In The Deep Translucent Pond, a 40 year old attorney, Jerome Konigsberg, and 30 year old nurse, Natalija Gasper, are winners of poetry fellowships which allow them rare access to a once famous, now reclusive poet with the nom de plume, the Black Magus. At their first meeting the Black Magus “hijacks” the fellowship proclaiming it the final piece of a secretive ten-year project known as the Triangulum, its goal: The re-enchantment of the world.

The key to re-enchantment is The Deep Translucent Pond which the Black Magus has identified as “a hideout of the fugitive gods.” If he can reach into it—as placid as a reactor cooling pool—and retrieve a mysterious object from the bottom, re-enchantment will be ignited. He elaborately recruits his two fellowship “students” to help. For their part, they accommodate his severe eccentricities in exchange for flashes of insight into their lives and a feeling that his is guiding them to a higher place.

“If you love the power of beautiful writing that does not give you all the answers but asks questions in a way that makes you close your eyes and think about its impact, then you should read this tale and come to your own conclusions. Perhaps at times you may find that you start to seek your own deep translucent pond in which to be alone and think.”

— Mary Lupas, Amazon Five Star Review

 

"The Deep Translucent Pond is heartfelt, bittersweet, and surprisingly poignant."

—Pikasho Deka, Reader's Favorite

James Shelley has spent his professional life shifting between the underworld and higher places. He’s been a psychiatric attendant, land surveyor, arts critic, mental health case worker, archivist for the Rockefellers, and a bagpiper playing at the funerals of men and women he’s never met. As an educator, his innovative work at an Ohio college supporting at-risk male students has attracted national interest.

As a writer, Shelley started out writing plays for experimental theatre before shifting to fiction, early efforts earning him an Ohio Arts Prize. In his published poetry and fiction, he has always been fascinated with how prosaic moments can unexpectedly transcend, expanding into spaces that were not there before.

His novel, The Deep Translucent Pond, was published by Adelaide Books on February 5, 2022