Update: From Mountains of Ice

My latest novel, From Mountains of Ice, is now out for comment from a few trusted colleagues whose opinions I value. This is the first new novel I’ve written since the early ’90s, and one about which I’m very excited.

I suppose it was a rediscovery of my own roots that led me to set the novel loosely in an Italian Renaissance world, although there are definite ancient Roman and Byzantine influences there as well.

Along the way I discovered the cucullati, which are iconographic hooded figures, found throughout the Celtic provinces of ancient Rome. There are some academics who feel the cucullati were fertility figures because some appear with what appear to be a large egg in their hands, while some other very few cucullati reveal enormous phalli. Other academics feel the cucullati were not unlike the boatman at the River Styx, in that they assisted the dying to death. It is this latter interpretation I adopt for From Mountains of Ice, and in doing so have also liberally pilfered from other mourning and death rituals of the ancient world.

The story itself is about Sylvio di Danuto, a middle-aged man who has worked hard all his life to lead a life of integrity, to serve the crowned prince of his country, and who, through no fault of his own, finds himself banished from court, stripped of title, lands and office. What follows is a story of betrayal, subterfuge, and discovery. I hope it will make you weep. I hope it will lift your spirits.

I’m hoping to have comment returned by the close of June, will set to a revision over the summer, and may have the novel ready for release by the close of September for launch at Word on the Street.

Stay tuned for updates!