Ah London. Land of sphinxes, pyramids and obelisks. Home of hieroglyphics. Final resting place of great pharaohs. Nope, we haven't gone off our rocker. Since the late 18th century London has been gaga for all things ancient Egyptian. In fact, we reckon it's the best place to see Egypt outside of Egypt.
New evidence shows that human sacrifice helped populate the royal city of the dead.
King Aha, "The Fighter," was not killed while unifying the Nile's two warring kingdoms, nor while building the capital of Memphis. No, one legend has it that the first ruler of a united Egypt was killed in a hunting accident after a reign of 62 years, unceremoniously trampled to death by a rampaging hippopotamus. News of his demise brought a separate, special terror to his staff. For many, the honor of serving the king in life would lead to the more dubious distinction of serving the king in death.
Featured image: One of the blocks found with hieroglyphics in the newly-discovered temple linked to the reign of Thutmose III. Credit: Ahram Online
The Minister of Antiquities in Egypt has announced the discovery of an ancient Egyptian temple near Cairo, from the time of Pharaoh Thutmose III. The ancient temple was found beneath a house, submerged under groundwater, by a group of looters who used diving equipment to explore the nine-meter deep ruins. Seven tablets, two blocks covered in hieroglyphics, several column bases and a huge statue of a seated person made of pink granite have been unearthed so far.
The Rich in Vitamin Art exhibition comprises of a series of ceramic 'Canopic Jars', drawing from modern day obsession with fame, commemorating celebrities’ lives, specifically relating to the organ which causes their death.
Sirius marks the nose of Canis Major, the Greater Dog. That much I'll concede. In ancient Egypt circa 3000 BC, the star's return at dawn after its ~70 day hiatus in the daytime sky coincided with the flooding of the Nile River, the lifeline of Egypt then as today. Floods deposited precious silt that fertilized the farmlands along the river. Since 1970, when the Aswan Dam was completed, floodwaters are now stored for later release.
Pharaoh's Sandal Obsession
Photos from the Grand Egyptian Museum
Some of the nearly 100 pairs of sandals that were found in the Tomb of Tutankhamun.
The gold pair were the ones found on the feet of his mummy.
A couple of years ago, I bought these two drawings by Kris Waldherr Arts and Words, for my website. I specifically wanted them for the Queen of Heka page, because they captured the spirit of my novel and its main character, Iset, better known as the goddess Isis.
Just this month, I sent the final 80 pages to my editor/writing coach, Jason Sitzes, and breathed a sigh of relief.
Of course, relief doesn't last. It never does. I immediately started thinking about cleaning up the whole manuscript in preparation for sending it to beta readers and looking for an agent.
That task inevitably led me back to the beginning of the novel. Thank the gods (specifically, thank Isis), I still like the beginning, which goes like this
When you possess the one true, secret name of a god, they say you can do anything, even bring a man back from the dead. Twice.
Now, consider this. You know me as Isis, and I made myself the Goddess of Ten Thousand Names. None of them my one, true name. But in the beginning, I was just a girl, and my mother named me Iset. I loved Asar, and he called me his darling girl.
Many thanks to Jason, who kept me on task and demanded I make the novel live up to its opening lines. (And I tried, I really tried!)
I'd be remiss, however, if I failed to recognize the Virginia Beach Breakout Novel Intensive (affectionately known as BONI) where I met Jason and my writing comrade-in-arms, Ellan Otero, and where Lorin Oberweger and Donald Maass dragged the opening lines out of about 200 rather dull and uninspired words.
online magazine, primarily of fiction, focusing on neo-noir, speculative stories with a literary bent.
3.
a kickstart project to help fund the magazine costs.
Richard Thomas, editor and genius behind Gamut, says the magazine will publish original and reprint fiction, poetry, columns and embrace every corner of dark fiction—fantasy, science fiction, horror, crime, mysteries, neo-noir, magical realism, transgressive, weird, Southern Gothic—you name it. The key difference is that Gamut isn't doing anything “classic”; it must embrace the idea of neo-noir (which means “new-black”), at the intersection between genre and literary fiction.
The Kickstarter began on 2/1/16 with a goal a base goal of $52,00 and graduated stretch goals of up to $82,660 . If you want to know what that money's going for, check out the Kickstarter site. If the project meets its fundraising goals, Gamut will launch on 1/1/17.
With a bargain basement $30+ pledge, you receive a full online membership for one year, which includes new fiction, reprints, columns, non-fiction, poetry, serials, art, and much more . This rate will never be offered again. Your subscription will also remain at this rate as long as you renew. Indefinitely.The regular rate will be $60 a year ($5 a month). So, really, get on over to the Kickstarter site and make your pledge. And if you're feeling flush, there are different levels of memberships with other gifts. Just like PBS and NPR, except darker.
