We are now in the midst of the holiday season- – Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza and the celebration of the Winter Solstice. To each of you who celebrates one (or more) of these special holidays or another that I don’t know about, I give you my best wishes and hope it is a wonderful holiday season for you.

I live in the Northern Hemisphere and that fact colors my view of life and history. From this northern point of view, the Winter Solstice is the oldest reason to celebrate. I don’t know when and where humans began to celebrate this day (This year it occurs on December 21 at 5:23 EST). But it is not difficult to figure out why.

 

In the novel, Bones Unearthed, the protagonist, Kate Fitzgerald, discovers a long lost relative, her aunt Jennifer McAllen. For Kate, whose father died in the Iraq war and whose mother succumbed several years ago to breast cancer, it was a wonderful discovery. Kate had had a short-lived marriage, but that attempt to establish family had ended in divorce. Her Aunt Jenn, a senior citizen, was also alone. She lived her entire life on what once had been her family’s farm just north of Cahokia, a world heritage archeological site.

African Safari

A safari on the Serengeti in Tanzania has been on my bucket list for a long time. While earlier visitors to the area have gone there to hunt with guns and bring home trophies for their wall, my desire has always been to hunt with my camera and bring home as many photos of animals as possible. As a result, our two-week trip produced almost 800 phots of a wide variety of exotic animals. Take a look at the gallery for a few examples of what we saw.

August is an exciting month! There is a total solar eclipse within reach and it is available near Cahokia where my next novel will be set and I can do some additional research.

Please let me introduce myself. I am Terri Gregg, a mystery writer with my first book, Bones Unearthed, published this year. This is the first book of what I hope will be a reasonably long series with an archeological background.

I have been interested in archeology for a long time and a number of years ago, I decided to get a master’s degree in archeology. Since I was working full time as a computer consultant, I had to pursue the degree by distance learning. Unfortunately, all the programs in the United States were for degrees in anthropology with a specialization in archeology. That was not what I wanted, so I went further afield and found a program at the University of Leicester in Leicester, England. In February, 2002, my husband and I went to Leicester where I was awarded my degree.