Before Putin and his poison, madness had a name, and death was his countenance – Ivan the Terrible.

Following the carnage of Ivan the Terrible’s sack of Novgorod in 1570, artist Petr Safronov must lead the remnants of Novgorodian society to the outcast lands beyond the Urals. They have escaped the Tsar’s man-sized frying pan, but the fires of forbidden love, jealousy, hate, and betrayal await their passage. Only the guidance of Petr’s mystical Muse and the knowledge and influence of radical monk Timoshka Ivanov can save them.

As the world recoils from Putin and his poison, The Muse in a Time of Madness takes us back to the ancient origins of Russian tyranny rooted in might and madness. At the intersection of mysticism and art, a young icon painter must discern a pathway for the exodus from the enlightened city known as Lord Novgorod the Great. Flavin skillfully weaves history and myth to create a compelling saga of valor and human resilience in the face of unrelenting evil. The Muse in a Time of Madness has been recognized in the Soulful Keats Literary Competition. It is the first book in a trilogy that brings to life the legend of a lost Russian colony in Alaska.

Francis Flavin is a poet and writer. Originally from rural upstate New York, he has lived extensively in Alaska, Colorado, Nevada, and the Philippines. His writing draws upon his experience as an educator, hockey player, fish and game field worker, public interest lawyer, governmental investigator, and adventurer on four continents. He has also been a successful advocate for civil and indigenous rights.

Francis’s written work has been published nationally and internationally in Poetry Quarterly, Beyond Words Literary Magazine, Inwood Indiana, Blueline, Pacific Review, Moonstone Arts Center, La Piccioletta Barca, Three Line Poetry, The Closed Eye Open, Tempered Runes and The Plentitudes, among others. He was the Winner of the 2021 Poetry Quarterly Rebecca Lard Award and has received recognition for humor and flash fiction (two), short story (two), novel excerpt (three), creative nonfiction and personal essay categories in the Soul-Making Keats Literary Competition, the social impact category of the Chicagoland Poetry Contest, the Partisan Press Working People’s Poetry Competition (winner) and the personal essay and rhymed poetry categories of the 2020 Writer’s Digest awards.