Just so you know Richard Thomas is a man who knows his darkness. He's the author of
Three novels: Disintegration, Breaker, and Transubstantiate
Three short story collections: Tribulations (Crystal Lake), Staring Into the Abyss (Kraken Press), and Herniated Roots (Snubnose Press)
One novella: The Soul Standard (Dzanc Books).
He's published over 100 stories and received 5 Pushcart Prize nominations. He is also the editor of several anthologies: Exigencies and The New Black (Dark House Press), The Lineup: 20 Provocative Women Writers (Black Lawrence Press), and Burnt Tongues (Medallion Press) with Chuck Palahniuk (finalist for the Bram Stoker Award).
In his spare time he's a columnist at LitReactor, Editor-in-Chief at Dark House Press, and teaches at LitReactor, the University of Iowa, StoryStudio Chicago, and in Transylvania (of course).
By the way, you can follow the Gamut Kickstart on Facebook.
If you're still not convinced you should support Gamut, check out this home video by Richard and his daughter.
You that seek what life is in death, Now find it air that once was breath.
Baron Brooke Fulke Greville, "Caelica 83"
A young neurosurgeon faced with a terminal cancer diagnosis attempts to answer the question What makes a life worth living? in his posthumously published novel, When Breath Becomes Air.
“I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything,” he wrote. “Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’”
Paul Kalanithi was a neurosurgeon and writer. He graduated from Stanford with a B.A. and M.A. in English literature and a B.A. in human biology. He earned an M.Phil in the history and philosophy of science and medicine from Cambridge and graduated cum laude from the Yale School of Medicine, where he was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha national medical honor society. He died in March 2015, while working on this book.
This man was not like you and me. Clearly a genius, or at the very least driven to succeed in ways many of us are not, or as one reviewer said "a privileged person who was singularly driven to the top of his chosen profession." We all should be so driven.
He was equally at home in the world of words and the world of science, which led to some of the following accolades among reviewers:
“Rattling, heartbreaking, and ultimately beautiful...'"
". . .split my head open with its beauty.”
A gift to literature. . ."
Kalanithi writes well. Very well. No doubt about it. Better than many people who call themselves writers. Better than many published authors. That being said, he's not Shakespeare. Don't read this if you want to learn to write better. There are plenty of other (maybe too many other) books for that.
This book makes you ponder the BIG questions. Life. Death. Love. Marriage. Children. What is important? What does it mean to be human and mortal? These are important questions to ponder for all of us who mean to live a meaningful life; if you intend to write a meaningful book, you cannot ignore them. But they're also not the reason I think writers should read this book.
Read this book because this man wanted to write it. He wanted to write this book so badly, he wrote it while he was dying. He didn't use imminent death as excuse to stop writing.
As a writer with writerly friends, I've heard and uttered most of the excuses writers have for not writing. Let me elaborate. Just recently, I spent a month out of town visiting my children, and I didn't write much. i had all the excuses down pat. "Well, a lot of friends wanted to see me." "I need to talk with my kids." "The chairs were too hard too sit for long." "There's so much going on with the holidays and all." At least I didn't trot out that tired old tart, "The muse just wasn't visiting me in December 2015."
Let me be perfectly clear. IF I had been facing a terminal disease instead of holiday ennui, I'm pretty sure I might have been curled up in a ball and cried instead of working on my novel.
Now, consider this paragraph from the afterward to When Breath Becomes Air, written by Paul's wife Lucy Kalanithi.
During the last year of his life, Paul wrote relentlessly, fueled by purpose, motivated by a ticking clock. He started with midnight bursts when still a neurosurgery chief resident, softly tapping away on his laptop as he lay next to me in bed; later he spent afternoons in his recliner, drafted paragraphs in his oncologist's waiting room, took phone calls from his editor while chemotherapy dripped into his veins, carried his silver laptop everywhere he went. When his fingertips developed painful fissures because of his chemotherapy, we found seamless, silver-lined gloves that allowed use of a trackpad and keyboard. Strategies for retaining the mental focus needed to write, despite the punishing fatigue of progressive cancer, were the focus of his palliative-care appointments. He was determined to keep writing.
I started and finished Breath three days after the death of David Bowie and after watching the Lazarus video. All I could think about for days was these two men show us what it means to be an artist. Nothing. NOTHING, not even imminent death, stops the work. We need to keep that idea in front of us like a beacon carried in the hands of giants. We owe it to ourselves (if not them) to follow their example.
Read this book. Watch this video. Write like tomorrow is uncertain, because it is.
The rewrite of my novel, Queen of Heka is within 50 pages of being done. Many thanks to my editor, Jason Sitzes, who is the cold, clear voice in my ear when I get silly. A few agents and one publisher have requested a full manuscript.
Started seriously researching and thinking about the second novel, Reeds of Time.
"Pulled the trigger" and became a part time employee so I can devote more time to writing. I'm not used to the new schedule. Yet. It still rather feels like I'm on vacation.
This blog grew from 400 visits in 2014 to 15,000+ this year as well as becoming a featured item in Tour Egypt and getting a "like" from Zawi Hawass.
