Priestesses and Prostitutes

March 27, 2016

Have you read The Sekhmet Bed, by Libbie Hawker?

The Whore, by Stephanie Dray?

Artemis Rising, by Cheri Lasota?

What about The Year-god’s Daughter, by yours truly?

If you’ve missed any of these great stories, then I encourage you to pick them ALL up together in the four-novel bundle, Priestesses and Prostitutes, which can be had for the amazing price of 99 cents, right now, through Thursday, March 31, at the following places:

Amazon Kindle /  Barnes & Noble Nook /  Kobo /  iTunes /  Scribd /  Page Foundry

 

 

The Sixth Labyrinth: Live in Two Weeks

March 24, 2016

The Sixth Labyrinth

Arriving in 2 weeks!

Athene’s Handmaid, by Melissa Conway

 

Finis… or in other words, The End. A sublime combination of words I was beginning to doubt I would ever be able to type, but all edits have at last come to “The End.” It took so much longer than I expected, but I do believe I made the right choice to go through The Sixth Labyrinth one last time. I feel certain this will result in a smoother, more pleasant read.

Thank you to my beta readers… my editor… my copy editors… the cover image artist… and my Gaelic speakers. This was a Team Effort that was years upon years (upon years) in the making.

 

Cover talk: As soon as I saw this image by Eve Ventrue, I knew it was perfect. It was Chrysaleon, in every way. Angry, somber, and defiant, after three millennia of being reincarnated, forced to suffer the loss of the woman he loves, over and over again. He is deeply scarred, and I think that shows in every inch of this face.

The image is unfinished: Chrysaleon, too, is unfinished.

But this story is not just Chrysaleon’s. It is Aridela’s. It is Menoetius’s. And it is Selene’s and Themiste’s. All have reunited in 1870s Scotland.

The Sixth Labyrinth is Book Four in The Child of the Erinyes series.

Winter, 1853. Every home in the village of Glenelg is burned, the residents deported or left to starve.

Douglas Lawton refuses to put his family on the refugee ship, though his wife is in labor. She dies giving birth to a daughter whose paternity will always be questioned.

These mountains in the remote West Highlands of Scotland offer a backdrop to the continuing story of three lives linked through time. A silenced but enduring goddess has seen her place in the souls of humans systematically destroyed, but she bides her time. For Athene, thousands of years mean nothing.

Framed within the Clearances that ravaged the Highlands, one woman struggles with the restrictions placed upon her, and all women. Her buried psyche is that of a queen who possessed unlimited power, yet here, she is little more than a scullery maid.

 

For thousands of years two men have fought for the heart of Athene’s daughter. Will either triumph? What are the consequences of winning? Ancient prophecy is unfolding, leading our triad into the shadowed corridors of The Sixth Labyrinth.

To pre-order:

Amazon

Kobo

iTunes

Tolino

 

 

 

Image via shutterstock

The Year-god’s Daughter Free on Kindle!

Click on cover

FREE FOR THREE DAYS: MAY 23, 24, AND 25, 2012!

Be sure to check the price before clicking on “purchase.” I’ve done my best to make sure these promotional days are activated, but I have been notified by other authors of problems getting their promo days to actually appear.

 

FREE FOR THREE DAYS: MAY 23, 24, AND 25, 2012!

Be sure to check the price before clicking on “purchase.” I’ve done my best to make sure these promotional days are activated, but I have been notified by other authors of problems getting their promo days to actually appear.

A little excerpt from The Thinara King

From Chapter Seven:

Snow fell in a blinding squall, carried first one direction then another by mercurial winds. Bitter cold stung Aridela’s face and almost immediately penetrated her jerkin.

Slinging a bow and quiver of arrows over one shoulder, she scraped snow from the trunk of a cypress, clearing a bare strip all the way around. Barbs of gale-driven ice lashed her eyes and cheeks as she found what she was looking for, evidence of frozen lichen on what should be the north side. She staggered into the blizzard, hoping she’d successfully determined east, and Knossos.

I do your bidding, Athene. I follow your will. Please, please—

The plea died before it formed. Menoetius would never forgive what she had said. There was no use asking.

Snow fell like a cold white ocean from a darkly overcast sky. All sound was muffled. There was no way to be certain she’d chosen the right direction. If only the sun would come out, even for a moment.

Menoetius’s warning returned. What if this reckless escape sent her straight to enemy search parties?

Surely they wouldn’t be looking for her in such a storm.

Don’t you trust me? She fancied a thrum of laughter under Chrysaleon’s words. Don’t you know I will protect you?

She closed her eyes. Show me the way, my love.

But there was only the swish of snow eddying in the wind. Only Menoetius’s face when she called him ugly.

Then she heard it. The crunch of deliberate steps. She opened her eyes and stared into the face of a large wild goat, its long, arched horns almost invisible under a coating of snow. It stood the length of a half-grown fir tree from her, staring back, perhaps trying to understand the sight of a motionless human transforming into a snow-drenched pillar.

Its meat would provide food for a month. But something stopped her even as her half-frozen fingers felt for the bow. Athene. Lady of the wild things.

Losing interest, the ibex turned and lumbered away. Aridela followed, trying to keep a discreet distance.

It came to a steep hill, dotted with mounds of stunted juniper bushes and a few twisted pine trees. The beast climbed effortlessly, crossing beneath a curious rock formation that rose high and curved into an arch, like a doorway. Aridela craned her neck to see the rough crown, half hidden in storm fog. Forced to use her hands as well as her feet, she scrambled then slipped backward, unable to secure footing in the slick snow. Within seconds the animal had disappeared. “Wait,” she cried. “I can’t walk as fast as you,” but wind and a wall of snow stuffed her words back into her throat.

