1. How long have you been writing?
I’ve been writing for approximately 64 years, but I wasn’t
published until 1989. That was
when my first novel, Spacedog’s Best Friend (now out of
print) was published by Bluebird Publishing. It was a cute little story about telepathic poodles and some
day I’m going to have to get it out and transcribe it into my computer and get
it re-issued. Between my nom de plume and myself, I’ve had 31
novels published so far.
2. What is your favorite genre to write?
I like SF/fantasy/horror, but if I had to make a choice, I’d say
fantasy, which I consider combining all three. Most of my novels fit in that category, though I have some
romances, written by my pseudonym, Icy Snow Blackstone, which are just love
stories containing no paranormal elements at all.
3. What are you working on now?
At the moment, I’m working on the last novel in The
Chronicles
of Riven the Heretic series.
It’s a prequel, so I suppose technically it’s the first novel in the series, but once it’s finished, the series will
be done. It also leads into
another series, The kan Ingan Archives.
4. When you start a new
story do you begin with a character or plot?
Usually a plot, or at least
some idea of what the story is about and where it’s going to go.
5. Tell us about your latest/upcoming release. What inspired it?
I’m still trying to figure that out! I don’t know.
From somewhere, I got this Beauty-and-the-Beast
idea, about a man who turns into a lion and the girl who saves him. I don’t
know if I was watching Once Upon a Time
at the time, where they were using that theme for the Rumplestiltskin story,
or it was the Disney Beauty and
the Beast, or I may have been watching the new The Wolfman. I might
even have been watching The Mummy!
Then, one day, I
was looking for some jpgs for a trailer I was making, I saw on www.fotolia.com.
One was of a desert warrior with a burnoose-type garment wrapped around
his shoulders and covering his face.
The wind was sweeping the ends of it up into the air. Later, I came across a picture of a
girl wearing the elaborate eye make-up of the ancient Egyptians and wearing a khat (headdress). (I was so intrigued by both these
photos that I used them for the cover of my book.)
So there it was, all these ideas and images ganged up on me, and
just begged to be made into a story.
So I starting doing research on Things
Egyptian. I came across the fact that Hathor, the cow-headed goddess, was
the “golden calf” worshipped by the Israelites. “So,” I said to
myself. “What if some of the Israelites decided to worship Bast, instead of
Hathor, and instead of forgiving them afterward, God cursed them and said, “If
you want to worship a cat so badly, you can become cats!”
So I had a plot, two characters, a vengeful God, and a curse.
And that’s more or less how the whole thing came about.
A Bride…A Beast…A Vengeful God…
A political marriage to
stop a war…a king whose golden mask hides his face from his people…a princess
who loves her husband though she never sees his face…and a curse placed on a
royal family by God…
Senset is a
princess of AEgys, only a minor child, and the daughter of a lesser wife of
King Aseti-Ra, but a royal princess nevertheless. Her people are descended from a group of exiles banished
from their home far to the North, a beautiful land on the banks of a river
whose waters flow northward where pyramids house their sovereigns’ bodies and
palm trees shade oases.
Michael is king
of the Habiru, the Beast Men, and when his brother returns home with tales of
the beautiful woman who helped him escape death, he sees it as an opportunity
for peace between the two warring peoples. He sends Aram back to AEgys with an offer Aseti-Ra can’t
refuse; peace and an alliance between
the Beasts and the AEgysians and a marriage with Senset to seal the deal.
This was an enjoyable story to
write, not only for the tale of love between Michael and Senset, but for the
information I learned during my research.
I’d never
tried any kind of Biblical or ancient Egyptian story before, but I wanted it to
be as authentic as possible within the boundaries I’d set for why an off-shoot
of the Egyptians and the Hebrews were in this particular place at this
particular time. I’ve always liked studying ancient
history anyway, so gathering facts was a treat. There was so much to delve into concerning the ancient
Egyptians (from whom the AEgysians are descended) and the ancient Hebrews (from
whom Michael and his people trace their ancestry).
I learned that
Egypt had many names, such as Ta-Sheme’aw,
“Land of the Rushes”, and Kemet, the “black land,” and that the Nile flows
northward toward the Mediterranean rather than south. Some sources called the Hebrew “Habiru”, others included
them with the Hyksos, the “Shepherd Kings” who thundered into Egypt in their
war chariots and ruled for several centuries.