As always, the support of my fantastic children and friends continue to lift me up.
So, what's up for 2016?
Finish those final 50 pages. Duh!
Establish a better writing schedule, particularly for those extra two days a week I now have.
Simplify, simplify, simplify. I spent New Year's day with an old friend who told me a bit about moving her parents into a nursing home and the even more stressful task of dealing with a lifetime of family possessions. We agreed this is not a tradition we want to pass on. Even before the holidays and this chat, I felt the weight of my possessions. I have boxes of things I haven't opened for two moves. Seriously. I need to lighten the load.
Move up to 20,000 visits to my blog in 2016. Aim low; achieve high is my motto.
Get back to my garden. When I left Texas for Illinois, one of the things I looked forward to was easier gardening. While I planted a few herbs and other things, gardening definitely took a back seat to settling in. One of the first things on the 2016 list is to plant blueberry bushes beneath the Eye of Horus. As this photo shows, that area is a bit bland.
Prepare for and enjoy the two writing conferences I've signed up for this year with my fellow writer and conference attendee, Ellan.
I am beyond excited about the Iceland Writers Retreat in April. I've wanted to go to Iceland since I helped my son with a sixth grade research project. This seemed to good an opportunity to pass up. My classes look amazing.
Neel Mukherjee: Changing the point of view How does a writer denote this? When we read something in a novel, through whose eyes are we seeing that world, the writer’s, the narrator’s, or a character’s? What marks the distinction between these three? Should a scene stick to a single point of view or can you have a roving point of view, moving from character to character within one scene or even within one paragraph?
Gerður Kristný: Mythologies Classical mythology and the great body of works founded on myths from the Mediterranean formed the motive reservoir of Western literature for centuries. With better knowledge of other cultures and traditions, modern writers began to use non-occidental mythologies as a source of inspiration and the narrative power of the myth often enables them to shape their stories and transform the mundane to the metaphysical. Using the pre-Christian Nordic myths preserved in the Prose Edda or Snorri’s Edda from the 13th Century, the participants will rewrite an ancient story of their choice in a modern context.
Kate Williams: Finding your voice in the historical novel The historical novel is currently enjoying a renaissance. We are fascinated by the past. But how can we best capture the voices of the past? What are our responsibilities to historical fact and veracity? What about the sources - if we can't find any, can we invent them? Unless we have someone's private diary, we can't say exactly what they are thinking - but a novel requires us to go deep into our protagonist's consciousness. And can we explore the consciousness of someone who lived in a completely different time? This workshop explores how to write a historical novel, considering questions of research and sources, style, construction, voice - and most of all, how to get into that historical person's head.
Neel Mukherjee. Addition and Subtraction One of the great strengths of fiction, unsurpassed by any other form, is its capacity for building a world. How does one describe a world in all its details and density? What did Henry James mean when he talked of the ‘solidity of specification’ in his essay, ‘The Art of the Novel’? How much detail is enough and when is it too much, or too scant? How much should a writer put in and how much should she take out? This workshop will address the subject of physical details and world-building.
Miriam Toews: First-Person Fiction When your narrator is also the protagonist in your novel, there is greater pressure on the author to write with distinctive style, to possess a strong character voice. The first-person narrator is always an insufficient witness to the story he or she sets out to tell, but how to acknowledge this in a way that helps the reader interpret the meaning of what is related? In this workshop we will discuss what makes a first-person narration work.
Also excited to participate in the Historical Novel Society conference in Oxford, England, where we can expect to see a reenactment of the Norman Invasion. The list of workshops is not yet available, but IT'S OXFORD. We're taking a side trip to Highclere Castle, which most people know as Downton Abbey. While I'm a big Downton fan, I have another reason for going. Highclere is the family home of the Earl of Carnarvon. The Fifth Early of Carnovan financed the Tut excavation. I'm hoping to see the Egyptian Room. Afterwards, we're going to Scotland or Italy.
This graphic about what causes the most problems in Egyptian literature (although it probably should say Egyptian mythology) has been making its rounds on the Internet thanks to Kara Cooney.
So, I wondered how my novel Queen of Heka measured up.
Here are the results:
Famine: Absolutely. War: A couple. Gods abandon you: More times than you can count. Suicidal thoughts: A few. Hungry donkey: How did I miss this one? Pharaoh complains too much: Does a whinging King of Gods count? I think so. Boating accident:Bingo. Giant Snake: How could I write a novel without mentioning Apep? Obviously, I couldn't. Prophecy/Oracle/Angry Magician: Duh! This is practically the plot. Assassination plot: At least two. Seductive woman:Ever heard of the Kushite Queen Oso? Probably not, but you will. Misplaced penis: Yes! This IS a novel about Isis and Osiris, although in our house we call this problem the "amazing, missing golden wang." Uncle sexually assaults nephew:Next book! Lettuce:The antagonist's favorite food. Physical attack: It's a given, and at least one features the crocodile god, Sobek.
