Mary asked Karen Witemeyer:

Hello Karen, I want to thank you profoundly for the stories you have given the world. I have enjoyed every story I've gotten my hands on, and I'm collecting them all. Each story has taught me so much about myself and life. How long does it take you to research the historical aspect for your stories? Things like locations, historical settings, technological aspects, and names that would fit your time period.

Karen Witemeyer Hi, Mary. Thank you for your sweet encouragement. What a blessing you are! To answer you question about historical research, I usually spend about a week or so before I start writing digging in to the research surrounding the settings and occupations of my characters. This process usually helps me refine my plot as well. Then once I start writing the story, I stop often to fact check and investigate historical details that come up during the writing process. As for naming my characters, I love using the social security website because you can search popular names dating back to 1880. It's a wonderful resource. Of course, I also love using biblical names. I often play with names and select them based on meanings about who my characters are and what themes are present in my stories. I have a section on my website under the Bonus Material tab called the Name Game where I share some of the fun I have with creating character names.

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