I learned that though the Egyptians had chariots, they never
rode horseback. The idea repulsed
them and that’s one reason they
consider the Habiru “beasts”…because
they rode horses.
Think of any pictures or murals of pharoahs hunting or at war. They’re always shown in chariots, never
on horseback. In warfare, it was much easier to use a bow while standing in a
chariot with someone else driving, then while riding a horse, trying to guide
it, and aiming a bow so that you didn’t accidentally shoot your mount in the
head. Other animals they used as beasts of burden were camels, donkeys, and
oxen, though the camels were the two-humped kind and not the dromedary or
one-hump camel, which comes from Asia.
I discovered both Egyptians and Hebrews practiced circumcision and
polygamy.
Since this story
wasn’t to be about ancient Egyptians and Hebrews, per se, but of an
off-shoot, I did take some artistic license when using the information I
found. Reasoning that a people
separated from their main group for generations might justifiably change their
ceremonies over the years, I make some of the rituals slightly different from
the originals. The AEgysians
rulers don’t marry their sisters but take their wives from the countries they
conquer, thus making them allies.
A ruler has wives and concubines, but has the choice of which woman he
marries will become his Prime Wife and thus higher than all the rest.
For my delving
into Jewish customs, I was fortunate to find a site called “Judaism 101” which
became my primary source. From it,
as well as other searches, I learned of marriage rituals, childbirth customs,
and coming of age ceremonies, as well as funeral rites.
Writing Bride of the Beast was an
enlightening experience, and I hope it will be both that and an entertainment
for its readers also.
EXCERPT:
(Senset’s brother has captured a Beast
and intends to sacrifice it to Ra-harakhty but the princess wants to see the
creature before it dies…)
For a moment, Senset stood still, staring
into the room. There was no one around. The dungeon master must be off
somewhere having his supper. She hoped.
It was very dark, the only light
trickling dimly through an open square high in the wall, just a few inches
above the outside ground-level. She could see motes of dust swirling thickly as
the air from outside stirred them. Her eyes followed the pale beam of moonlight
downward to where it widened slightly, illuminating a bulky object in the
center of the room.
A cage…a large cage fashioned of iron
slats woven together. On one side, she could see a smaller rectangle, a door
with chains wrapped through the slats, a U-shaped padlock holding them
together. The dust swirled faster and she felt the wind as it swooped into the
cage and out again, bringing with it a thick smell of urine-soaked straw,
blood, and sweat. The center of the cage was dark, but in one corner…
She thought she could see a huddled
shape, thick, wiry fur standing upright, like the way Bubash’s hair spiked when
she was angry or displeased. It wasn’t moving, however.
Is
the beast sleeping? One
of the soldiers had struck it with the flat of his sword. It was already
wounded. Could it have died from the soldiers’ abuse?
Carefully, she tiptoed into the room.
Hugging the wall, she stopped in the shadows cloaking the walls and just stood
there, staring.
She felt a brief disappointment. She’d
expected the creature to be clawing at the walls of the cage, screaming its
rage at being imprisoned. As it was, she could barely see anyth—
“Are you going to stay there in the
shadows staring at me or are you coming out where I can see you?”
Senset jumped. For a fraction of a second,
she just stood there; then, before she realized it, she was taking a step
toward the cage. “Y-you can speak?”
“I’m talking to you, aren’t I?” The beast
turned its head. She thought she saw the glow of eyes reflecting in the
shifting light. “So apparently, I can speak, and more than just AEgyn, too.”
“But you’re a beast,”she protested. “Horem said you couldn’t talk, just make
sounds and grunts.”
“Then he’s mistaken, isn’t he?” There was
a rustle of straw as he rolled over so he was facing her. She became aware that
he was much larger than she’d originally thought. He must have been curled up
in the straw. His voice was rough and harsh, like a hound who’d bayed itself
hoarse. With a groan, he rose to his knees. The movement sent the mix of smells
toward her again.
“He was right about one thing.” Senset
raised a hand, flapping it in front of her to wave the odors away. “You are dirty, smelly, and hairy!”