Eventually, she reached the summit. Snow was falling so copiously by now that she couldn’t see past the length of her arm. She stumbled along the ridge, calling, “I’m here. Where are you? Come back.”

Iphiboë materialized before her, arms extended. “Aridela!”

Shock drew Aridela up short. She tried to blink the snow from her lashes, fighting hope and disbelief. “Iphiboë?”

Before she could begin to accept this miracle, the image disintegrated into the dark, solid form of Menoetius. Snow caked his hair and beard. He squinted. His mouth lay tense and severe.

“What are you doing?” Without waiting for an answer, he picked her up like a twig and flung her over one shoulder. “Two more steps and you would have been over the edge. How much would that help your people, you lying dead at the bottom of this gorge?”

Thanks to all who entered my Goodreads giveaway, lovely people who are willing to take a chance on my books.

Love and power struggles in Egypt: an interview with Libbie Hawker

Cover of The Sekhmet Bed

I’m so pleased to have Libbie Hawker over for buttered crumpets, coffee, and conversation about her historical novel, The Sekhmet Bed. Read on for insight into this long gone, but never forgotten, world.

I’ve already written a review for this exciting book, which can be found HERE and on Libbie’s Amazon page.

I enjoyed this book so much. It held my interest and captivated me from page one to the end. Libbie brought this ancient world and its characters to vivid life. The story revolves around Thutmose I, the “first” of the Thutmoses (of which, I believe there were three.) We also become intimately acquainted with Ahmose, her sister Mutnofret, and Hatshepsut, Egypt’s legendary female pharaoh (The Sekhmet Bed covers the time period before Hatshepsut was born and soon after, while she’s still very young.)

Without any more ado, here is the interview:

Lochlann: I understand that you’ve decided to concentrate on other genres besides historical fiction in the future. So that leaves me wondering if you have shelved the sequel to The Sekhmet Bed. I for one hope that isn’t the case.

Hawker: I haven’t shelved it, that’s for sure!  It only needs to be polished up and edited, and it will be ready to go.  I fully intend to write and release the third book in the trilogy, too, which explores Hatshepsut’s relationship with her daughter Neferura.  (I’ve chosen to portray it as a rather rocky relationship, which is taking some risks with probable history!)

In fact I’ve felt inspired lately to write more historical fiction, but I’ve come to grips with the fact that my interests in historical fiction don’t tend to be highly commercial.  If I do decide to continue writing historical novels it will be “on the side,” so to speak, while I pursue traditional publishing with my other books, and I will continue to self-publish the historical fiction…unless I should luck into an offer from a brave publisher I can’t resist!

So the fact that I’m focusing most of my writing efforts on my literary novels doesn’t mean I’ve entirely given up on historical fiction, and certainly not on the Hatshepsut books.  Historical fiction will continue to be what I do “for fun” rather than as a career pursuit, but I will keep producing it.

RL: I’m happy to hear that! How is your indie “experiment” with The Sekhmet Bed going? Have you had time to come to any conclusions about self-publishing?

LH: Self-publishing is A LOT OF WORK.  For very little payoff.  That’s it in a nutshell!

But I’ve also learned that it feels very gratifying to see that readers are finding and loving my book when several months ago I had nearly resigned myself to the thought that it would remain forever a trunk novel.  I worked on the idea behind The Sekhmet Bed and its sequels for two years, and spent nearly another two years trying to sell the first two books to publishers with the help of two agents at a major literary agency.  It was somewhat upsetting to think that four years of passion and work would just sit in my closet gathering dust.  I’m so grateful that modern self-publishing has gained some credibility over its previous status and that it’s become so easy to produce a quality product that readers can enjoy.  I am so happy every day that my book is being appreciated by new readers.

Still, self-publishing is so much work and it takes so, so long to get a meager payoff.  For a self-published novel, my book is doing respectably well, but I still haven’t come close to earning back a fair compensation for the time I’ve put into promoting it, let alone the time I’ve put into formatting it or writing it.

Traditional publishing through a publisher with a good reputation and strong distribution still looks to give a better bang for your buck to me.  That’s why I’m still avidly pursuing it with other works.  I believe self-publishing will continue to gain credence and one day will have a reputation for quality that is almost as good as traditional publishing.  But we’re not there yet, and I am trying to start a writing career here, not nurture a hobby!

RL: The relationship between Ahmose and Mutnofret was spellbinding. It went from one extreme to the other, and took me with it. Was that a difficult aspect to develop to your satisfaction? Did you have any real life role models to use in your efforts? The love, the rivalry, the betrayals…it was all magnificent.

LH: Oh, gosh.  Here it is.  The question I fantasized about dreading back when I expected this novel to sell traditionally.  I envisioned interviews just like this and gulped a little when I wondered how I’d answer this question.

Probably best to be straightforward!

The big, intense, crazy fight and reconciliation between Ahmose and Mutnofret was inspired, I am ashamed to admit, by an unbelievably stupid, pointless fight my sister and I were in years ago.  We didn’t speak to each other for a year.  It was the biggest waste of precious time in my life.  The one and only thing I can say for that period of my life is that it helped me write a believable rivalry and reconciliation between two sisters later, when I wrote The Sekhmet Bed.

I adore my sister, who is my only sibling, beyond all reason.  She and I have been best friends since I was a baby and she was my doting Sissy.  (I still call her Sissy.  We’re in our thirties and she will always be Sissy to me.)  That big stupid year-long fight we had still makes me cringe and fills me with regret whenever I think of it.  I mean, we claimed to be adults at the time.  What kind of grown-up women do things like that to each other?  We weren’t even trying to share a Pharaoh husband, for corn’s sake!  That incident, and the time I punched her in the stomach when I was about ten – those are my only regrets in life.  Sissy is precious to me, and I hate to think of the times we’ve mistreated each other.