I enter contests for feedback purposes, because it's a way of hearing what readers think before you have readers. I usually do well in contests, often being one of the finalists. But being a finalist and receiving a request for a full manuscript request is rare. You can check the list of finalists and whether or not they received a request from the following link.
Disclosure: I previously finaled in Romance Through the Ages (about 5 years ago) without a manuscript request, so I think this means I'm on the right track.
As always, many thanks to my brilliant editor, Jason Sitzes, who runs the Writers' Retreat Workshop. And to my good friend, Ellan Otero, fellow writer-at-arms and traveling companion, for her support and encouragement.
What do these things have in common? A lot when it comes to making me the writer I am today.
Forty-six years ago this month, on July 19 to be exact, I, some good friends, and my family gathered around the television with bated breath waiting for Neil Armstrong to walk on the moon.
I remember my leg jittering up and down, the way it still does when I'm excited. I knew this was a moment I'd remember all my life. It was surely the moment I'd been waiting for since Friday, May 6, 1961 when my teacher herded us into the auditorium of my elementary school. A 19-inch (massive in those days) black and white television sat in splendid isolation on the stage. We watched the lift-off of Freedom 7 and the first American in space.
To me, these men were gods, because who else could stride between worlds or hop around on another one? I was inspired.
In those formative eight years between Freedom 7 and and Apollo 11, my imagination grew by leaps and bounds, and reality set in. I went from being certain that I would be an astronaut to conceding that my on/off fear of flying might make me a person who wrote about going to the moon.
Inevitability my interests changed, too. Space gave way to something older, more mysterious, yet still connected. Mythology. My love of mythology, unlike my love of space, became a little more concrete. I have a minor in World Mythology. There are a lot of gods associated with the moon, and I loved them all. Oh,what was my major you ask?
Of all the world mythologies, ancient Egypt calls to me like no other. Of course, it has a moon god, Thoth (or Djhuty, which is closer to his actual Egyptian name ḏḥwty and what I call him in my novel). Yes, I write. My first bad novels were about ancient Egypt. My current, hopefully, better novel, Queen of Heka, is about Egypt and its gods. Djhuty is a major character as the tutor of the young goddess Isis (Iset), a role he most certainly played in Egyptian mythology.
So, who is this moon god, Thoth/Djhuty? Well, first and foremost he's usually depicted as an ibis, often wearing a lunar crown. (He's also depicted as a baboon, but I'm not going to talk about that.)
You can go to Egypt today and still see ibises.
The unmistakable form of an ibis, with its small head, large body, sturdy legs and long curved bill, adorns many ancient Egyptian murals and carvings. A species of ibis called the sacred ibis represented Thoth — their god of words, writing, wisdom and truth — whom they depicted as a human with the head of an ibis. In hieroglyphics, the image of an ibis on a perch represented Thoth, and the first letter of the ancient Egyptian alphabet, hb, was called ibis.
From Let's talk about birds: Ibises
The other thing to know about Djhuty is that he is often credited with creating the system of writing and is associated with Seshat, the goddess of writing. He is the author of the Book of Djhuty/Scroll of Thoth, which contains all the knowledge in the universe, a subject for Pauline Gedge's excellent novel Scroll of Saqqara. This is Djhuty and Seshat scribing on the Tree of Life.
Djhuty played many other vital and prominent roles in Egyptian mythology, such as maintaining the universe and being one of the two deities (the other being Ma'at, his wife) who stood on either side of Ra's solar boat. He also became heavily associated with the arbitration of godly disputes, the art of magic (heka), the development of science, and the judgment of the dead. Truly, a Renaissance god before his time.
In this scene from Queen of Heka, the young Iset meets Djhuty for the first time at the instigation of the god Horus (Heru).
An ibis emerged from the fog. With each step, the bird lengthened into a man. The long, webbed feet became well-muscled legs. White feathers molted into an elaborately pleated kilt. The transformation ended at the neck. When the bird’s beady eyes fixed on me, all the noise in the world stopped.
Heru spoke into the inhuman silence. “May I present the teacher of all teachers, Djhuty, Lord of Truth and Time.”
The great god bowed. His beak opened like a black crescent moon in the white mist. “Hail, Iset wer-Heka, Mistress of the Throne.”
“I’m just Iset.” I giggled for the first time that day. Daily commerce with Heru clearly had not prepared me for the company of other gods.
“You are the lady who will learn words of power,” Djhuty said.
“From the Book of Djhuty?” The prospect chased away every dismal thought. All the priests longed to read the scroll filled with heka and mysteries not even Ra knew. I bounced up and down on my toes, almost taking flight
“Pain and tragedy come to any mortal who reads my book,” Djhuty said.
“Pain and tragedy also come to those who do not read it.” My whole body practically vibrated with anticipation. Heru snickered.
“My book is dangerous.” Djhuty directed an anxious look toward Heru.
