My novel is finally out!

As of yesterday, February 4, 2026, I can call myself a hybrid author, with books published traditionally and now, one self-published book, Trees Long for Rain. The title comes from a Ladino love song, so old no one knows when it was composed. The best guess is it comes out of the longing Sephardic Jews felt for Spain after they were expelled in 1492. You can read the lyrics in Ladino and English and listen to my favorite version of the song here.

The novel is set in Venice in 1643. My characters are fictional, but they interact with real characters from Venice at that time: the composer Monteverdi, the painter Bernardo Strozzi (well, at least with his works), the priest-engineer Father Kirchner, Madame Europa, the first or one of the first female opera singers, and the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III. I was originally inspired by attending a recreation of the Concerto delle Donne in Venice.

The novel was originally published in 2014 with the title The Saffron Crocus, with a beautiful cover by artist Mishi Bellamy. Sadly, Bellamy was not available to remake her cover. After trying two other artists and not getting something with the feel I wanted, I worked with AI to generate a new cover.

And I revised the book. In 2014 I thought I was writing young adult, but discovered that the people who enjoyed the book the most were either in the music world or young women. I revised accordingly, made the characters a little older and altered some events. I improved the pacing (I’ve learned a lot about pacing since 2014!) and edited it a few times.

Once all that was done I had to think about how to publish and promote it. Right now it’s only on Amazon KDP, but Thrill Ride, the thriller magazine I write for regularly, is published via Draft 2 Digital, so I’m eager to expand the book’s reach by publishing with them as well. Any advice before I get deep into the weeds with that would be appreciated!

For promotion, I redid my author website completely, but instead of putting a blog on my website as I had before I started this substack, to serve as my newsletter and general rumination tank for figuring out all the ways we are connected to the past.

Now that I’ve published this one, I can do what I wanted to do from the beginning: write the two sequels. Stay tuned!