Anyway, I am glad I’ve been able to make something positive out of that miserable experience by writing a believable tumultuous relationship between two sisters!

RL: Well, Libbie, speaking as someone with both a sister and a brother, I can say from experience that these kinds of things happen. What matters is that the discord didn’t last, and maybe even added to the special closeness you share now.

There are several childbirth scenes in The Sekhmet Bed, and I found them all riveting. I’ve had a baby, and one of your descriptions took me right back to that moment in the hospital when I cried, “No. Wait! Stop!” I would imagine that is a universal feeling among mothers experiencing their first labors. Tell us about the research you did for those scenes.

LH: Several mothers who have read TSB have asked me how old my children are, and whether I had a natural birth, because my birth scenes were so real-feeling.  I am very proud that they came across so well, because I have actually never given birth!

This one goes back to my sister, too.  Because we are so close, she asked me to be one of her birth coaches when she had her son at home back in 2008.  At the time I was doing the necessary research for The Sekhmet Bed and its subsequent books.  I knew I’d want to include some birth scenes in at least one of the books, so I got into my role as birth coach and did as much research as I could on natural labor and delivery.  It was a fascinating subject that really opened my eyes to how distant and mechanical labor and delivery have become in the United States, and how little women in the U.S. know about their own bodies and a process so essential as giving birth.  It scared me, actually.  If I do decide to have a child or two someday, I will definitely have a natural birth, at home if I can, with a midwife.  My research made me feel very strongly about that.

My primary research source was the various books written about The Bradley Method of natural childbirth.  But nothing can compare to the experience of actually watching a woman bring a baby into the world naturally.  I was lucky enough to be at the birth of my nephew, and I was supposed to be there when my niece was born, too, but she showed up too quickly for me to get to my sister’s house!  Watching my nephew’s birth definitely gave me the “tools” I needed to write the birth scenes in these books.

RL: All that research definitely paid off, I think. Seldom in all my years of reading have I identified so viscerally with birth giving scenes!

Sandstone head of Thutmose I at British Museum

I adored Thutomse. You took a murky historical figure and transformed him into a real-life human being. As the story progressed, I liked him more and more. What a renaissance man! He was gentle and wise. Not what I expected! I even felt sorry for him now and then. There must have been a time or two when he thought diving into war was easier than running a household of wives and concubines. Did you find evidence that the real Thutmose was really this way? Tell us about the research you did for him.

LH: Thutmose I is indeed one of the murkier figures in Egyptian history.  Here’s what is known for sure about him, in brief.  His mother was a commoner, not anyone of royal birth or of the upper classes.  His father is unknown.  He was a soldier, probably a highly regarded general, and he was chosen to succeed the previous Pharaoh for unknown reasons.

He had two recorded official wives, Ahmose (the queen) and Mutnofret.  And he had four sons:  Wadjmose, Amunmose, Ramose, and Thutmose II.  Of his sons, at least two of them preceded him in death at an unknown age.  Most Egyptologists seem to agree that his first three sons (before Thutmose II) had no real standing.  The suggestion is that Thutmose lived a common man’s life before he ascended the throne, and that the real Mutnofret may have been his wife when he was merely a general and not the Pharaoh…but that is very unclear and is mostly conjecture on the part of Egyptologists.  If he lived with one wife as a common man before taking the throne, then his sons with that wife were no princes – they were just rekhet, just common folk.

Yet when at least one of his sons died (Wadjmose), he used his new wealth and power as Pharaoh to memorialize his lost son with a beautiful chapel built inside the boundaries of Ipet-Isut (Karnak, as we know it today, a complex of important religious buildings).  And he framed his sons’ names inside cartouches, which was an honor reserved only for those of royal blood.

This all says to me that Thutmose I was a loving father who grieved sorely for his dead sons. And his rise from soldier to Pharaoh seemed sudden and probably shocking to him, I’d imagine. He was almost certainly married to Ahmose for the express purpose of legitimizing his right to the throne. In ancient Egypt, before the Greek period, women were thought to carry the right of inheritance in their blood not men; and a Pharaoh could only be a Pharaoh if he married the female blood relative of another Pharaoh. As Thutmose I shows, even a common man could be king, if he married a Pharaoh’s daughter, sister, or female cousin.

I wonder, if Thutmose I had had a common wife and a nice, happy family, but then was tapped on the shoulder to become Pharaoh and married off to this strange woman Ahmose…that’s a lot of stuff to deal with. Surely only a very complex and sensitive man would agree to having his life so thoroughly uprooted in that way, for complex and sensitive reasons.

All this is to say, I am also fascinated by Thutmose I and his very strange story, though so little of it is known. If I’d written this book from his perspective it would have been very different, with Tut enjoying his nice, quiet life with Mutnofret and their sons, and Ahmose being a scary royal intruder. Hmmm…maybe that’s an idea for another novel some day!

But Thutmose really did have buck teeth.  I can tell you that for sure.

possible mummy of Thutmose I

RL: Fascinating!

Yet another thing I loved about The Sekhmet Bed was the writing. Your writing is fluid and smooth. Another word I would use to describe it is comfortable, in the sense that you draw in the reader without any lengthy, tedious back story, explanations or descriptions, and this makes us feel comfortable, “at home,” within the world you’ve created. I felt as though I was right there with these characters, living at the mercy of the Nile and the gods, to the point where it felt quite familiar. Tell us about your writing background: how long have you been writing? How has your style evolved? Have you joined critique groups, or have you gone it alone?