“My life is already dangerous.” I thought of Seti and Oso, and I wanted to shake him for making light of my predicament. I might have if he hadn’t put his cool hand on my forehead. My heartbeat slowed straight away, keeping time with the waves lapping our feet.
“So it is.”
Djhuty’s thumb caressed the spot where lore placed the mystical Third Eye. His heka thrummed, solid and resilient. Even a novice like me recognized his power, against which Oso was less than a Nile fly. My limbs loosened, and my chest relaxed into a long breath. My troubled heart went quiet.
“Lady of everlasting joy and constant sorrow, answer this. What mother offers her breast to countless sons? What mother’s milk flows more abundantly the more her children suckle?”
A riddle. How did he know I loved riddles? His thumb continued its soothing caress. All the noise and chatter left my head and only his voice remained. My breath came slow and easy. The tranquility of the evening gathered around me like a soft blanket, and I was content to rest for a moment in the sanctuary Djhuty offered. Full dark fell over the island. The wind whispered faintly and ruffled his feathers, a gentle reminder to solve the riddle. I knew the answer. I most certainly knew it.
“Wisdom is that mother.” I made my voice very, very serious. “The more one drinks, the more one seeks.”
“Then, I am your mother.” He kissed my forehead and inhaled. “Ah, that’s a lovely bouquet. You make your own perfume, I imagine. Is it rosemary, lavender, and rose? ”
I nodded.
“Love, remembrance, happiness, and healing. Very appropriate for you,” he said. “I daresay you already know more about herbs than all my priests together.”
Don’t boast, I told myself. Don’t boast, even though his praise filled me like a wineskin and made me just a little drunk.
“Now, are you ready to learn heka and move the universe?”
Proud, grateful, just a little fearful, I could not hold back the giggles for another heartbeat. “Oh, yes, please.”
So to be honest, my initial reason for going to the Writers Retreat Workshop 2015 in San Antonio: my rather brilliant editor, Jason Sitzes, is the workshop director, and he suggested I attend. While he might disagree that I do everything he tells me to do, I always give his advice serious consideration. There I am in the second row.
Some more honesty. This year, I've become a somewhat jaded conference/workshop attendee. I've been to a lot of them. I'm a little burned out. I've heard a lot of this stuff before, and (while I'm still not perfect -- just ask Jason) much of it just doesn't apply to me anymore. Still, my friend Ellan says any workshop/retreat/conference that offers one nugget of insight is worth its weight in gold. If so, the Writer's Retreat made me a wealthy woman.
Meeting and working with Richard Thomas author and editor of Dark House Press was an undiluted pleasure. I was skeptical when I read his bio. After all, he's a neo-noir guy, and I write historical fantasy. How could he possibly help me? Right? OK. Wrong. Richard was one of the most enthusiastic and helpful writers I met at this workshop and maybe anywhere. I was in his critique group and had a private critique on the new novel I've been mulling over. As with all new projects, I'm in a bit of a dither about where to start. After talking with Richard a couple of times, I think I'm straightened out or at least heading in the direction of straightened out. He was also amazingly encouraging about my new project. I liked working with him so much, we discussed him traveling downstate to do a workshop for the Quincy Writers' Guild. I'm working on finding the money to fund that. Richard was a very big nugget.
My second nugget was Carol Doughterty. Carol began in the Writer’s Retreat Workshop in the early 90’s and then changed her focus from writing fiction to writing as a Zen practice. She lived at and worked for the San Francisco Zen Center, was ordained as a Zen Buddhist priest, and earned a Master of Divinity at Naropa University. Every morning, Carol led us in a meditation and then a writing exercise somewhat akin to the morning pages in the Artist's Way. I've done morning pages before with varying degrees of success; but with Carol's direction and exercises, I came to a major realization about a character who was well on his way to becoming a stereotype. I also got the germ of a couple of scenes from those sessions. Well, worth the price of admission. She's also a marvelous editor, as I found out in my 1:1 session with her. I would be remiss if I didn't mention that I became so involved in talking with her, I left my beloved jeans jacket behind. It's a work of art I've been embellishing for about 10 years now, and I rarely let it out of my sight. She was that impressive.
There were many other nugget-worthy moments. Too many to mention them all, but here's a sampling. Les Edgerton's scene by scene analysis of Thelma and Louise. The night-owl sessions where things sometimes got a little weird. (How to write a damn good sex scene comes to mind; I'll never think of asparagus in the same way.) Indulging in our workshop tradition of raiding Walgreens for mini-bottles of wine with Ellan. Watching Letterman's retirement. Stumbling to my room and agreeing with a young acolyte that yes, this is somewhat like all those conversations in college in which we discovered the meaning of life. Meeting some interesting writers and reconnecting with old writer-friends. Feeling very well taken care by Gail Provost Stockwell who worried over my "workshop rash." Soaking up the atmosphere of the Oblate Retreat Center and finding its gift shop where I discovered the Virgin of Guadalupe that I've been searching for. May she inspire many afternoons of writing on my front porch.
