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William L. Stuart

author of The Gemstone Chronicles Series

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Wire-Wrapping – My First Attempt (Not My Last)!

January 16, 2017 by Bill Stuart Leave a Comment

Readers of my books (The Gemstone Chronicles) and this blog know I love gemstones! I try to go gemstone hunting about once per month, and my two rock tumblers run continuously turning out polished stones by the 3 lbs. barrel full . In fact, I have gotten quite a nice collection of tumbled stones (as evidenced below)!

Wire-Wrapping Tumbled Stones

So, what to do with all these gorgeous stones? I pondered the question for a short time, and then decided I would try my hand at wire-wrapping them. And, since I received a Dremel and a Dremel workstation as gifts, and had a set of diamond drill to use in the tools, I could drill holes in them, too! In addition, my lovely and adorable bride (Lana) gave me the tools from her experiment in beading a few years ago, and I had everything I needed to give wire-wrapping a shot. Here is my drilling station. The plastic container holds water (keeps the rock and drill bit cool) and a piece of rubber (so I don’t drill through the plastic). Pretty cool!

Wire-Wrapping Dremel Workstation

How did my experiment work? Well, I drilled holes in an amethyst and a piece of jasper I had tumbled and decided to give the jasper a try. Below is what the jasper looked liked after drilling.

Wire-wrapping Jasper

Now for the drilled and wrapped piece!

Wire-wrapping wrapped jasper

I like the way it turned out and I think it will make a great pendant. I still have to do the amethyst and drill more stones, but I think this will be a great way to use the tumbled stones I keep producing. Who knows? Maybe I’ll open an Etsy store in the future!

That’s my first wire-wrapping effort. I know it isn’t great, but I will keep practicing until I get better. What do you think? Is this a good use for my tumbled stones? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Do you wire-wrap? Any tricks or tips you want to share? You can let me know in a comment, email me at bill@williamlstuart.com or connect with me on the socials and tell me there. Find me on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, and Pinterest, so  look me up and say hi! I can use all the wire-wrapping help I can get!

Filed Under: Cool Things, Gemstone Posts, The Gemstone Chronicles, William L Stuart, Wire-wrapping Tagged With: adventure, Amazon, amethyst, books, Dremel, ebook, ebooks, gem mining, gems, gemstone rough, gemstones, jewelry, KDP Author, Lana, rock hunting, The Gemstone Chronicles, william l stuart, william stuart, wire-wrapping, www.lanascooking.com

Mysterious San Juan PR Light in the Sky!

March 28, 2016 by Bill Stuart 2 Comments

Light in the Sky!

I toyed with this post for a while and I couldn’t decide whether to post it or not. I didn’t want anyone thinking I had finally lost my mind, but decided to go for it! While I write fantasy adventure books (The Gemstone Chronicles), and freely admit to being fascinated by the possibilities of life on other planets, I don’t believe in UFOs or little green men from Mars. Moreover, I’ve never thought I had been abducted by aliens, and I can’t say I’ve ever had a close encounter of any kind.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, on a recent visit to Puerto Rico, I was out on my hotel room balcony talking to the lovely and adorable Lana, and I noticed a light in the sky out over the ocean and high up in the sky. I thought it was an airplane coming into the airport (my hotel wasn’t far from there) and I didn’t pay much attention at first. But then, the light started moving erratically. I jokingly told Lana that if I didn’t come home the next day, then maybe I was abducted by a spaceship…

Light UFO Icon

Well, I didn’t get abducted (or did I and the aliens made me forget??), but I took some video of the light that I saw. I apologize for the quality, but the light was quite a distance away. The motion you see in the video isn’t from me moving around, it is the light.

The video:

https://youtu.be/N7REBBQAvcc&rel=0

I honestly can’t say what I videoed. I showed this clip to a friend of mine who is a pilot and his take was that it wasn’t an airplane, but, beyond that, he couldn’t say.

So, what do you think? Is it a plane? A UFO? Maybe a reflection from San Juan lights? How about a weather balloon or something like that? I don’t know, but I thought it was pretty cool! And, to quote a famous TV show, the truth is out there!

Connect with me:

Leave me a comment with what you think the light might be. I would love to know your thoughts! You can also connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads, or you can send me an email at bill@williamlstuart.com. If you don’t want to miss a post, subscribe to the blog!

