I retired early from a successful public service career to live and travel in central Mexico, where I was lucky enough to research and write seven cover stories for El Ojo del Lago, Mexico’s most widely read English-language magazine, along with a dozen and a half e-zine articles. This success gave me the confidence to consider taking on longer works, like writing novels.
Two trips to Spain, and research into the country’s past, inspired a series of novels set in 10th Century Islamic Spain during a little known time in history when Muslims, Jews, and Christians created a harmonious society based upon religious tolerance.
Research led me to discover the Umayyad Caliphate, the most advanced society in Europe during the 10th century. Maria Rosa Menocal’s nonfiction book, The Ornament of the World, introduced me to Hasdai Shaprut, Jewish Grand Vizier and Foreign Minister of Andalusia as well as personal physician to Caliph Abd al-Rahman III.
I took a break between the second and third novels of The Andalusian Trilogy to research and write a standalone dystopian novel, The Sperm King. I took the scientific evidence presented in Shanna H. Swan’s nonfiction book, Countdown, which suggests that infertility may imperil the future of the human race, and combined it with the potential disastrous effects of global warming to imagine a future dysfunctional world.
Another interest of mine is organic gardening. I draw strength and sustenance from nature, and the physicality is a good balance to time spent doing research and writing.
I also play around with the guitar and write songs (in a variety of styles). The songs are little stories that I hear along with their melodies. A collaboration with Serbian vocalist Jovana can be heard free at Soundcloud.com using the playlist title Jovana’s Mix.
Author Biography
I retired early from a successful public service career to live and travel in central Mexico, where I was lucky enough to research and write seven cover stories for El Ojo del Lago, Mexico’s most widely read English-language magazine, along with a dozen and a half e-zine articles. This success gave me the confidence to consider taking on longer works, like writing novels.
Two trips to Spain, and research into the country’s...
Translator Solomon Levy's deepest desire is to write poetry full time. He's forced to put his dreams on hold when the unexpected murder of the Caliph's nephew, Umar abd-Rahman, threatens the future of Andalusia and the Umayyad Caliphate.
Solomon's cousin Hasdai Shaprut, Foreign Minister and personal physician to the Caliph, presses him into...
The arm bone of the prophet Muhammad is stolen from the Great Mosque of Cordoba. Solomon Levy, an amateur sleuth renowned for finding missing objects and persons, is asked to recover the relics and return them to their former resting place in the treasury of the mosque. Foreign Minister Shaprut possesses two important clues. As a...
Hasdai Shaprut, esteemed counselor and Grand Vizier of the Umayyad Caliphate, has vanished. The disappearance the Kingdom of Córdoba’s highest ranking Jew, who also serves as Foreign Minister, threatens the future of 10th century Europe’s most enlightened culture.
Caliph Abd- al-Rahman III enlists the help of investigator Solomon Levy who must...