And last but not least, Larry Brill, a writer and videographer, documented the day and a half Donald Maass spent at the retreat.
After all these years, I finally figured out that writers' conferences and retreats tend to be held in the first half of the year... with some notable exceptions. Usually, I start thinking about them in March when many are already full. In 2015, I had a plan and a partner in crime. . .er writing. . . to go with me.
Pause for shout-out to my good friend Ellan whom I met at the week-long Writing the Breakout Novel in 2013. Since then, Ellan and I have attended a few writing conferences together. As a result, we became adept at the all-important wine in the bar, on the veranda, and in the dining room writing experience. This year, we're thinking of personalized name badges to sum up our "special" attributes. (Yep, I'm Ms. Short and Stocky Red Wine.)
BTW: If you haven't experienced a week of Writing the Breakout Novel with the phenomenal Don Maass, Lorin Oberweger, Brenda Windberg, and Jason Sitzes, you should. (There are other staff members, but they weren't at the retreat I attended.) Your writing will thank you.
When: March 13 -14 Why: Writing 21st Century Fiction, an 8-hour Master Class with Donald Maass. OK, three reasons. It's close. It's cheap. It's the Donald. I've had two sessions with him, the previously mentioned Writing the Breakout Novel and a three-day seminar in Austin, Tension on Every Page. I decided I needed a refresher, and this seemed just about perfect.
Choose your writing adventure Pikes Peak Writes Conference Where: Colorado Springs, CO When: April 24-26 Why: I'll just come right out and say it. Pikes Peak is my favorite writing conference. This will be the fifth or sixth time I've attended. The people are great. The presenters are always fascinating and provide timely information. Plus, it's one of the best organized conferences I've ever attended, and I've gone to a few. I've always appreciated how the presenters are put at various tables during meals, and the table has a placard telling which presenter is at that table. I soaked up words of wisdom from and chatted with Ann Bishop, Kevin Anderson, Margaret Coel, and Carol Berg. It's enough to make any fan girl's heart go pitty-pat.
This year, the standard pitch sessions have been upgraded to A Query 1-on-1 appointment, which is an 8-minute one-on-one meeting between you and an editor or agent, who will review your query letter and answer questions.
When: May 15-22 Why: So, if you look at the link, you'll think I'm shooting for an All Don/All the time experience in 2015. Actually, I decided to sign up in 2014 before the Donald was announced. My amazing and mostly brilliant editor/coach Jason Sitzes is the workshop director. Although Jason might not agree, he kept me on track through 2014, and my writing has greatly improved. So if he thinks it's a good retreat for me, I'm all in. Plus, he thinks I'll learn a lot from Les Edgerton, who is an intriguing character to say the least. He might have been my dad, if my dad had been a writer instead of on the FBI's 10 most wanted list.
I plan to finish the final-ish edits for Queen of Heka by then and take a short break from the Isis story before I start on the second novel, Lord of the Horizon. So, keeping my fingers crossed I have enough done on Reeds of Time for a good first critique.
An added benefit, the workshop is near Austin. I'm going down a week early and will work from my son's office as well as visit kids, old friends, and professional colleagues.
Historical Novel Society Conference
This conference alternates between the US and England. (They just added an Australian component, too.) I've attended the US conference before, and I loved it. Next year, I REALLY want to go to the one in England. Or Australia.
Now, I say this with all possible respect and affection: this conference can be nerd central. Where else would I find a session like this? (Color me excited!)
Elizabeth Peters, Egyptology, and Historical Fiction Today For the first half of our discussion, we will share information about the author Barbara Mertz (aka Elizabeth Peters), the field of Egyptology (and Mertz’s role in the field), and how the work of Barbara Mertz/Elizabeth Peters continues to influence contemporary writers of historical fiction. Bill Cherf explains who Barbara Mertz was, sharing her education and dissertation subject, and her two popular histories. Bill explains how Mertz’s approach to Egyptology was unique and refreshing. Janis Susan Patterson discusses how Barbara Mertz “became” Elizabeth Peters, the pen name beloved by historical fiction and mystery readers around the world. How did this author leverage her considerable experience in Egyptology to become one of the best-known names in her secondary field, that of the novelist? Libbie Hawker shares how the influence of Mertz/Peters still impacts ancient Egyptian and archaeological fiction today—how this author paved the way for two flourishing subgenres that have consistently enthralled readers from the publication of Elizabeth Peters’s first novel through 2015 (and beyond!)
Along with the usual manuscript prep, social media, and getting an agent workshops, there are also sessions on using a broadsword, midwifery, and regency dancing for those who aspire to be historically accurate. (And really, you SHOULD strive to be somewhere in the vicinity of the historical accuracy ballpark. I won't go into my rant about Exodus: Gods and Kings again.)
