56 • The Beacon October 1 , 2020
Charm Days
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HR Mason wins award for gothic suspense novel
By Tara Gracyk
HR Mason was born and raised in Coshocton County , a 1994 graduate of Ridgewood High School . As a child she loved reading so much that when her mom grounded her , she grounded her from reading . Her love of reading developed into a love of writing as a teenager . During her junior high and high school years , she spent her time writing poems , stories , song lyrics and essays . Then with no experience whatsoever , she was hired as a writer for The Coshocton County
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Advertiser right out of high school .
“ Working for the newspaper was my first taste of seeing my words in print , and I knew I wanted more ,” Mason said .
Mason worked for The Advertiser for a couple years until she started her family . As a stay-at-home mother of three , she found it difficult to form sentences some days , let alone think about writing . However , in 2015 , once her children were older , she told her husband she was going to write a book .
“ He probably thought I was crazy , and looking back , I think I must have been . But I felt something tugging at me . It was the part of me that remembered the dream I ’ d always had ,” Mason said as she remembered how as a little girl she wanted to be a writer .
Not knowing if she could do it or not , she set out to prove to herself she had what it took to create and complete an entire book .
Mason began writing her first novel in February 2015 , and by June 2015 , she had finished it and was searching for a publisher . According to Mason , she sent her manuscript to several publishers expecting to be rejected by each and every one of them , but to her surprise , she received a contract instead of rejection . Thus began her career as a romance novelist under the pen name , Heidi Renee Mason .
With six romance novels published , Mason had established herself as a romance writer before she began working on a novel in a completely different genre .
“ One day about three years ago , I was looking online , and I came across a story about a house in Warsaw that is referred to as Murder Ridge . I was surprised because I had grown up in the area and had never heard about it before . I started researching and reading about it , and I kind of became obsessed with the house itself . I began to wonder what it might be like to inherit a house in a small town where you ’ d never been — a house that no one wants for a very good reason ,” Mason said .
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Once the main character popped into her head and a back story developed , Mason said the story took off and basically took on a life of its own . “ Generally , in publishing , once a writer is established in a certain genre , it is difficult to go in another direction . I really felt like I had to write the book , though ,” she said .
Mason shared how she thought about writing the book for two years before she finally sat down and wrote it , established the second pen
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