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…
In December 2019 I traveled to Egypt to do research for the Eye of Isis novels, set in Alexandria in the time of Cleopatra. Below are photographs of tomb carvings at Al Qarnah, the artisans’ village. Cornrows are not a new thing in fashion. Tetisheri put her hands on her hips and glared. “I…
General Thales, known as the new Theodotos, stood at parade rest with his hands clasped behind his back, dressed in a simple linen tunic with a leather belt, wrist guards and sandals, and no jewelry whatever. He had a square, rugged face, currently looking as if it had been used as a model for…
I traveled to Egypt in December 2019 to do research for my Eye of Isis novels, which are set in Alexandria in the time of Cleopatra. “It’s not about the sewers,” Apollodorus said. “They’re afraid she’s going to spend all their money on books for the Library, in particular books to replace the ones that…
Read more “They’re afraid she’s going to spend all their money on books for the Library.”
Every single one of the extant sources who wrote about Cleopatra’s life had an agenda, specifically to demonize Cleopatra and make hers a name to live in infamy. …her story is constructed as much of male fear as fantasy. Cicero, Plutarch, Dio, Lucan, Schiff quotes them all extensively and compensates for their obvious bias by…
