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…
Women In History are still a novelty. Where are all the voices of irrepressible women throughout history? It’s a question I’ve asked out loud since I discovered the revolutionary art of Central and South America in my early 20s. After a very white, conservative American upbringing, I found my worldview leveled by them. Women such…
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…