Some Exciting News!

I'm so happy to announce that I will have a new crime novel out from Minotaur Books next year. This book is very special to me as it's set on Long Island, where I was born and spent the first eighteen years of my life, and in Ireland, where I went to graduate school and spent some really happy and fruitful years that have led to my continuing interest in (really, obsession with!) Irish literature, Irish culture, and the Irish language.

There will be lots more news coming soon, but in the meantime, here are some photographs from some of my research trips to Ireland over the last couple of years. These photographs were taken in County Wicklow, where parts of The Mountains Wild are set.

Upper and Lower Lakes of Glendalough from An Spinc. An Spinc is Irish for "The Point," and it's a great hike and a great vantage point from which to view the Glendalough Valley.

Glendalough was the site of a monastic settlement, founded in the 6th century by St. Kevin, and continues to be one of the most-visited places in Ireland. I visited for the first time in the 1990s but recently I've discovered the hiking trails and mountains around Glendalough.

As a gravestone buff, I love wandering through the older and newer stones in the cemetery at Glendalough.

Since I am a shepherd, (my family and I raise Dorset cross sheep on our farm in Vermont) visiting County Wicklow is always a bit of a busman's holiday for me. I love seeing how Irish sheep farmers do things and I love visiting with sheep and sheepdogs on my trips.

This lady is probably a Border Leicester Cross, since she has the distinctive "Bunny Rabbit" ears of the Border Leicester sheep.

This was an amazing sheepdog demonstration I saw on a farm in Annamoe. (Irish Working Sheepdogs, if you're ever nearby.) This dog was a true pro and he was already training the next generation.