During the past few weeks, I have been deeply involved in finishing my novel, The Foot of the Lion. I am in the midst of wrapping up the last chapter. Here’s an exclusive preview:
The Foot of the Lion is a fictional story about a man who returns to his father’s house to die. He is attended to by a fifteen year old girl servant who washes and oils his feet as he tells her stories. Without his knowledge or approval, she goes to his father’s library and rewrites the stories, adding her point of view. In the end, her benefactor dies, leaving his father’s house and fortune to the servant girl and their daughter. The central relationship and main thread of the novel is between the benefactor and his cousin - all told in story form to the servant girl. His cousin whom he refers to as “his beloved”, had died suddenly and mysteriously in a swimming accident at the age of seventeen. The benefactor mourns that death and hopes for a reunion with his cousin in the afterlife. The young girl hopes with him and wishes him peace and joy on his path into Paradise.
My editor in England is current with my work and is encouraging. I also am scheduled to attend the Tin House Writer’s Workshop in July and the Tomales Bay Workshop in October in order to network with agents and other writers and plan to receive guidance from Luis Urrea, 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist for nonfiction and member of the Latino Literature Hall of Fame, and Dorothy Allison, 2007 Robert Penn Warren Award Winner for Fiction and member of the board of the Fellowship of Southern Writers.
Information about the publication and availability of advanced readers copies will be forthcoming.
This, along with poetry, keep me content and inspired.
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