The second Eye of Isis novel publishes on January 15, 2022. Barbara Peters of the Poisoned Pen Bookstore calls it “On the Waterfront, Cleopatra style.” Well, yes. The construction industry always was a deadly business. An excerpt: “We were in Rome, with Auletes and the queen, begging Pompey for money.” “Before my time.” “Just barely,…
I finished the first draft of the third Eye of Isis novel last week, and under strict instructions from the August writers in residence at Storyknife I am to take a week off. Relax. Take a walk on the beach. Drink a bottle of wine with friends. Read books instead of writing them. If only.…
So, in Theft of an Idol (Isis3), Tetisheri discovers a body in the desert. I’m from the Arctic myself. I have a very rudimentary notion of how bodies decay (or don’t) in the cold, and no notion at all of what happens if they are left out in the Sahara. This requires some research. Google,…
Time. In crime fiction time is the essence of detection. If Whositz says “I was sleeping with my mistress when my wife was murdered” the first thing the detective on the case will do is verify that alibi. If Whositz is seen leaving his mistress’ house by the back alley in time to get home,…
This is why I can’t read reference works in e. You can highlight in e, sure, and you can search, but searching is not the same as dogearing or sticky noting, and forget about scribbling marginal notations. So I’m railing against Adrian Goldsworthy again, this time because of this passage in Caesar: Probably in late…
This is what my dining table looks like these days. I’m beginning the third novel in the Eye of Isis series, and I’ve written enough of Tetisheri’s story now to revise her calendar. Calendars are very important in series–when did she do what, where, and to whom? Writing a calendar for the Kate Shugak novels,…
Cleopatra was Macedonian Greek, a direct descendant of Ptolemy I, who plucked the plum of Alexandria and Egypt when the generals divvied up the empire after Alexander the Great’s death. Alexandria was founded by Alexander, a city on the edge of the Middle Sea (aka the Mediterranean) that had only increased in size, beauty and…
A friend who knows I am writing a series set in Cleopatra’s Alexandria was greatly exercised over some of Cleopatra’s decisions. “Why did she make Antony leave Octavia? It gave Octavian all the ammunition he needed to move against her. How could she have done something so stupid?” To which I replied, I admit with…
The commonly accepted story arc for Cleopatra is: Caesar. Antony. Dead. Shakespeare even cut her arc by a third in his Antony and Cleopatra. At least the film managed to get all three plot points in. I was a freshman in Seldovia High when Mr. Winklebleck walked us through Julius Caesar and made us (well,…
Read more The commonly accepted story arc for Cleopatra is: Caesar. Antony. Dead.
In December 2019 I traveled to Egypt to do research for the Eye of Isis novels, which are set in Alexandria in the time of Cleopatra. Remember the paintings from Neferteri’s tomb? These are paintings from the tomb of Sennedjem in Deir-el-Medina. Sennedjem is the artist who painted Nefertari’s tomb. Our guide said the artists…
