Gasper lifts his head; the star has not moved.
A Novel · Catherine Gee
Gasper lifts his head; the star has not moved. Set high above the rough terrain, it casts luminous cold light on the distant steel mountains. Ice-wind bites off the snow peaks, sending spirals of frost and flakes over the small group of men. He keeps an eye on the light in the sky, exhaling into the black darkness. Months of travel have left his friends tired. The gold in his pocket pulls awkwardly at his coat. Gold kept quietly. Looking up, he catches Melchior’s gaze - a beam running through him, unchecked and hidden. Gasper breathes out slowly, quietly, the small hairs on his neck bristling. His friend hunches over the fire, black ink snaking over his rough hands - warrior hands that have wielded a magic not seen before in priestly courts, ancient. Gasper shakes his limbs for heat, his throat burning.
Perhaps the curse is true?
But the silence of pine moves up from the great desert lowlands below and shuts his mind to Balaam.
Each of the three men carries a story large enough for a novel of its own. Whether Men of the Star becomes a series or stands alone, the world it inhabits is deep enough for either.
“The land is flat, then suddenly it isn’t.”
Catherine was born in Zimbabwe and grew up on the wild coast of the Eastern Cape, South Africa - a childhood shaped by vast landscape, deep water, and an early awareness of something larger than the visible world. Swimming was her first discipline - stories her constant companion, long narratives tracking through every mile.
That interior life eventually found its formal ground. She studied theology with the intensity she had once given to sport - graduating with a Bachelor of Theology, Cum Laude, with a focus on Hebrew scriptures, early Zoroastrian-Jewish contact, and the Gentile prophetic tradition. In 2017 she received the Frederick Buechner Award for Preaching and Writing - the first woman from Africa to do so.
Men of the Star has been forming ever since the prologue arrived in a single sitting. She has not stopped writing toward it.
She lives in Bath with her husband, three adult children, and a little rescue dog - and does her best thinking on long walks.
If you are someone who wants to stay close to this story as it develops - Catherine would like to hear from you.
cathy@formstory.co.uk