Looking forward to 2016, I hope to go the Historical Novel Society Conference in England, the Iceland Writers Retreat in Reykjaik, and to a Break Out Novel Intensive. Money being what it is, I'll probably only make two of them at best. Decisions. Decisions.
The ancient Egyptians called hieroglyphs the words of the gods. Two god had a special connection with writing.
The least known is Seshat (Sashet, Sesheta), the female scribe. She was the goddess of writing, historical records, accounting and mathematics, measurement, and architecture. (All Egyptian gods are overachievers.) She assisted the pharaoh and kept a record of his life. She also recorded the time allotted to him by the gods for his stay on earth.
The most well-known was Djhuty (Thoth), an ibis-headed god. Some say he created himself through the power of language. He is the creator of magic, the inventor of writing, teacher of man, the messenger of the gods, the divine record-keeper, and mediator par-excellence. (See what I mean about over-achieving?) The Book of Djhuty contained all the knowledge in the universe. It was hidden at the bottom of the Nile and locked inside a series of boxes guarded by serpents. Egyptians believed the gods' knowledge is not meant for humans to possess. Not that several didn't try, most famously Setne Khaem-waset, the fourth son of Ramses the Great.
Djhuty is often associated with Isis as her mentor, friend, and the arbitrator between her and the other gods during the Contending of Horus and Seth. In this scene from Queen of Heka, Iset (Isis) meets Djhuty for the first time:
An ibis emerged from the fog. With each step, the bird
lengthened into a man. The long, webbed feet became well-muscled legs. White
feathers molted into an elaborately pleated kilt. The transformation ended at
the neck. When the bird’s beady eyes fixed on me, all the noise in the world
stopped.
Heru spoke into the inhuman silence. “May I present the teacher
of all teachers, Djhuty, Lord of Truth and Time.”
The great god bowed. His beak opened like a black crescent moon
in the white mist. “Hail, Iset wer-Heka, Mistress of the Throne.”
“I’m just Iset.” I giggled for the first time that day. Daily
commerce with Heru clearly had not prepared me for the company of other gods.
“You are the lady who will learn words of power,” Djhuty said.
“From the Book of Djhuty?”
The prospect chased away every dismal thought. All the priests longed to read
the scroll filled with heka and mysteries not even Ra knew. I bounced up and
down on my toes, almost taking flight.
“Pain and tragedy come to any mortal who reads my book,” Djhuty
said.
“Pain and tragedy also come to those who do not read it.” My
whole body practically vibrated with anticipation. Heru snickered.
“My book is dangerous.” Djhuty directed an anxious look toward
Heru.
“My life is already dangerous.” I thought of Seti and Oso, and
I wanted to shake him for making light of my predicament. I might have if he
hadn’t put his cool hand on my forehead. My heartbeat slowed straight away,
keeping time with the waves lapping our feet.
"It’s been amazing and terrifying to watch the changes in our industry just over the past six years. For generations, there was only a handful of items a writer needed to do. Write a book. Query. Get an agent. Land a deal. Hopefully continue writing more books. Though this was far simpler, there was a horrific failure rate and most writers never saw their works in print."
This post is an excellent read for those of us who are aspiring!
I'm a big fan of to-do lists. Ask anyone who works with me. I have an electronic to-do list that covers everything I'm supposed to do that isn't addressed by some other entry on my calendar. I consult it when I begin each day. I use it to write my status reports. I use it to nag people who owe me topics to be edited. I live and die by my to-do list.
As a result, most people think I'm really organized and efficient. That is the end result, of course. The truth is, I know I'm not very efficient or organized. (I have the personality tests to prove it.) Left to my own devices, I'd forget everything and happily piddle away the day on the internet. So, my to-do lists are mostly in self-defense.
I realized awhile back, however, that the books I buy are another type of to-do list. There are books I think I'm interested in. There are books that I think I should or will be interested in. There are books about things I once thought I might be interested in and might be interested in again. . . . someday.
Don't get me wrong. I read. A lot. I average 1.5 books a week. Sometimes more if the book is really gripping or I'm sick in bed. I sometimes read two or three books at the same time. Still, against all the books in the world, that's a small dent.
I suppose I could make a list of all those books I want to read, but I'd probably lose it since I can't think of a digital reminder that works as well as the little alarms that go off for my online to-do list. So, I buy the book instead.
Before the advent of Kindle, I brought home stacks of books from Borders, Barnes and Noble, Half-Price Books, Goodwill, and garage sales. I'm even organized enough to mostly alphabetize them by author last name; hardbacks in the living room book shelves; paperbacks in my office. I occasionally purge a few when I realize I will never read them, but I'm never as heartless with books as I am with shoes.
Now, I have three Kindles that are slowly filling up with books that I am reading or will someday read.
All these books are the to-do list of my future life. Proof that I have a future. Sometimes, I think I keep books in reserve against a time when I might not be able to go out and get books or can no longer afford them. I'm a book survivalist. It makes me happy.
