Happy Solstice!

The day of returning light. After the many long dark nights going deeper and darker it’s always uplifting to know that we’ll start seeing a little more light each day now. From times in the far distant past people have celebrated this day, finding hope and expectation in the light’s return.

Newgrange passage tomb, Ireland

I’ve mentioned before the ancient passage tomb of Newgrange in Ireland, a few miles north of Dublin. Some 5,000 years ago the people built this tomb with little more than stone tools, constructing it with such precision that on Solstice morning rays from the rising sun flash through a high doorway and stream down the narrow, 62-foot-long passage into an interior chamber, filling it with light. For what purpose? We do not know. They did not leave written word to tell us. But we can imagine.

In my new upcoming book set in ancient Ireland I describe the moment and offer the beliefs of my characters. It’s a major locale for multiple scenes. And when you read the story you will experience Solstice morning with them.

The etched kerbstone at Newgrange showing the doors to the passage

The above photo shows the upper door for the light and part of the lower door for people to enter. The carved lines on the threshold stone inspire the protagonist of my story in her artistic creations.

This is the book my new literary agent, Joëlle Delbourgo, has offered to represent. So I look forward with hope that it will soon see the light.

Introducing My New Agent

I’m delighted to announce that I just signed with an agent to represent me on my newest historical novel set in ancient Ireland. Her name is Joëlle Delbourgo, her agency a boutique literary agency based in the greater New York City area.

Joëlle Delbourgo

Only three days after my return from the Seattle conference I got a surprise email from Joëlle, President and Founder of Joëlle Delbourgo Associates, who I had queried a couple of months before. I had sent her ten pages of my book as she requests for all submissions. Now she wanted a full manuscript.

She has a stellar background. She founded her agency in 1999. For more than twenty years before that she was a senior editorial executive at HarperCollins and Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, so she knows both sides of the publishing world. Her list of sales is impressive.

With considerable excitement I sent her my manuscript. In less than two weeks she wrote to tell me she loved my book. She wanted to talk.

We had a wonderful conversation by phone. She knew my characters. She knew my story so well she pinpointed several specific issues that can make it stronger. And she offered to represent me. I was thrilled.

It just so happened that she had traveled to Ireland last summer for the first time so she knows the land of my characters too. I’m convinced there’s a bit of magic in those green hills.