Hand-drawn maps are life-savers. One of the most daunting parts of writing historical fiction based in times thousands of years in the past is a very limited public historical record. It’s one thing to recount history in a reference book. Something entirely different to create the intimate relationship to place required for a novel. I’ve…
When you are diagramming a scene, you can see the characters in it. Writing is an art steeped in the lyrical use of words (stunning revelation, I know). Figuring out the magical combination of phrases, nouns, verbs and a participle or two is something we as novelists fret over on a minute-by-minute basis. Jumping in today…
I’ve been busy figuring out war and the nature of power these days. To Read Up On Hypatia of Alexandria and build more of the Sibylline world, I went to the Greek warriors. Here is my novel research reading for this week. Greek Philosophers and War Thucydides’ was exactly the kind of wisdom Hypatia would…
A sense of place. That is something for which I strive. One of the key ancient-world settings in the Seals of Annach is Daphni, Greece. Since ancient times, a temple has stood on the site 11 kilometers northwest of Athens on the Sacred Way to Eleusis and the National Road to Corinth – Daphne Monastery, in massive…