A long time ago (circa 1960) in a city far, far away, I had a home away from home in the Quincy Public Library. As you can see, it was an amazing building. I particularly appreciated the location of the children's reading room in the tower. (Thanks to Tiger Imagery for this amazing photo of the old library, which really captures the magic I felt as a child, and for all the other beautiful photographs of my home town.)
There were three books I checked out so often that the librarian restricted me to checking them out once a month; no renewals. One of those books was Cleopatra of Egypt. (I now own my own copy, so this is no longer a problem.)
I might have been obsessed. I recall making a scrapbook of everything I could find about Cleopatra, including a quote I heard on the old Dick Van Dyke show when Rob and Laura played Antony and Cleopatra. (I can't remember if Richie had a role as Caesarion.) Needless to say, I was out-of-my-mind-happy when Liz Taylor made a feature film, and I might have had a temper tantrum to convince my mother that I needed to see that movie.
Eventually, my obsession expanded to include other books about ancient Egypt. Somewhere along the line, I learned that Cleopatra considered herself an incarnation of the goddess Isis. She considered Julius Caesar the new Osiris and their son Caesarion the incarnation of Isis and Osiris's son Horus. After Caesar's assassination and when she fell in love with Mark Antony, she simply adjusted the story to make Caesar the murdered Osiris and Antony the resurrected Osiris. One of the few existing images we have of Cleopatra and her son Caesarion shows them as Isis and Horus on the temple walls at Dendera. And you thought I was obsessed.
With all of that going on in my feverish little brain, I began studying the myths around Isis, which proved to be even more fascinating to me than the stories about Cleopatra. Of course, once you jump into Egyptian mythology, there are gods and goddesses than you can shake a stick at, and all of them have the potential to be a great character. Voilà, you have the beginning of a novel.
How about you? What was your source of inspiration?
The gods (the Egyptian ones, anyway) know, I've used that excuse to justify a lot of things. Like fulfilling my childhood dream of going to Egypt to see the temples and monuments. Like justifying the most expensive Nile cruise because it was the only one that actually went to Abydos, the home of the Osiris (Asar), the "love interest" in my novel, Queen of Heka: The Autobiography of Isis. I even visited Philae and the temple of Isis three times. I learned a lot.
For example, I read a novel where the author described the inside of a tomb in the Valley of the Kings as cool and damp. Not true, those suckers are hot. Leaving the tomb, the 110 degree heat of the desert feels almost like air-conditioning. They're also dry, which is why the paint was preserved so perfectly. Reading that bit of misinformation made me doubt the premise of the novel.
Do you always need to visit exotic locations to get source material? Actually, no.You can do research and mine your daily routine for experiences that apply to whatever you're writing about.
I read a post on the blog of a woman who writes sword and sorcery fantasy and who also happens to raise horses. She wrote about common mistakes people make when writing about horses . . . like the ubiquitous finding a horse when all is lost and riding for days and days and days (even though you've never ridden before) to find the gold buried under the mountain and save the world. Apparently, in reality, if you've never ridden before, you will be so chafed and your muscles so sore after the first couple of hours, you might not ride again for days, much less save the world. If horses play a role in your novel, take a riding class or find someone who owns horses who will happily tell you all the misconceptions non-horse people have.
As for me, I have other interests besides writing, which happily feed my writing muse, such as my rather large garden. Believe it or not, Austin is almost the same latitude as Cairo, and weather conditions are similar. I understand gardening in what is for all intents and purposes is a desert. After the droughts of the last couple years, I understand it even more than I did before. I also grow and use herbs, and Isis was a noted herbalist. When I write about Isis, her garden, her frustration with drought, her herbal concoctions, I am one with her.
I also have chickens and goats, both common in Ancient Egypt. In fact, it was an agrarian society, and even Pharaohs had their kitchen garden, as did every peasant. Osiris is often portrayed as teaching people how to farm and make beer. (For the beer part, I rely on my son.)
I raise Egyptian Fayoumis, a breed seen in some of the tomb paintings. I know how those chickens, which are not nice chickens, act. After spending a few years around them, I understand why they survived into the 21st century. They fly high and fast, are aggressive, and suspicious. If a Nile crocodile came after one, there's no guarantee it would get dinner that night. I might have used that information a time or two.
Now, about the goats. . . I have read SO many novels where the hero or heroine is lost and starving and happen upon a cow or a goat. As often as not, they are city folk or nobles who might have seen a goat or cow, but never milked one. Yet, they milk them in nothing flat and live to fight another day. If your character has never milked a cow or goat by hand, he's going to starve. It's not as easy as it looks. I watched a hundred youtube videos and still didn't get it. I finally ended up taking a class. So, yeah, I can write really knowledgeably about the frustrations of trying to milk a goat the first time.
And of course, there is all that lovely billy goat mating behavior that's just waiting to go into my novel. (The phrase randy as a billy goat came into being for a good reason.) A time or two, I compare the antics of the mischievous son of Isis and Osiris to baby goat behavior.
