My recent return to Spain where I deepened my knowledge of the Spanish Inquisition gave me pause regarding the naming of the main character in my novel-in-progress—Isabela. After all, Isabella I of Castile joined Ferdinand of Aragon to become the infamous Catholic royals who unleashed the Inquisition in Spain at the end of the 15th century, resulting in the conversion, expulsion or execution of thousands of Jews and Muslims. This queen’s relationship to my story is therefore

Well, it’s been a while. In November of last year, I took a spectacularly stupid fall down a flight of stairs that resulted in a three-month recovery from a broken wrist and compression fractures of two vertebrae. Then, various family members got Covid, and other exigencies and routine aspects of life as we now know it prevailed. Suddenly I realized it has been four months since I last posted here, just as it’s the dawn of a research trip to Spain, Portugal, France, and Ger