The Maeve Chronicles

THE MAEVE CHRONICLES

Why does Mary Magdalen make only a brief, dramatic appearance in the Gospels and then vanish? Maybe the world simply hasn’t been ready to hear what she has to say—until now. Meet Maeve, the feisty Celtic Mary Magdalen. Speaking directly to her 21^st century audience, she tells her story with wit and humor, wisdom and passion. And it is her story. No one’s disciple, she is lover, bard, priestess, and healer. And like her beloved Jesus, Maeve incarnates the divine redemptive mystery of love.

The Maeve Chronicles recount the life adventures of this refreshingly unconventional Magdalen. Each novel is designed to stand alone, and the series can be read (and re-read!) in any sequence. Think of The Maeve Chronicles as narrative Celtic knotwork: the stories spiraling out and spiraling in, each one whole, each one leading to the others.

The Passion of Mary Magdalen

This central novel of The Maeve Chronicles follows the intrepid heroine’s perilous journey through slavery and prostitution in Rome to founding her own holy whorehouse in the good-time town of Magdala on the Sea of Galilee. Throughout her trials and triumphs, Maeve never gives up hope of finding her lost beloved, a young man she once knew as Esus, whose life she saved at enormous cost to herself.

The ultimate reunion of the lovers is as stormy as it is ecstatic. As we make our way through the terrain of the Gospels—healings, exorcisms, miracles, feastings, riots, and terrifying prophecy—Maeve and Jesus fight and make love, nurture and confront each other, infusing this unique passion narrative with their passion for each other.

And in the end, they dare together the most awe-full mystery of all.

Prequel

Magdalen Rising: The beginning
(formerly Daughter of the shining isles)

In this Celtic wonder tale, young Maeve and Jesus, brimming with youthful charm and arrogance, find each other and fall in love, forging a bond that is stronger than death. Born to eight warrior-witches on a magical isle, Maeve heads for druid college with high hopes of meeting the Mysterious Other she has glimpsed only in visions and dream.

From the start, Maeve and Esus, as the druids call him, are sparring partners, by turns delighting and outraging each other with their opposing views on just about everything. Their pleasure is overshadowed by a brilliant but unbalanced druid who knows a perilous secret about Maeve’s past. He also becomes obsessed with Esus as a perfect victim for the most sacred druid rite.

In a daring scheme, Maeve risks everything to save the life of the one she loves.

~forthcoming from Monkfish in 2008~

Sequel

Bright Dark Madonna

In this poignant and picaresque novel, Maeve navigates the dizzying world of the early church. Determined to found a movement in his name, Jesus’s disciples have many disputes, but all agree on one point: Maeve, an unconverted gentile with a disreputable background, is an unfit mother for the scion of the Savior.

With Jesus’s mother in tow, Maeve hides out for a time in the mountains of Galatia, raising her daughter in lonely peace, till one day a man, half-dead from stoning, is brought to her for healing. Enter Paul of Tarsus, who immediately sets about trying to convert Maeve—to Christianity!

Before she finds peace, Maeve’s midlife adventures will take her to Ephesus for a final showdown with Paul, to a hermit cave in Southern France, and at last to the British Isles where long-unfinished business awaits her.