Download the Skolay app
.png)
I love the multifaceted and surprising journey of research that my writing tends to take me on. Often it involves exploring the connections and dissonance between science and mysticism—such as in my novel, Bright Objects, in which the appearance of a bright comet provokes tensions between an scientifically-minded astronomer and a New Age meditation teacher who believes it’s a sign. In the process of work on this book, I studied astronomy, astrology, Neoplatonism, Theosophy, and the history of human responses to comets, and was even lucky enough to have a comet expert chart a hypothetically plausible orbit for my fictional comet. I’ve also always been preoccupied by the ways in which we humans conceptualise and ritualise death; how the experience of loss can sometimes act as a route to hard-won self knowledge and transformation, and how easily a person might find themselves at certain points losing their ability to perceive the line between reality and fantasy; sanity and madness. My current research involves delving into the realm of oil painting, restoration, and the history of the northern renaissance in the fifteenth century, in addition to the contemporary international art market. On a human level, I’m exploring the question of the potential personal price of certain kinds of mastery.
I love deep conversations, and value the opportunity to share meaningfully with, and also to learn from, readers of all kinds. Like many, I’ve often had the experience of engaging with someone in a conversation that could have gone further but which was cut short by the format of an event or talk—so it’s nice to have this alternative means of connecting with those I’ve not yet met!
I hold a PhD on the subject of elegy and poetics.
.png)
.png)
A young widow grapples with the arrival of a once-in-a-lifetime comet and its tumultuous consequences, in a debut novel that blends mystery, astronomy, and romance, perfect for fans of Emma Cline’s The Girls and Ottessa Moshfegh’s Death in Her Hands.
Sylvia Knight is losing hope that the person who killed her husband will ever face justice. Since the night of the hit-and-run, her world has been shrouded in hazy darkness—until she meets Theo St. John, the discoverer of a rare comet soon to be visible to the naked eye.
As the comet begins to brighten, Sylvia wonders what the apparition might signify. She is soon drawn into the orbit of local mystic Joseph Evans, who believes the comet’s arrival is nothing short of a divine message. Finding herself caught between two conflicting perspectives of this celestial phenomenon, she struggles to define for herself where the reality lies. As the comet grows in the sky, her town slowly descends further and further into a fervor over its impending apex, and Sylvia’s quest to uncover her husband’s killer will push her and those around her to the furthest reaches of their very lives.
"Ruby Todd's gorgeously written Bright Objects...cranks into an unexpected thrillerish gear toward the end...the prose burns bright."
—The New York Times Book Review