LH: Well, thank you!  I am very flattered by that. The Sekhmet Bed was my first completed novel, so I am very pleased to hear that it feels so pleasant to read. That is often not the case with first novels! As with any artistic pursuit, there’s a learning curve.

As for how long I’ve been writing…that’s a tough question to answer.  I’ve dabbled in writing since my middle school days and I’ve always sort of vaguely planned to “be a writer,” but I never really tried hard to write a reader-friendly book until I wrote The Sekhmet Bed.  As I was researching TSB from 2007 onward I wrote and published several short stories, but short stories and novels are different beasts.

I place a lot of stock in critique and I seek it out frequently from trusted sources.  I do belong to a weekly writers’ group, but our usual focus in that group is poetry (something I enjoy writing but will probably never try to publish!)  I did not workshop The Sekhmet Bed to any appreciable degree, although my friend Lori Witt did give a lot of feedback on the first draft.

If my writing is appealing, I have my lifelong reading habit to thank for that.  I very firmly believe that writers who don’t read a lot…well…you can tell when you read their work.  I think a conscientious regimen of reading, and reading widely, not just within your own genre, is a must for any writer.  The more ideas and techniques you’re exposed to, the more informed and confident your own ideas and techniques become.  Writers can never stop reading, and reading like maniacs.  I grew up in a family of artists and I know how important constant immersion in the “art stream” is to keep the creative brain vital.  Writing is no different from any other art.  We need to stay excited about books and stories in order to stay excited about our own books and stories.

As for how my writing style has changed…I’ve discovered I have much more of a passion for writing contemporary literary fiction than historical fiction!  I guess fans of my book won’t love hearing that I am putting most of my writing effort into stuff that’s not historical fiction.  But as I said at the beginning of this interview, I’m not giving up on historical fiction entirely.

RL: How old were you when you decided you wanted to write? Was there some particular thing in your childhood that contributed to this resolve?

LI: Oh, my, yes.  Watership Down.

My mother thinks she is dyslexic, though she’s never been diagnosed, and reading has always been a struggle for her.  She didn’t want Sissy or me to have the same troubles with reading, so she got my sister started early, and my five-year-old sister taught me how to read.  My mom encouraged it by never putting limits on whatever I chose to read.  I have an old copy of Charlotte’s Web with a handwritten journal of my reading progress in the front and back of it.  My mother recorded how far I got in reading that book each day and how I felt about the story.  The journal is dated 1983.  I was three years old.

So my reading was always encouraged without limits, but I was obsessed with rabbits when I was a little kid.  My dad rented the gorgeous animated film adaptation of Watership Down and we watched it together countless times.   When my parents divorced, my sister and I moved with our mom to Seattle.  I missed my dad a lot, naturally, and so one day I wandered into the elementary school library and told the librarian I wanted to read Watership Down.  She kind of chuckled and told me it was too big a book for me (I was eight years old at the time.)  I told her to show me the book.  She did – it was a big, heavy, hardback copy.  I checked it out on the spot and read it.  And read it and read it.  I read that book over dozens of times throughout my life – I can’t count how many times now.  I found Richard Adams’ writing so enchanting, with its detail and its harmonious word choices.  I decided when I was eight that I wanted to be a writer just like Richard Adams.

Watership Down still reminds me of my father and my early childhood.  When he passed away I got a tattoo of the Black Rabbit of Inle to commemorate him.

RL: I, too, have loved Watership Down since I was very young! It’s a great book. I also have Adams’s Shardik, although I confess I haven’t yet read it, and his out-of-print book, Maia–which is rather explicit, but so good! Yes, I fully understand the draw of Richard Adams.

I’m also curious about how long it took for you to get comfortable with this era. I saw your credit to the author Joyce Tyldesley. Were there others you found particularly helpful? Did you get most of your information from reading non-fiction or fiction? What little I read of Egyptian history told me that it could easily consume many years if I let it.

LH: Egyptian history is addictive!  And so fascinating!  It’s so well recorded and that’s a rarity for cultures that stretch back so far.

All of my research came from non-fiction sources, with the possible exception of the inclusion of the “nine kas” bit of the story, which I took from a very old stage play about Hatshepsut which I admired.  Otherwise, it was all nonfiction books and several thesis papers by various students of Egyptology I found online.

Tyldesley was the author I used most often because her writing style is so engrossing and fun.  Reading her nonfiction is as good as reading fiction about ancient Egypt.  Anybody who’s interested in the period should read as many of her books as they can find!

RL: Could you sum up The Sekhmet Bed in one sentence? How about with four words?

LH: Oh, gee…one sentence:  A vindictive rivalry between two sisters leads to a life-and-death struggle to name a female child the Egyptian heir.  Four words:  Ain’t easy being queen.

RL: “Ain’t easy being queen.” I love that! Did you plot out the book with an outline or do you prefer to write spontaneously?

LH: The Sekhmet Bed and its two sequels were specifically outlined in great detail!  My other writing – the literary stuff – is much looser and usually spontaneous.

RL: Here’s a question that often enters my mind when I’m feeling whimsical. If Hollywood made the incredibly wise decision of turning The Sekhmet Bed into a blockbuster movie, who would play Ahmose? Thutmose? Mutnofret? And the tender, handsome Ineni?

LH: Oh, no!  I am a terrible follower of film, I am sorry to say, and I know very little of actors.  So I am sure I will embarrass myself with this answer.  But if I could get a time-traveling cast, I see Ahmose in my head as a very young Halle Berry.  I think Mutnofret would be played by a teen-aged Glenn Close in good makeup.  She has the range to play such a complex character.  Thutmose would be Jason Momoa with slightly less muscles and a little more age.  He was amazing in Game of Thrones as Khal Drogo.  And I think Ineni would have to be Danny Pudi.  He’s so cute and sweet-looking, but what a fantastic actor!

