Legendary Somerset, England, the famed location of Avalon, the Tor of Ynis Witrin, and Glastonbury, is the location of my trilogy of historical fiction The Summer Country, which transports readers into three extraordinary eras of time spanning fifteen hundred years. As unforgettable characters grapple with universal challenges of the human heart, these classic stories weave vivid tapestries of mythology, fact and fiction. 

The Company of Avalon is a true story of famed Glastonbury Abbey, and the abbey’s secrets, during the reign of Henry VIII—a dynamic era that has enthralled filmmakers, writers, readers, and historians for decades and even centuries. My story opens in 1538 and follows the journey of Richard Whiting and his courageous companions—the stewards of impossibly rare artifacts that have been safeguarded for millennia within the abbey by an inner circle called the “Company of Avalon.” Struggling to find a way through the king’s brutal religious reform, in a race against time and the king’s gallows, Abbot Whiting defies the madman, Henry VIII, while he and his companions collude in secret to remove the treasures (including the bones of King Arthur and relics brought by Joseph of Arimathea) to a remote isle of Scotland. 

Full of danger, action and intrigue, rich characters, myth and magic, the story unfolds secrets and mysteries behind the bones, Joseph’s relics, and the veneration of Mary Magdalene, along with the grave consequences of their bold mission. The saga of the conspirators in Book One sets the stage for the prequel that follows, The Queen’s Tale, Book Two of The Summer Country series, available in September 2020. 

Rich historical detail, The Queen’s Tale takes us back a thousand years in time to the complex world of sixth century Briton and a retelling of the Arthurian legend, where Celtic traditions are still at odds with the influences of Rome and fast paced action is laced with the struggle for power, intrigue, betrayal, death and a love that transcends all barriers. As the noble sovereign of her people, Gwenhyfar finds herself caught in complex relationships with Arthur and Lancelot in a timeless story of  unforgettable characters painted in vibrant colors. Firmly established on both factual and mythical ground, The Queen’s Tale delves into magical realms and creates exciting, multilayered links between The Company of Avalon, Book One, and Book Three, When Swans Fly.

When Swans Fly, currently a work in progress, takes us further back in time to the south of France at the pivotal moment when Mariamne of Magdala (Mary Magdalen) takes refuge in southern Gaul six years after the execution of her husband, a radical mystic rabbi named Yeshua, known since his death as the Christos. After crossing the Mediterranean Sea, she comes ashore with her daughter Sarah and a group of companions including her uncle, Joseph of Arimathea, and makes way toward the mountains where they will join Yeshua’s disciple, Phillip, in exile. 

Soon after Mary goes to live in a cave high on a nearby mountain, where the goddess Artemis has been worshipped for centuries by the local Celts and Greeks, Joseph leaves for Ynis Witrin (Glastonbury) in the Summer Country of ancient Briton.  A complex mingling of worlds occurs as Joseph makes his home near the Tor and befriends Avalon, the Lady of Lake and her mysterious druid counterpart, and a heroic Celtic world preparing for inevitable war in the coming martial intrusion of the Roman Empire.