Filed Under: author, Comspiracy Theories, Cool Things, Lana, William L Stuart Tagged With: adventure, aliens, Amazon, author, books, cool things, ebook, ebooks, fantasy, fantasy adventure, fiction, Google +, lights, mysterious, Puerto Rico, San Juan, spaceships, The Gemstone Chronicles, UFO, william l stuart, william stuart, www.lanascooking.com

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Happy 2016!!

December 22, 2015 by Bill Stuart Leave a Comment

Happy Holidays! I was in my living room last night, helping Aidan and Maggie (yep, the same two whose namesakes grace the pages of The Gemstone Chronicles series) decorate their Christmas tree (we have 2 – one that is the front window of our house where we place most of the presents and a second one we call the kid’s tree). We put many of our favorite ornaments on the kid’s tree, and it always spurs moments of recollection of when we got the ornaments, why they are special, and then we have to find just the right spot for the ornament to hang. It made me want to share some of our holidays with you, my readers and friends! Without further ado, then, here are some holiday images to share!

First, here is our house, well-lit for Christmas! This year, our relatively new boxwood shrubs are finally large enough to light.

Happy Holidays 2015-Christmas-Lights-Web

I really like our front door, too. Our snowman with his red hat and scarf are a great addition to the decorations!

Happy Holidays Christmas-2015-Front-Door

As I mentioned above, we have 2 trees. This is the tree at the front of the that house shines with the rest of the lighted decor to lend our house a festive glow!

Happy Holidays Christmas-2015-Tree

The kid’s tree is beautifully decorated, too. Some of my favorite decorations on this tree are the Noah’s Ark ornaments.

Happy Holidays 2015-Kid's-Tree-Web

Here are my favorite Noah’s Ark ornaments!

Happy Holidays 2015-Noah's-Ark-1

Happy Holidays 2015-Noah's-Ark-2

Happy Holidays 2015-Noah's-Ark-3

To go along with the season, I want to thank all of you readers out there for visiting my blog, leaving me comments, and reading and reviewing my books. You have no idea how much your comments, connections, and feedback mean to me. Thank you all!!

Connect with me:

If you want to connect with me, I can be found on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads. You can always just drop me an email at bill@williamlstuart.com, too!

Have yourselves a safe and happy holidays and best wishes for a fantastic 2016!

Merry Christmas!!

Filed Under: Cool Things, Holidays Tagged With: 2015, author, book, books, Christmas, Christmas Lights, decorations, ebook, ebooks, fantasy, fantasy adventure, fiction, gemstones, Georgia, Good Reads author, Hqappy New Year, Lana, magic, Merry Christmas, middle grades, Noah, Noah's Ark, self publishing, Smashwords, The Amethyst, The Carnelian, The Emerald, The Gemstone Chronicles, The Ruby, william l stuart, william stuart, writer, www.lanascooking.com, young adult

Thanksgiving 2015 – What a Great Year It’s Been!!

November 23, 2015 by Bill Stuart 2 Comments

Happy Thanksgiving 2015 from The Gemstone Chronicles!! It’s hard to believe another year has almost passed, but it has! Like many people, I like to take a little time to reflect back on the year and list out wonderful things that happened (in no particular order), milestones and accomplishments, give thanks for all I have, and look forward to what the upcoming year might bring. If you readers will indulge me, here we go!

Atlanta Writers Club:

The Atlanta Writers Club is the first writers club I have ever joined. The lovely and adorable Lana presented me with a membership as a Christmas present last year and I was so excited to receive it! And, I have learned much more than I ever expected from attending the monthly meetings. I want to increase my interactions with the other members as I move forward in 2016, and learn even more!

Augusta Literary Festival:

The Augusta Literary Festival was my first (and hopefully not my last) visit to Augusta. The Augusta Public Library holds the festival annually. The festival is the home to the Yerby Award and was a lot of fun to attend. I met a number of great people, was a panelist for a discussion about self-publishing, sold a few books, and generally had a great time. The 2016 Augusta Literary Festival is scheduled for Saturday, March 5, so make your plans to attend and discover new books for your own reading pleasure! Below is the picture of Lana and me at the 2015 event!