RL: Don’t worry, Libbie. I’m just happy you didn’t say “Brad Pitt!” Ha Ha! Thank you so much for visiting my website and giving me these delicious tidbits about The Sekhmet Bed. I’m so glad I have this book, and I know I’ll read it again and again. I can’t wait for volume two in this wonderful trilogy, and I look forward to many, many more Ironside books. Good luck in the future, Libbie!

I think it’s time for cake now….

Learn more about Libbie by visiting her blog. Here she is on Goodreads, and here is another interview of The Sekhmet Bed that I stumbled across, with S.L. Stevens, where you can learn even more about this fantastic book.

The Sekhmet Bed: Libbie Hawker

Again, another Indie-published book has moved me beyond my ability to express, has left me in tears, and will remain with me for a very long time. Publishers had a chance at this and passed? It’s really inconceivable. (I don’t know if this book was even offered to agents or publishers, so my comment/question might not apply.)

Okay, short rant over.

I’ve read many historical novels in the past few years, or tried to, and have often been disappointed, almost to the point where I don’t want to read historical fiction anymore, and have gravitated more toward the fantasy genre. The problem is that I can’t seem to get emotionally invested.

In any novel, first and foremost, I need to be invested in the characters. If I can’t find that investment, I cannot care about what happens. Reading becomes a chore.

After reading The Sekhmet Bed, I began to understand all this in a better way, because The Sekhmet Bed succeeds where, for me, others do not. The Sekhmet Bed offers us the princess, Ahmose, and her pharaoh, Thutmose, (whom I adored). Then we get the nasty sister, Mutnofret, and Ineni, the lover. Even Hawker’s secondary characters, like Aiya, Twomose and Sitre-In became real, fully-fleshed out. I would pick up The Sekhmet Bed intending to read for only a moment, because a moment was all I had at the time. Fifteen minutes, twenty minutes, a half hour later, I would still be reading, even though I felt antsy because I had other things I needed to be doing. I could not stop reading. I had to know what happened next. I had to know what was on that next page.

For this reader, that is the mark of a successful novel.

Many of the scenes in The Sekhmet Bed clearly show how fragile life was in ancient Egypt, even though in some ways, they lived very comfortable, modern lives. Still, the wound caused by an animal bite could fester, and they had no way to stop it. There was danger all around, not only from invading tribes but crocodiles, snakes, and childbirth. Throughout everything runs the gods, their ultimate control, and the need to appease them.

I loved how vividly the author shows the power of women in this culture. I learned so much from this book: about ancient Egypt, and about the possible birth, childhood and subsequent power of Hatshepsut, the famed woman who ruled as pharaoh. I loved how the names of the children, even the Pharaoh’s offspring, were chosen by their mothers. Although the book never ever fails for a single moment in its storytelling ability or in its beautiful voice or in the deep, vibrant connection between character and reader, it still managed to convey a tremendously visual, real, easy-to-identify-with culture and society.

I absolutely loved the full-circle progression of the complex relationship between Ahmose and Mutnofret. I don’t believe I have ever read a book where I disliked a character so much, and by the end of the book I loved her and felt intimately connected to her.

I must stop as this is getting so long. I must not tell more, in fear of writing any spoilers, and because I cannot do any real justice to the many layers of wonderful prose that make up The Sekmet Bed. I will just suggest that anyone who reads this pop on over to Amazon (click on the book cover image) and get yourself a copy.

Of Moths & Butterflies: V.R. Christensen

Of Moths and Butterflies

This carefully, beautifully crafted novel takes the reader on a journey toward love, acceptance, enlightenment, insight, and trust. It really is written in the style of a Victorian novel (It brings to mind several authors) and it takes place in Victorian times. The book is filled with riveting characters, and each one is lovingly fleshed-out, so that the reader grows intimately attached to all (except Sir Edmund and Wyndham, the dark side of the mirror, so to speak), and learns to understand what emotions, life events, and histories are prompting their actions (and in some cases, inactions). While I liked and rooted for Imogen, I was perhaps most drawn to Archer. He is a complex hero in every sense. Young Charlie, too, was a well-drawn child who tugs at, and captures, the heart.

Imogen suffers an attack. This event affects her so profoundly that she runs away from home and what’s left of her family and pretends to be a servant. Her rashly-made choice will change her life, in some ways for the better, and in some ways for worse. Due to the act of running away, she is exposed to Archer, who also has mysteries and pain in his own past, and who is very much drawn to this captivating young woman he believes to be a low-born servant. Yet, subconsciously, he can tell that is not the case. She is also exposed to Sir Edmund, Archer’s uncle, one of the most despicable, unlikeable, cruel fictional characters I have ever had the misfortune and the pleasure of meeting in the pages of a book. Another of my favorites was the wise and inestimable Mrs. Montegue, who throws in her two cents at the most opportune moments, and it would be an error to not mention the tragic, heartbreaking Bess, (Charlie’s mother) who literally brought tears to my eyes; and the crotchety yet loyal Mrs. Hartup. Of the many twists and turns in the human relationships, one that was absolutely delightful, scintillating in every way, was the budding relationship between Clair and Roger. I loved it!

There is growth in this story, setbacks, danger, abuse, triumph and tragedy. There is everything a lover of historical fiction and romance could want. The dialogue is done so skillfully that one almost feels the characters are in the room conversing. I especially loved how masterfully the author wrote anger, confrontation, and arguments. Sexual-romantic tension runs underneath the misunderstandings and miscommunication. Archer and Imogen are obviously very much attracted to each other. Yet, time after time, something comes between them, preventing them from exploring these deeper feelings.

