It is the first century AD, and the empire of Rome has grown into one of the largest in the history of the Mediterranean. Forged with cold sharp iron over the course of centuries, Roman authority now stretches as far afield as the floodplains of Egypt to the south, the sands of Judaea to the east, and the frigid woodlands of Gaul and Britannia to the north. Yet that is not enough for Rome. Their latest designs are on the equatorial heart of Africa, hoping to expand from there to conquer the whole continent and its innumerable riches…riches enough to support a campaign of world conquest.
There is one person who stands in the way of these ambitions. She is Nadjela, the proud and fierce Crown Princess of Batela. Together with her trusty leopard companion Ishaga, Nadjela will come face to face with both local adversaries and the wrath of the Roman Empire over the course of four adventures. Will her courage and martial ability, and the blessing of her god Nyambe the Creator, be enough to defend all of Africa and the world beyond?
The YouTuber KLA the Wanderer was kind enough to offer me an interview for his channel wherein I would get to talk about my artwork and writing. Please do check it out!
The Spanish-language paleontology blog Koprolitos has an article about me on their blog, sharing samples of my artwork with my permission. If you can read Spanish (unfortunately, mine is very rusty at best), please do check it out!
A loud blip from the sonar screen knocked Captain Tanaka Hideyo out of his semi-slumber. His eyelids fluttered like moth wings as he leaned from his chair to examine the screen. Whenever the sonar’s spinning “needle” swept over the lower right corner, a large green silhouette shaped like an elongated teardrop blinked into view. And each time it reappeared, the mysterious form appeared to have drifted one bit closer to the screen’s center.
“What do you think it could be, Captain?” Lieutenant Suzuki Kenji asked. His tanned yellow-brown face had turned paler than usual.
“Probably a whale,” Tanaka said.
Suzuki shook his head. “I’ve never seen a whale leave a blip that big. Not even a blue whale. And it’s coming straight toward us!”
The captain groaned. “Don’t tell me it’s one of those fictional sea monsters, then. I keep telling you, Lieutenant, you watch way too many silly kaiju movies.”
“Maybe, but with all due respect, Captain, you should at least keep an open mind.”
Tanaka took a deep breath and stiffened his arms to suppress a desire to slap his subordinate for talking back. “Very well, you can check the stern. But do expect to be disappointed.”
Suzuki hurried out of the bridge with a flashlight to pierce through the nocturnal darkness. Tanaka shook his head with a mutter as he sank deeper into his chair. His lieutenant may have still been young, but nonetheless he should have had enough experience on board their vessel to know that kaiju, or sea serpents, or whatever it was he imagined did not exist outside of myth and movies. There were massive sea creatures such as the blue whale to be sure, but even the largest blue whale on record was less than a hundred feet long, or more than sixty-four feet shorter than the Hayabusha-class patrol boat they had manned.
Tanaka checked the sonar screen again. He had to admit, the blipping silhouette looked to be over twice the size of the last whale he remembered passing by. And it was still approaching their vessel.
The whole bridge jolted and rocked, almost pushing the captain off his seat. That was strange. As far as the boat’s masthead light could let him see through the darkness of the night beyond the bridge, the sea had been calm before, without any rain or howling wind. What Tanaka could hear was the crew shouting and the clapping of boots on the metal deck.
Lieutenant Suzuki burst back into the bridge from the starboard door, his face as pale as the snow on Mount Fuji and glossy with sweat. “It’s a kaiju, alright! And it’s surfacing!”
Tanaka ran out where his subordinate had entered and advanced along the boat’s starboard toward the stern, clinging to the railing as the vessel rocked and crewmen brushed past him. He had reached halfway to the stern when he froze in place, the blood draining from his face and leaving it cold. The boat’s sidelights shimmered on the surface of a giant spiked fin which pierced up from the ocean. In front of the fin rose a titanic scaly dome which parted to show a mouth lined with ivory spears longer than men stood tall, with the stench of rotten fish hitting Tanaka like a fetid gale. Above the cavernous gape burned a pair of luminous green eyes with snake-like slits for pupils.
If it was not a kaiju, or giant monster, then Tanaka would be at a loss to imagine it being anything else.
The kaiju from my short story “Goddesses of the Hunt”.
As the leviathan spurted toward the boat with a velocity impossible for such a giant creature, the two machine guns mounted behind the bridge sputtered at it. Their bullets bounced off the monster’s flesh without leaving even a dent, as did those of the crewmen’s rifles. Without any time being left to launch the boat’s guided missiles before the kaiju struck, Tanaka could think of only one way he and his men could come out alive.
Today, I am ecstatic to announce that my debut novel Priestess of the Lost Colony is now available to preorder from the publisher Open Books Press’s website!
A headstrong Egyptian priestess, her brother, their sacked colony—and a rescue mission. When Itawaret’s beloved Per-Pehu falls to the tyrannical Scylax, she and her brother Bek lead a mission to save her captured people and depose Scylax. Along the way, they run into all kinds of perils, friends, and foes—and beasts sent by an angry goddess. Set in ancient Greece 3,500 years ago, this is a tale blending magical realism with history, high adventure with discovery . . . and Itawaret’s determination to save her people while learning her heart’s desires and realizing her deeper purpose.
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.
