I’m sorry I haven't written a word since 2025 turned into 2026.  I could give you all the “I’ve been busy” excuses and they wouldn’t be true. The truth is that even The Marco Polo Porcelain has suffered from my lack of attention until just a few days ago. But I am at least nominally back to writing now. I’ve been able to write about 2000 more words on “Marco” in the last week. And I’m delighted to report that Agnese Polo is embarking on her first time travel mission. 

Oh wait! You don’t know who Agnese Polo Calbo is, do you? This part of the story is based in facts, though I admit to manipulating the facts (mostly the timeline) a bit. In 2022, a researcher found a will in the Venetian State Archives for a woman named Agnese who named her father, Marco Polo, and her husband Nicolò Calbo as her executors. Nobody knows who she was or how exactly Marco Polo was her father, except that she was older than any of the children he had with his wife Donata. 

So I have speculated that Agnese was from an earlier marriage, one in Mongolia during the seventeen years he was there. In The Marco Polo Porcelain, he is widowed and leaves Agnese behind,  but then returns for her in 1304 and takes her to Venice with him.

Well, I don’t want to tell you too much more before the book comes out, because you never know what might change.  But I am happy to report that I have passed the 40,000 word line now, which means the book is about half finished. Have you read The Galileo Ducat? If you haven’t, now would be a good time. If you do, then you begin The Marco Polo Porcelain at least knowing who Alastair Khan is. Happy reading.