Thanks to the Witch of Babylon, I finished my novel

In the early 1980s, I came up with the basic plot for a heroine's journey novel called SARABANDE. Today, I finally sent the manuscript to my publisher.

I avoided writing the novel for almost 30 years because it took me that long to feel confident enough to write a novel told from the viewpoint of a female protagonist. Heroine's journeys, also called lunar journeys, are dark. SARABANDE has some dark scenes that were painful for me to write.

As I finished up my editing and rewriting--much of which focused on those scenes in chapters three and seven-- The Witch of Babylon arrived on my doorstep from Penguin. Written by D. J. McIntosh, the book is billed as the first in the "Mesopotamian Trilogy."

Those of you who have enjoyed the "ancient secrets" books by Dan Brown, Katherine Neville, and Raymond Khoury will love this book. I am enjoying the book because it's (as they say) a page-turner. It's also what I needed while editing SARABANDE.

Why? Because it diverted my attention from those painful scenes. I really did need to come up for air, take a break, smell the roses and zone out. "The Witch of Babylon" was the strong and addictive medicine I needed.

This morning, with the witch's help, SARABANDE is now sitting at Vanilla Heart Publishing waiting for my trusty editor to go through it and my wonderful publisher to turn it into a book.

Meanwhile, I'm enjoying the closing chapters of "The Witch of Babylon."

--Malcolm