Thanksgiving 2015 Augusta Literary Festival Lana and Bill

BRAG Medallion:

In April, I submitted The Gemstone Chronicles Book One: The Carnelian to IndieBRAG for consideration for a BRAG medallion. After about a 5 month wait, I was happily surprised to learn the book had been awarded the BRAG medallion! What an exciting day for me and my books! According to the BRAG medallion website, only about 10% of the books submitted are awarded the medallion, which puts The Carnelian in excellent company!

Thanksgiving 2015 THE-GEMSTONE-CHRONICLES-BRAG-for-Web

Oconee Chamber Fall Festival:

I was lucky to be included in the Oconee Chamber Fall Festival in Watkinsville, GA in October. The festival is a wonderful arts and crafts event held in a beautiful small town not far from Athens, GA. In case you don’t know, that is the home of my favorite team, the Georgia Bulldogs. The weather for the event was spectacular, the venue perfect for the festival, and the festival attendees were great. Books sold quite well, and I met tons of new people. A return for the Fall 2016 event is likely.

Ambercrest Little Free Library:

I saw a post on Facebook one day about the Ambercrest Little Free Library. After a little research, I liked the concept of the little free library. I contacted the man who got it started in the Ambercrest subdivision (which is near my house) and donated a couple of my books. As a lifelong reader, I hope to help spread the love of reading to a new generation. If you look closely at the picture, you will see one of my book marks and, on the lower shelf of the library, The Gemstone Chronicles Book Two: The Amethyst!

Thanksgiving 2015 Ambercrest-Little-Free-Library-Web

Wilmington NC:

Lana and I took a weekend trip to Wilmington, NC. We had the opportunity to wander through the city, take a boat tour up the Cape Fear River, and visited the USS North Carolina (BB-55), a World War II battleship. For a submarine sailor, visiting the ship was an interesting experience. I was impressed by the amount of space (something at a premium on a boat), and the 16 inch guns were awesome!

Thanksgiving 2015 USS North Carolina (BB-55)

Maggie’s Fort:

We didn’t take our usual spring or summer trip with Aidan and Maggie this year as Lana had back surgery. That didn’t stop me from building Maggie’s fort, though. Maggie wanted me to transform her play set in the backyard, so I did. What do you think of the finished product?

Thanksgiving 2015 Maggie's Fort Finished

There are so many more things for which I am thankful and there were some tough spots, too. Lana’s back surgery has been a resounding success and, for that, I am forever thankful to the wonderful doctors and staff of Emory Healthcare. Lana’s grandmother (yes, we have 5 generations alive on Lana’s side of the family), Polly,  turned 100 this past April. What a blessing!

On a sad note, though, Lana’s Uncle Bud passed away as did her Aunt Virginia. Both were great influences in Lana’s life and we miss them every day.

There are so many other things I could discuss, like my continuing education in the ways of book marketing, the growth in my social media connections, or my WIP (an adult thriller). However, I won’t take up any more of your time for now. After all, there are turkeys to eat, presents to buy, and family and friends to enjoy! Do take some time, though, to be thankful for all that you have and for the family and friends who surround you. I know I’m truly blessed by Lana, Laura, Mike, Aidan, Maggie, and the rest of my family and friends too numerous to name here!

I also want thank all of the readers who have purchased the books this past year, those who have left reviews, and to my future readers, too! You have no idea how much it means to me when someone reads the books and leaves reviews or comments! Thank you!!!

Connect with me:

If you want to connect with me on social media, I can be found on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads, or you can email me at bill@williamlstuart.com. If you don’t want to miss a post, you can also subscribe to the blog! Drop me a note and let me know what you are thankful for this year!

Happy Thanksgiving 2015!!

Filed Under: Book Posts, Lana, Self publishing, Wilmington Tagged With: adventure, Amazon, amazon book, amethyst, Augusta Literary Festival, author, books, BRAG medallion, ebook, ebooks, fantasy, fantasy adventure, fiction, Georgia, Good Reads author, IndieBRAG, KDP, Lana, magic, middle grade, middle grades, Oconee Fall Festival, Smashwords, The Amethyst, The Carnelian, The Gemstone Chronicles, USS North Carolina, william l stuart, william stuart, Wilmington, www.lanascooking.com, young adult

Wilmington NC – A Great Weekend Trip!!

