My novel about Santorini
I've been writing a story that takes place on one of the most popular islands in the Aegean: Santorini. Santorini is perhaps the best photographed, most storied of the Greek islands. Considered to be the lost island of Atlantis, it's also a real volcanic island with a slumbering, but live, volcano at its core. I spent almost three years living there as a kid with my mother. We were fortunate to live in the villages of Kamari, Katerados, and Fira. The island is very small (about 6 miles W x 12 miles L) and I was allowed a great degree of freedom. I was familiar with countless nooks and crannies, like the switch-back goat trail in Kamari that led up to a one-room chapel next to a cave where spring water ran, or the pistachio orchard in Kamari, which I used as a big playhouse.
Fira, Santorini. We actually lived in a flat under the domed house in the middle of the photo.
I was there in the mid-80s. I know the island has changed a lot since then, so it was a lot of fun to write about the island as it is now--but also a real challenge. I did a lot of research (thank you Google Earth!) and contacted a lot of people, who were exceedingly kind in answering questions. I definitely wanted to create a novel where the reader comes away with a sense of having been on the island along with the characters, and as I wrote, I constantly asked myself whether I felt included in the story, on the island, walking the paths.
Me with my dog near our house in Kamari
Other Writing
I've contributed to a few published reference manuals, including the Learn2 Guide by Jason Roberts, which sprung from an award-winning web site, learn2.com, back in the hey dey of the tinterweb. I was lucky enough to work as managing editor of that site for a while.
I've also written a few articles for the magazine New Moon. You can read one still online here.