Of Moths and Butterflies is no light, fast, simple, romp. This is a book to sink one’s teeth into, and to curl up with on a long winter’s afternoon. It hearkens back (for me) to the books I read years ago: meaty novels that took their time and told a magnificent story. I wish more books would be written this way.

Highly recommended for those who love big, complex historical fiction novels with a strong romantic element. Clicking on the cover image will take you to its Amazon page.

A Few Reviews: The Year-god’s Daughter

Judith Starkston, author of Hand of Fire and Priestess of Ishana:

Lochlann takes her reader into the mythic, mystical world of Minoan Crete with vibrancy and power. On the island of Crete, known as Kaphtor, a long line of women rule. Their male consorts “rule” for only a year as the Year-god and then are sacrificed to bring fertility to the land. On the mainland, the Mycenaean kingdoms fight among themselves and look with envy at Crete’s greater power and civilization. Rival kings yearn to overthrow the Cretan queen and win for themselves Crete’s preeminent position in trade and wealth. They also worship a male god and hold in distain the goddess who has guarded Crete for generations beyond memory. Thus Lochlann sets the central conflict in her opening novel of her Child of the Erinyes series, which in its eight books spans 4000 years from the Bronze Age to modern times as it follows the lives of two men and a woman who are reborn seven times through history.

The Year-god’s daughter of the title is Aridela, the youngest daughter of Crete’s queen. She has been sheltered and pampered, and her rebellious streak has been allowed to flourish. Lochlann gives her coming of age story rich depth as Aridela confronts threats and challenges both from within her royal world and from the princes of the mainland who circle around her and her family as they try to deceive, seduce and attack their way into supremacy. Sometimes they become entangled in their own snares as Aridela seduces in return. Aridela has goddess-sent dreams and speaks prophecies that reveal the fate of herself and her culture, but they are hard to interpret and even harder to obey. Two half-brothers from the mainland will influence the course of her life and force her to make lethal choices. As each choice presents unintended consequences, Aridela must grow and adapt to them. Family members both on Crete and the mainland, love each other, but when fate does not dole out the talents and gifts in equal measure, and siblings must watch the least suited child take the place they covet, then deep and impossible jealousies and conflicts wrench apart these families. This mythic world is an ideal place to watch such dramatic family tensions play out.

Lochlann’s rich language draws her reader into the story from the first sentences, invoking all of the senses: “The bull was so much bigger than she expected. His pitiless eyes sucked her breath away. The musky stench of his body obliterated the stands, the screaming audience, even the crushing hammer of heat.”

Lochlann uses precise details in abundance to bring to life long ago Knossos. She puts us inside the palace in a variety of ways, such as revealing what decorated the walls, “Frescoes of flitting swallows, high marsh grasses, monkeys, ibex, lilies, and of course, grazing bulls, surrounded them on all sides. Here were hazy mountains with plumes of smoke at their summits, bees rising from carcasses, and peasants holding offerings. They passed painted seas and leaping fish. Even the ceiling of this fantastic place was part of the nature scene, the colors as fresh and bright as if created that morning.” We see and hear the women of the royal court, “Disks sewn into the women’s skirts chimed as they walked, a soothing sound mostly lost beneath giggling and gossip. . . . The women fluttering around her were curled, oiled, and gilded. Their tight bodices made their breasts protrude like proud trophies.”

The Year-God’s Daughter succeeds in bringing to life a very distant world and capturing a heady blend of archaeology, legend, myth and fantasy.

 

At Booksquawk:

The Year God’s Daughter is the first in author Rebecca Lochlann’s Child of the Erinyes series. Even without reading the bio on her website, it’s obvious from the first few pages that this is an author who did her research. She spent fifteen years acquainting herself with ancient Greece, and it shows. Authenticity is steeped into each chapter.

If you are not a fan of historical fiction, don’t let that stop you from reading this excellent book. The finely-honed characterization is such that even with a host of unfamiliar names, you will never lose track of who’s who. The narrative never gets boring – the author has produced a fine balance between description and action.

The story opens with the child Aridela, beloved princess on the island of Crete, recklessly attempting to fulfill her dream of becoming a bull dancer – she believes the goddess Athene has made it her destiny to accomplish the daring and difficult feat. Menoetius is a young foreigner, bastard son of the High King of Mycenae, tasked with finding any weakness in Crete’s defenses. They meet under dire circumstances, and thus begins “Glory, passion, treachery and conspiracy on the grandest scale.”

Divine destiny is a deep-seated theme throughout. Constant regional earthquakes are interpreted by the ruling priestesses as omens, and most everything is imbued with celestial meaning. The reader is immersed in a vivid culture of devoted spirituality. Athene must be appeased with violent sacrifice and every year that sacrifice is the queen’s latest consort – a man who bested all other competitors for the honor of living large for a year and then allowing his blood to consecrate Crete’s soil. Crete is a matrilineal society, but male-dominated kingdoms surround them, and contempt for Athene is spreading on the mainland. If the encroaching changes reach as far as Aridela’s peaceful, prosperous island, a long-prophesied catastrophe will befall them all. From the start, we know this story is headed for a spectacular, world-changing ending. I can’t wait for the rest of the series to see how it all plays out…

Rebecca Lochlann has produced a book of uncommon quality. Highly recommended.

 

At Historical Novel Review:

Set amongst the mystery of the Minoan Labyrinth and the heart-pounding thrill of the bull-dancing ring, The Year-God’s Daughter is the first volume of The Child of the Erinyes, a sweeping epic of a series spanning time from the Bronze Age to the near future.