October 8, 2015 by Bill Stuart Leave a Comment

I haven’t done a travel post in a while as we have been uncharacteristically staying at home this year. While it has been a good time for learning about marketing The Gemstone Chronicles, Lana and I miss seeing new places. Part of that was due to the lovely and adorable Lana having back surgery, but she is on the mend and we decided to make a recent weekend trip to Wilmington, NC. Why Wilmington? I visited the city for a business trip and thought it was a place Lana would enjoy, so when the opportunity arose for the visit, we took it!

Wilmington Welcome Sign

Now for a little history about Wilmington. Native Americans long inhabited the area. English colonists began to settle the area in the 1720s. Originally called New Carthage, then New Liverpool, and finally, around 1739 or 1740, Wilmington was incorporated. Below is a picture of the oldest home in Wilmington.

Wilmington Oldest House

Naval stores and lumber formed much of Wilmington’s economy. Naval stores were resin-based products used in building and maintaining wooden ships. Much of the labor in Wilmington’s early history came from indentured servants (poor immigrants who had to work for a prescribed number of years to gain their freedom in the colonies). As the indentured servants gained their freedom, African slave labor replaced their labor. By the late 1760s, the slave population accounted for over 60% of the Wilmington area population.

Wilmington and Wars:

Wilmington was a hotbed of resistance as the colonies moved toward the American Revolution and they even had their own version of the Sons of Liberty! Many important protests occurred in Wilmington:

  • In 1764, Parliament passed the Sugar Act and Wilmington resident Cornelius Harnett rallied opposition to the Act
  • In 1765, Parliament passed the Stamp Act and, in Feb 1766, two ships without stamped papers were seized by the British. Up to 1000 men, lead by Cornelius Harnett confronted William Tryon, the Governor, about the ships. Tryon refused to release the ships, so the men seized the ships and forced the customs officers and public officials to swear never to issue stamped paper. Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in 1766.

During the American Civil War, Wilmington was a major port and a busy base for the Confederacy and the private blockade runners, who brought badly needed supplies from England. Union forces captured the city in February 1865, but the majority of the battles of the war took place some distance from the Wilmington. Many of its Antebellum period structures survived.

I could go on about the history of the area, but I want to talk about our stay. If you want more Wilmington history, there are tons of articles about it and I encourage you to read about it. Fascinating stuff! Anyway, we stayed just a few miles from the historic downtown area of Wilmington and took full advantage of the location. We had dinner at The Oceania, a nice moderately priced restaurant at Wrightsville Beach. We started out eating outside on the deck, but it was raining and windy, so we moved inside and watched the wild surf through the windows. Nice way to spend some time enjoying the food, and the company!

Cape Fear River:

Saturday, the weather was warmer, the sun was out, and we took a boat tour of the Cape Fear River. I learned some cool stuff about the river. It is a tidal river and the rise and fall of the tides can change the river depth by 5 feet! You can also tell where the salt begins to be replaced with fresher water because the cypress trees aren’t dead. Until that point, there are tons of dead cypress trees along the river’s edge. The locals call them “ghost trees” because of their pale color. Here are some shots from our river trip:

Wilmington Ghost Trees
Ghost Trees

Wilmington Ghost Trees 2
Ghost Trees

The Cape Fear River has dark water, too. This is due to the tannins that leach out of the cypress trees. Wilmington water has to be filtered to remove the tannins. Below is a shot of the water churned up by the boat. Note the dark brown color.

Wilmington Cape Fear River
Cape Fear Brown Water

One of the highlights of the river cruise was seeing the osprey nests. While we didn’t see any of the birds, the nest were huge!

Wilmington Cape Fear Osprey Nest
Osprey Nest

Food:

After the boat tour, we had brunch at The George on the Riverwalk. Beautiful place and the food was great! The restaurant is right on the water, and the views of the boats on the water and the river itself made for great atmosphere.

We also took a horse-drawn carriage tour of the downtown area. It was enjoyable (though not as much as the tours of Charleston), and the really cool part was that all of the horses used for the tour are rescue horses from Amish country.

We visited a shop that made candy and watched them for a while. We managed to get out of there without buying any of the sweets, but it was tough to do it! Everything looked and smelled amazing! Check out these sweets!!

Sweets 3

Sweets 2

USS North Carolina (BB-55):

We also visited the USS North Carolina (BB-55) while in Wilmington. I did a separate post on the battleship, but here are a couple of pictures taken during our river trip. Impressive, don’t you think?

