or hostility towards the female gender. Which seems a bit odd for someone considered a romantic. Further, Burns supposedly fathered thirteen children with five different women even though he remained married until his death. Seems he liked women just fine, but only on certain terms. Sad.
Diana Gabaldon
Diana Gabaldon is famous for her best-selling “Outlander” novels.
SPICE ALERT – these novels contain graphic violence and sexual assault.
I watched a few episodes of the television series and turned it off, finding it too violent to be entertaining. Surprising -- because the series toned down the violence, assault, and torture which was supposed to be accurate for Scotland in the 1700s. Currently there are nine novels with a tenth in the works. The first appeared in 1991. In 2014 they were adapted into a hit television series.
When Gabaldon started writing the first novel her female character, Clare kept making snarky remarks like a modern woman instead of someone from the 1700s. To solve the problem, Gabaldon kept Clare’s sharp tongue and decided to figure out how she time-traveled to 1743 later. That gave birth to the novel’s time-travel element.
Even though Gabaldon lives in sweltering hot Scottsdale, Arizona, she accurately wrote about the Scottish countryside before ever visiting the country. When she did travel to Scotland, she discovered one of the many stone circles that dot the British Isles outside the town of Inverness. The "time-travel stone" became the perfect place for that get-a-way in time. Of course, Inverness is brimming with “Outlander” souvenirs.
Beloved Sloane Kitty
We adopted a three-month-old stray fluffball eighteen years ago. Often referred to as Her Furriness, she never took her claws out, even in play.
We named her Sloane, Irish for “little raider,” because she’d run along the back of the couch and grab our older dog’s wagging tail, much to the poor creature's chagrin. We had to put her down last month. There will never be another kitty as sweet a companion as Sloane.
Writer’s Corner
Kellie M. Parker
I met Kellie at the Realmakers Writers Conference last year. We sat next to each other in one of the first seminars, found out we had a lot in common and quickly became friends. A divine appointment? I think so!
Kellie has won numerous awards for her “no spice” fantasy and thrillers, including the coveted, Carol Award. We both write from the same perspective, hoping our stories will impact someone’s life for the better. Although, how Kellie finds time to write with four kids is beyond me.
Sign up for Kellie’s newsletter at kelliemparker.com and receive a link to her novella, “Beneath the Drowning Tide.” It’s a slow burn romance involving two sisters trapped in a sunken cathedral by a sea god's curse. I enjoyed it immensely.
Don’t forget to check out her novel, “Thin Air,” a high stakes YA thriller. On a flight to Paris, teenagers begin mysteriously dying.
“Choice of Alliance”
I'm working on getting the second novel in the “Gates of Telendra” series through another edit and off to Jill Wilson, a gifted developmental editor. This installment follows Jael, a spy who can't keep her mouth shut, working for an enemy general. The hope is to publish the second novel next summer.
In the meantime, check out Keely’s story in “Choice of Alliance” available on Amazon https://cynthiazagergodwin.s.gy/Amazon_ChoiceofAlliance
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