In Rebecca Lochlann’s first novel, we are introduced to Aridela, a young priestess and princess – and to the mysteries of Athene, the inscrutable goddess whose hand guides Aridela’s fate. Aridela is the youngest daughter of the queen of Kaphtor (Crete). She was born under portentous circumstances and has grown up revered and pampered in her mother’s palace. She is headstrong and strangely wise for her age, seemingly born to rule – yet her meek elder sister Iphiboë is the heir to Kaphtor, and Aridela is pledged to a life of celibacy and service to the goddess Athene.

This novel, being the first in a long series, is largely set-up for events to come; yet The Year-God’s Daughter is packed with plenty of action.  As the groundwork is being laid for the rest of the series, the reader follows Aridela through her coming-of-age – and follows, too, the lives of the people she touches, whose fates are altered by contact with this young woman chosen by Athene: Iphiboë, Themiste the high priestess, Selene the foreign warrior-woman, Lycus the bull-dancer, and more fascinating characters are subtly moved like pawns on a game board by Aridela’s unknowing influence.

Most notable on the list of characters entwined with Aridela are Menoetius and Chrysaleon, half-brothers and sons of the king of Mycenae.  They are sent on a mission by their power-hungry father to discern Kaphtor’s weaknesses so that Mycenae might take control of the rich island nation.  But both brothers soon find themselves in love with Aridela…and at one another’s throats.

The depth of historical information in this novel will delight fans of the genre.  A surprising amount of history and archaeology has been slipped unobtrusively into the narrative.  Lochlann has clearly done an astounding amount of research into her historical setting and culture, yet she never overwhelms the reader with specifics, nor does she lecture.  The conveyance of historical facts and archaeological tidbits feels very natural, woven deftly into the dialogs and thoughts of her intriguing cast of characters.

The primary strength of this book is the writing itself, which I can only describe as sumptuous.  Lochlann has a great flair for sensory detail and fills her novel with such a wealth of sights, sounds, smells, and flavors that the reader feels absolutely immersed in the world of ancient Crete from the first page.  Reading The Year-God’s Daughter is a delicious experience – seldom have I read a historical novel with such a well-drawn setting, and the fact that this book is independently published makes the feat all the more remarkable.  The rare grammatical gaffe occasionally pulled me out of the tale, but never for more than a moment – and while I often found myself wishing I understood some characters’ motives better, I have to assume that, since this is the first in a series with extreme scope, more will be made clear as the series progresses.  In any case, the luscious sensory prose was more than enough to keep me reading,  and has left me eagerly awaiting the next installment.

Cover copy: Crete: A place of magic, of mystery, where violence and sacrifice meet courage and hope.

Aridela: Wrapped in legend, beloved of the people. An extraordinary woman who dances with bulls.

The north wind brings a swift ship and two brothers who plot Crete’s overthrow. Desire for this woman will propel their long rivalry into hatred so murderous it hurtles all three into an unimaginable future, and sparks the immortal rage of the Erinyes.

A woman of keen instinct and unshakeable loyalty. A proud warrior prince and his wounded half-brother. Glory, passion, treachery and conspiracy on the grandest scale.

What seems the end is only the beginning.

Reviews At Amazon: read them all

 

Axios: Dolores McCabe

Axios

This is the first book I have ever read that is told almost completely in dialogue. There is very little description or narration, only just enough, and I must say, with a few minor exceptions, it works beautifully. This author’s gift is dialogue; she must have realized that at some point and she uses it brilliantly. It may well be the best book I have ever read when it comes to razor-like crystalline flow of conversation. So much character and setting comes through simply by the way these people converse. Impressive, and it’s clear the author feels very much at home and comfortable with these historical figures.

Axios is a fast read, not surprising, as dialogue reads more quickly than narration. I was swiftly drawn in to the fate of the protagonists, both good and bad. When the worst thing that can happen happens to Claudia Acte–a trained hetairi, Greek by birth and a slave-prostitute in Rome–(I grew quite fond of how she is almost always called by her full name, Claudia Acte) I was in tears. Her despair rang clear through me; I identified with her suffering as completely as though it was happening to me. I could imagine it all too well, every time she screamed, “Is it finished yet?” Tigellinus is an amazing jerk: even when he finally discovers why she fell into misery so profound only death could give relief, he doesn’t seem to really care, or seem to comprehend his part in it. I’m still not sure if he didn’t do it deliberately. After all, one of the first things he ever says to her is: “Reason? You have just been thrust from the gilded bowers of Reason into the twisted world of Survival. Learn quickly, Claudia Acte!” (I love that line.)

Axios is pure historical fiction. I have never studied Roman history, but the book appears to follow the lives of Nero, Tigellinus, Capito, Poppaea, Claudia Acte, and others of historical record.

Even if you aren’t a fan of straight historical fiction, or of Roman debauchery, or of Christian over-and-undertones, (I fall into all three categories) I can confidently recommend this book. The author paints all three aspects with a light brush, interweaving them together so that none takes precedence. Never did I feel I was being preached to or guided toward some particular belief. She leaves all that to each individual reader. Nero, in particular, is as I have always imagined him. Emotional, immature, selfish, cruel but thinking of himself as the opposite. A baby wearing a crown! He was wonderfully drawn. Tigellinus? I cannot to this moment decide how I feel about him. The first impression given lingered so that later, it was hard to see him in a more kindly light.

My only minor criticism would be that I needed a little more character development. Mostly I feel I can see the protagonists clearly, but still, I needed a little more, especially for Tigellinus, who came across cynical in the extreme, yet seemed to soften somehow, later, but I wasn’t quite sure how, or why. Acte, too, keeps much of herself hidden, even from the reader. I also hoped for a little more of Claudia Acte’s child, a daughter sent to Spain, but we never hear whether they were ever able to meet.

