On Snowballs From Heaven, Not Hell--Reb MacRath
Something remarkable happened on June 30, 2023. A first review came in for a novel I'd launched on Kindle a year before--then orphaned: no ads and no online hustling. I'd moved from Seattle to Tucson, you see, and found myself under siege on all fronts: seeking work, settling in, attending rehab for my injured knee, and working on a second book of Latin translations. As a matter of fact, Latin translations had obsessed me already for a couple of years and this new book, diabolically tricky, had come close to being the only thought in my fool head. So the novel, the fourth in my Seattle BOP mystery series, sat as an orphan in a deep digital corner. Unread and unloved. And, meanwhile, I worked obsessively on a second Latin project that maybe no one would read. After all, I'm not an established Latin expert or even a proper academic. A handful of Facebook friends read the first little book, on Propertius, and loved it. Two teachers I'd sent copies were enthusiastic and wan...