Start the Year with a Cover Reveal!

Presenting a new cover to the reading public is like sending a baby announcement!

It takes me nine months to write a fictional story unless research is required. Then it can take longer, like in the case of Stolen Diary.

For most of my stories, ideas simply come to me. Ideas can come while I’m fully conscious or they can reveal themselves in my dreams. Once an idea captures my imagination, I do research and start writing.

Jasmin, the young protagonist in Stolen Diary, first came to me while I was enjoying lunch at a graceful old hotel in Budapest. Classical music wafted through the lobby and restaurant. When I looked for the source of the music I saw a solitary, gray-haired gentleman playing a grand piano in the lobby.

Given that one moment of reality, fiction took over. The image of a young girl playing the piano with her grandfather came to me, which was unusual since there were no children in the restaurant or lobby. The image kept recurring for several months and that’s when I knew Jasmin’s story needed to be told. You would think that Stolen Diary would be set in Budapest, yet when I started writing, the story kept taking me back to North America – to Mexico, the US, and Canada. The closest the story gets to the image of the Budapest hotel is a scene set in the Prince of Wales Hotel in Niagara-on-Lake in Canada.

The storyline of this coming-of-age novel:

• Jasmin is gifted, but her inability to relate to others creates enormous challenges between her and her mother, so Jasmin escapes into a world of music and science. Her grandfather, who encourages her genius, becomes her closest friend and ally.

• Stolen Diary contains family secrets and Jasmin feels compelled to uncover them. She steals her mother’s diary thinking it will reveal the secrets she suspects keep her mother emotionally distant.
• When the diary fails to reveal its secrets, Jasmin hides it, bringing unforeseen and fateful consequences.

Jasmin’s story represents, in fictional form, a few of the struggles gifted yet socially awkward children encounter in the real world. That’s why I wrote this novel.

About Kathryn

Kathryn Lane is the award-winning author of the Nikki Garcia Mystery Series.

In her writing, she draws deeply from her experiences growing up in a small town in northern Mexico as well as her work and travel in over ninety countries around the globe during her career in international finance with Johnson & Johnson.

Kathryn loves the Arts and is a board member of the Montgomery County Literary Arts Council. Kathryn and her husband, Bob Hurt, split their time between Texas and the mountains of northern New Mexico where she finds it inspiring to write.

Photo Credits:

Stolen Diary cover by Tim Barber

Astronaut robot – “File: Experiment for studying how robots can help children learn – Shall We Play a Game? – Honda Research Institute, 2009-01-12 19.09.17 (by Steve Jurvetson).jpg” by Steve Jurvetson from Menlo Park, USA is licensed under CC BY 2.0.