At the other end of the spectrum is the scene of the Great Fire, of which we have all heard something while in school. (“Nero sang while Rome burned.”) This scene was skillfully written. I visualized it all as I rode along with Tigellinus and his man Monsanus, who fought their way into the heat and danger searching for Claudia Acte. Also there is a scene of the classic Roman torture and death in the arena: this, too, was so skillfully written that I sadly envisioned it in detail.

I cannot say whether the author has a feminist intent, but for me, reading the way women and men treated each other in this era, a feminist manifesto shines through. On the one end, far too much of everything creates a sense of cheapness to life. On the other, life is a constant struggle to survive. Claudia Acte is envious of the poverty-stricken slaves who have nothing of their own. “They laughed, they gossiped. And when they were done they departed for their cramped, airless apartments over the stables. Acte listened to them. How could it be? They dwelt amidst squalor and severe deprivation, and yet they laughed. She sat amidst wealth and splendor and endured untold misery.” There seems to be very little in the way of honor, fidelity, or trust in Nero’s Rome. Simply everyone is at risk for all manner of evil, reminiscent of “Lord of the Flies.” One line stays with me: “Gods, Capito, didn’t you bring something to stuff in her mouth?” Capito replies, “I never stir without it. It’s my fist.”

Another line that stays with me, stated profoundly toward the end by Gaius Tigellinus: “I was once Rome’s lover. She is too possessive a mistress to submit to a lover’s abandonment.”

She of Many Names

“There was a tendency in Minoan Crete to combine the goddesses into one deity.” Rodney Castleden, The Knossos Labyrinth

Athene is mentioned again and again on the tablets and records from Crete. Her name was spelled “a-ta-na,” and most agree this was an early form of Athene. On at least one

tablet, the name “a-ta-na” is combined with “po-ti-ni-ja,” which is thought to be Potnia. Thus in my book, you’ll see the declaration “Potnia Athene,” used several times. It simply meant “Lady,” or “Mistress.”

Photo: “P1010629 crop” by Aeleftherios – Own work. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons – http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:P1010629_crop.png#mediaviewer/File:P1010629_crop.png — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

It’s important to remember when reading The Year-god’s Daughter (and the connecting books, The Thinara King and In the Moon of Asterion,) that what we know about these ancient, pre-Hellenic deities is sparse and fragmented. That Athene existed on Crete and was very important is pretty clear. That there were other goddesses is not so clear; the various names might well have been titles used for different aspects or roles of the same goddess. My story takes place before the familiar pantheon we all know from Classical Greece. Most experts agree that Athene existed long before they did, and that she came from somewhere else, not Greece. So I chose to use Athene almost exclusively, incorporating the various names as alternate names for her. Athene was The Great Goddess, basically, and all these other images or personalities were simply variations of her. Robert Graves also influenced my decision to use Athene this way. In The Greek Myths, he talks again and again about Athene being a pre-Hellenic goddess of vast importance, to whom the sacred kings were sacrificed, and he shares with his readers many of her Names and Titles.

Many mythologists call The Goddess “She of Many Names.” Here are a few titles and names I used in The Child of the Erinyes.

POTNIA: “Mistress,” or “Lady.”

“The Great Goddess or Mother Goddess held sway until the very end of the Minoan civilization and was even for a time in a dominant position in the Mycenean pantheon, until her position was supplanted by Zeus. The Great Goddess seems to have been called Potnia, at least in the final decades of the Labyrinth’s history. The name recurs in place after place, not just on Crete but throughout the Mycenean world. Meaning no more than ‘The Lady’ or ‘The Mistress’, it nevertheless carried powerful connotations and resonances: it was clearly the proper name of an important goddess.” Rodney Castleden, The Knossos Labyrinth

“Potnia had a domestic aspect as a guardian of households and cities. She was the wife and mother, the dependable figure of order and reason. In a sense she represented the conscious mind. Hers, probably, was the double-axe symbol that we find at so many Minoan sanctuaries on Crete, but possibly the pillar and the snake were her symbols too.” Rodney Castleden, The Knossos Labyrinth

BRITOMARTIS: “Lady of the Wild Things.”

“There were wild goddesses too, associated with untamed landscape and consorting with wild beasts. . . . A chaste and free wild goddess, who was a huntress and tamer of wild beasts, is now often referred to as the Mistress of Wild Animals or Queen of Wild Beasts. It seems that the Cretans called her Britomartis, said to mean ‘sweet virgin’, and she became the Artemis or Diana of the classical period.” Rodney Castleden, The Knossos Labyrinth

Eleuthia: Goddess of mothers and childbirth

“She was named in the temple records at Knossos and her nearest sanctuary, the Cave of Eileithyia as it is known today, is at Amnisos. The Cave of Eleuthia was an important centre of worship from neolithic times right through the bronze and iron ages, into the Roman period. It is even mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey, Book 19. Inside the Eleuthia Cave is a natural stalagmite protected by an artificial stone wall, the focus of the cave cult and probably regarded as the manifestation or dwelling of the goddess Eleuthia.

Dictynna: Goddess of fishermen, or “of the net.”

It appears that Dictynna, too, was later merged with Artemis. Imagine how important fishermen were on an island like Crete. It’s not surprising they would have their own special goddess, “She who cast the nets.”

Gorgopis:

“grim faced.” A title of Athene’s, according to Robert Graves. The fearsome aspect, the face of Athene at the moment of death.

Areia:

Meaning unknown, but this was one of Athene’s titles and/or names. If one types “definition of Areia” into Google search, what comes up are several sites describing Athene.

Laphria: “the goat goddess.”

Graves says that this was Athene’s title representing her as a “goat goddess.” He says that the word Laphria suggests that “the goddess was the pursuer, not the pursued.”