This is an interview I did as part of my marketing for my upcoming novel Priestess of the Lost Colony. All questions were prepared by fellow author Robert Yehling (you can check out his website here). I must warn you that there might be some minor spoilers in this exchange.
Tell us about your fascination with ancient history, and in particular, ancient Egypt and the prelude to ancient Greece. What aspects of those histories really appeal to you?
I’ve been into ancient Egypt ever since we studied it in second grade. For me, the most fascinating thing about it is something that most people don’t recognize or appreciate. Namely, that it was a fundamentally African civilization, built and populated by dark-skinned people whom I believe we would call “black” if we saw them today. It wasn’t the only African civilization, of course, but it is one of the oldest as well as the most extensively documented, and its stone monuments are among the grandest anywhere on the continent or elsewhere in the ancient world.
You picked an interesting time period — about 1600 BC, long before Greece became a bedrock of civilization. What were some of the things about that time period you wanted to point out in the story?
Much of the inspiration behind the story comes from ancient Greek legends claiming that Egyptians had settled on their shores. One example of these legends, recorded by the Athenian historian Herodotus, said that Egyptian priestesses (whom he called “black doves”) founded the oracle of Dodona.
However, another source of inspiration comes from the Egyptians’ own records, specifically the Annals of Amenemhat II from the period of their history known as the Middle Kingdom. They relate raiding expeditions the Egyptians launched against two towns in the northern Mediterranean basin, Iwa and Iasy. Some scholars have interpreted Iwa as referring to a settlement in what is now Turkey and Iwa as none other than the island of Cyprus. If the Egyptians were invading countries in Asia and the Mediterranean during that time period, then it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch for them to reach as far north as Greece before 1600 BC.
Mind you, 1600 BC is the period when the Mycenaean civilization in Greece had started developing. If the Egyptians had already colonized Greece before then, it would make sense for a conflict between the Egyptian colonists and the Mycenaeans to take place around that date.
You’ve written this story in the sidewinding narrative structure of an ancient Greek epic, yet also some touches that feel modern — a powerful female heroine, addressing immigration in Troy, people of other/opposing cultures co-mingling. How did all the twists, turns and surprises help you in the story you wanted to tell?
I did start out with a basic outline of how I wanted the story to go, but it was the sort of outline that grew vaguer and less detailed towards the end. The twists and turns you mention would almost all be either deviations from that outline or filling in the blanks, and I think they helped make writing the story more exciting and less predictable than it would be if I knew everything about what was going to happen beforehand.
Tell us about Itawaret, someone that fits right into the priestess culture, almost a prelude to a young Cleopatra. But dealing with a violent male-dominated world. What is her mission? And how does she use her power, personality and wits to make things happen?
Her mission is to liberate what remains of her people after Scylax and his Mycenaeans drag them home in chains. I believe that, of all her attributes, it is her diplomatic ability that benefits her the most, since she can persuade almost all kinds of people into aiding her cause. However, she is also capable of defending herself in combat when necessary.
The antagonist is Scylax, who sacks Per-Pehu, takes loads of prisoners back to his kingdom but can’t get the one he wants to be his servant-bride-queen, Itawaret. Which tyrants came to mind when you were writing Scylax? What do you see as the thing tyrants do that we must try to stop to remain free — things Scylax did?
One tyrant that inspired Scylax’s character was the one running the US at this very moment, of course. However, I like to think Scylax is much smarter, braver, and less comically buffoonish than the real-life individual I have in mind here. What they have in common are a tendency to view women as objects to possess and dominate as well as a complete lack of respect for their subjects’ freedom of speech—especially when those subjects criticize how they are running things. There is a scene in the book wherein one of Scylax’s citizens calls out his behavior, and he has her punished with extreme cruelty to make an example of her. It’s rather like how tyrants in the real world claim the free press is the enemy of the people, by which they mean themselves.
The book is full of magical realism, most especially Kleno and Athena, the owl. Also Zugutan, the shamaness. Can you describe how the people of that time saw added powers in their gods and in animals? How did that help you put together the challenges Itawaret, Bek and gang faced on their journey to free their countrymen and sack Scylax?
Of course, ancient people believed in the supernatural and deities because they had no better means of explaining what they could not understand. In my story’s world, however, these supernatural beings are not mere figments of the imagination, but rather real empirical phenomena. I think adding these elements to the story made the adventure much more challenging and exciting for my characters, since they had to contend with threats nobody in real life ever had to worry about. For example, it would be much more difficult to escape your enemies’ notice when they have a goddess in owl form spying on you and tracking you down!
One of the most striking parts of the book is the treatment of immigrants. What aspect of this treatment troubled you most about that time period — and about how it is today?
The topic of immigration raised in the book wasn’t based on anything happening in that time period, but rather current events. To be honest, I introduced the whole thing into my novel to get me through a moment of writer’s block, since said events were on my mind at that moment. With that said, it does tie into the book’s larger theme of people from different cultures coming together and learning to coexist with one another. The “bad guy” characters in my novel almost all have xenophobic and ethnocentric tendencies, and the mistreatment of immigrants in Troy is one symptom of this larger disease.
What were the favorite parts of this book for you? What did you have the most fun writing about?
It was probably building the world. Some of this I accomplished through description of the environments and their inhabitants, but in other cases I was able to work it into character interactions to show their contrasting values and worldviews. Whichever way I do it, I love showing off the worlds I create in my imagination!
To the previous question, what twists and turns and surprises in the book surprised YOU when you came up with them? Would love to hear what surprised even you — and made it into the story.
Without spoiling anything for those who haven’t read the book yet, the biggest surprises happened towards the end, since my outline became less detailed at that point as I said earlier. Those surprises relate to how our heroes are going to solve their main problem once all seems lost and all their previous efforts failed. When you reach that point in your conflict, a little ingenuity—and maybe some guidance and wisdom from sources you trust—can come very much in handy.
When you studied the war strategies in order to write those climactic scenes, what impressed you about the way wars were fought then — and what did you want your war scenes to convey?
One thing I have learned about ancient Greek warfare when researching for this story was that a large component of it amounted to a big shoving match between opposite teams of hoplites (spearmen), who would be pushing each other with their shields while jabbing with their spears. However, the battles in my novel don’t all play out that way, since some of the characters attempt more cunning strategies such as ambushes and flanking. When writing these sequences, I wanted to convey a sense of chaos, exhaustion, and flaming rage as different cultures’ way of fighting clashed into one another.
Finally, you’re also an accomplished illustrator — and have drawn quite a few panels to illustrate the book. Did your illustrations help you visualize the characters and their journey? If so, how? And how does illustrating in general help you see through the stories you write?
I find that a strong visual image of the characters and what they’re doing helps with imagining the story as I write it. I’ve always been a very visual thinker. In addition, drawing my characters is simply an entertaining diversion—even more so when they’re attractive young women like Itaweret! XD