He gave something that might have been a
bark…or a grating laugh…and shook his head, a shaggy head with a beard hiding
most of his face. “I’ve been fighting a war, little mistress. I’ve been wounded, beaten, and dragged
through your none-too-clean streets. Should I smell as if I’ve just been bathed
by my handmaidens and anointed with fragrant oils?”
“You have handmaidens?” Her memory of him
slashing out at the villager imposed itself over him splashing in a pool-bath while
slavewomen shrieked and fled in terror. Would he like water any more than
Bubash did? Would his fur stand on end like the cat’s, before being slicked to
a sodden mass?
He crawled closer, looking up at her, one
hand against the woven bars. It was a real
hand, she saw, with four grimy, bloody fingers and a thumb. Dirt under the
broken nails. From his knuckles upward was covered by torn leather wrapped in
fur…a lion’s paw, the claws still embedded in it.
“More than I need.” A smirk touched the
bearded face. “Or want.”
“Horem says that same thing.” Senset
wrinkled her nose. Not so much at the smell, she was getting accustomed to
that. It wasn’t any worse than being in the stables, really. The gesture was to emphasize her next
words. “Men. You’re all alike.”
“Get past the smell and the hair, I
imagine I’m as much a man as your beloved General.” His hand tightened on the
slats as he hauled himself to his feet with a swallowed grunt. “Maybe more so.”
“Don’t disparage Horem.” She was quick to
defend her brother. “He’s our hero.”
“And has one stalwart worshipper, it
seems.” He was upright now, towering over her. He was even taller than Horem. A
giant. Senset forced herself not to scurry backward into the shadows again.
“He’s my brother.”
“I beg pardon, your little majesty.” He
bowed slightly and nearly fell, clutching at the bars again.
It was difficult to read his expression
what with the gloom, the dirt, and that beard. Senset had never seen a man with
hair on his face before, except for that little stubble Horem and her father
sported before the Royal barber shaved it off. It was oddly fascinating.
“Half-brother really,” she was surprised
to hear herself explaining. “I’m just the daughter of a seventh wife. But he
knows my name. He speaks to me.”
“You’re double-blessed then, aren’t you?
Aram.”
It took her a moment to realize he’d
given her his name.
“Sensete-Ra.” She executed a clumsy dip
of a bow.
“She
who carries Ra before her. A name which can be interpreted in many ways.”
It shouldn’t have surprised her that he knew the meaning of her name. Still, it
did. This beast wasn’t fitting anything she’d heard about his kind at all.
He shambled closer. One hand cradled his
side and he winced as he moved. He
stepped into the little cone of sunlight and she saw that the fur on his arms
and body, like that on his hands, wasn’t really his. He was wearing an animal
skin, several of them, sewn together. They were laced over what appeared to be
a leather tunic of some kind. Soft leather boots held in place by wrapped
rawhide strips covered from toes to knees, with heavily-muscled thighs showing
beneath the tail of the tunic. The garments and his legs were covered with
dried mud and grass.
He staggered slightly, falling against
the wall of the cage, and inhaled quickly and sharply as he regained his
balance by clinging to the slats again.
“You’re hurt!” The fur covering his upper
body was torn and bloody as was the shoulder beneath it. Why was she shocked?
She knew it already.
“Told…you.” The words came out
breathlessly. “Didn’t I…say…I’d been wounded? You should listen to what people
say, little mistress.” He took his hand from the slat long enough to gesture.
“The General did that with his spear. The soldiers beat me when I fell. Broke a
couple of ribs, I think.”
“You need a physician.” Senset’s gentle
nature awoke. No one, not even an enemy should suffer so.
That earned her a grimace that might have
been a smile. “I’d rather be fed. Didn’t bring any meat scraps to feed the
animals, did you?”
“I’m
sorry. I didn’t.”
“Hm.” He cocked his head slightly,
reminding her of how the hunting pups acted when she spoke to them. Not that he
looked like one of the pups. They were slim and sleek. “Does anyone know you’re
here, Sensete-Ra?”
“No.” Why would he want to know that?
“You shouldn’t admit it,” he cautioned.
“I could kill you and no one would know.”
Bride of the
Beast will be available from Class Act Books, www.classactbooks.com
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