USS NC
USS North Carolina (BB-55)

USS NC
USS North Carolina (BB-55)

There you have a quick overview of our visit to Wilmington, NC. Beautiful weather, good food, interesting sites, and the best traveling companion in the world made this one delightful weekend getaway. I’m sure there will be a return trip in the not too distant future!

Have you visited Wilmington? If you have, what was your favorite memory? If not, consider it, but leave me a comment and let me know where your favorite spot is. After all, now that Lana is retired, we need to start planning some travel!

Connect with me:

Connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, or email me at bill@williamlstuart.com. If you don’t want to miss a post, please subscribe to the blog. I look forward to connecting!

Filed Under: author, Book Posts, Cool Things, The Gemstone Chronicles, William L Stuart, Wilmington Tagged With: adventure, Amazon, amazon book, American revolution, author, battleship, books, Cape Fear River, cypress, ebook, ebooks, fantasy, fiction, ghost trees, middle grades, self-publishing, Sons of Liberty, The Carnelian, The Gemstone Chronicles, The George, USS North Carolina, william l stuart, william stuart, Wilmington, Wilmington NC, www.lanascooking.com, young adult

Nana’s Cooking – The Real Deal (with a Slight Southern Accent)!!

August 30, 2015 by Bill Stuart 1 Comment

Readers of The Gemstone Chronicles fantasy adventure series know that, in the books, Nana has a food blog successful enough to allow her and Beebop to retire early and purchase their mountainside home, and swings a mean frying pan! Today, though, I want to focus on the real Nana (my lovely and adorable bride Lana), Nana’s cooking, and her real life food blog!

How Nan’s blog began:

Lana started her blog on Super Bowl Sunday 2009. Neither of us were interested in the game (it was the Pittsburgh Steelers vs. the Arizona Cardinals, in case you were wondering – and Pittsburgh won), so she decided to start a food blog. Her career as a webmaster made it easier for her to start and she built her website from scratch. From its humble beginnings as a hobby, it has grown to be a significant presence in the food blogosphere!

What can you expect to find at www.lanascooking.com? As of today, there are more than 600 recipes with a Southern accent, nice food photography, and step by step directions on how to prepare the delicious dishes featured on the blog. Lana likes to make traditional Southern recipes. She adds her own little twist on them. She designed the site in an easily navigable manner that makes finding just the right recipe a snap! Below are a couple of examples.

The food:

Have you ever heard of Pecan Cheesecake Pie? I can tell you (as chief taste tester I have to sample each dish) that it is fantastic! Here’s a picture:

Nana's Cooking pecan-cheesecake-pie-final-5001

I do believe Lana channels someone’s Italian grandmother. She makes some pretty amazing Italian dishes. This was one of her recent meals and let me tell you, it was simply delicious!

Nana's Cooking Jumbo Meatballs

Lana dotes on her family, too, especially her two amazing grandchildren. As readers of my blog and my book series The Gemstone Chronicles know, Aidan and Maggie are the inspiration for two of the main characters (and Lana inspired a 3rd character, too). On her blog you will find posts about them, a couple about me, and a few other topics that she enjoys.

I could go on and on about Lana, how her blog inspired me to take a chance on publishing my books, Nana’s cooking, and the many other things about her that I adore. It will be better for you all to just visit the site. Try a few recipes, read though the blog, and discover what a great site it truly is! Oh, and let her know how much you enjoy her recipes!

Connect with me:

If you want to leave me a comment about Lana’s blog, please do. If you want to connect with me on social media, I can be found on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads, or just email me at bill@williamlstuart.com.

Lana’s connect information is on her site. Be sure to leave a comment or connect with her when you visit.

Filed Under: Cool Things, Food Blog, Lana Tagged With: adventure, Amazon, amazon book, author, books, cheesecake, cooking, ebook, ebooks, elves, fantasy, fantasy adventure, fiction, food blog, foodie, gemstones, Georgia, Lana, magic, meatballs, middle grades, Nana, Nana's cooking, north Georgia mountains, pecan, pecan-cheesecake pie, pie, recipes, Smashwords, spaghetti, The Carnelian, The Gemstone Chronicles, www.lanascooking.com

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