Sortilege

by Linda Gibson

Em, divorced and thirty-something, is drifting through life. She returns to the town where she grew up, reconnects a bit, enrolls in the local college to pass the time, and finds it odd that a long-forgotten novel by the name of Sortilege keeps turning up.

The old novel tells a gothic tale about the dashing, clueless Baron von Olmstead as he boldly sets out on a quest with a blind man as his guide. The Baron hopes to rescue his Lady who, unbeknownst to him, may no longer exist.

Enchantment. Madness. Sortilege. A novel bouncing between past and present. One is a modern story of romantic entanglements, where the word “sortilege” is defined as the fateful kind of sorcery often confused with romantic love. The other is a shadowy adventure of witches, heroics, magic spells, visions and the unforeseen.

On the cover:
detail, Castle Gondolfo, Lake Albano, Italy by Christopher Pearse Cranch, 1852
Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

377 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 1, 2023

About the author

I've had a rather long life, so far.

I've travelled when I could, which wasn’t very often, but I’ve moved around a lot, writing some, painting pictures and making little drawings for my own enjoyment.

I'm currently living in Northern California, trying my hand at a bit of alchemy, and keeping positive.