Jun 13, 2023 | Fun Historical Facts
Everyone knows of mermaids, and some are even aware of their Greek origins: as a seafaring culture, the ancient Greeks had several sea creatures that fit the bill, from sirens to nereids and naiads. Not many are familiar with the wide range of sea monsters that...
Jun 1, 2022 | Fun Historical Facts, Quora
Bradford McCormick, a reader of this blog, mentioned Helen of Troy in a comment and got me thinking. What did happen to that crazy lass after Troy fell? Well, turns out the answer, as told by Steve Theodore on Quora, is both complicated and fascinating. A Happy Ending...
May 7, 2021 | Fun Historical Facts
When I was at school, we learned of Ri-Pa-Pe – the rhythmic chant of Athenian oarsmen pulling a trireme’s 180 oars. Contrary to what you might think, triremes were manned not by slaves but by some 200 free men from all social strata. Indeed, for a...
Sep 7, 2020 | Fun Historical Facts
I have a confession: besides writing, I love cooking and I love food. Perhaps that explains why the parts I enjoy most in fantasy or historical fiction books concern the little things – things like food and drink. What kind of dinner do the protagonists enjoy,...
Jul 14, 2016 | Fun Historical Facts, Random Musings
I debated posting this for a while. I hate standing on a soap box, and this is a blog about books, not politics. But there’s so much going on worldwide at the moment that I’ve started feeling like an ostrich, hiding my head in the sand. What gave me the...
Jun 27, 2016 | Fun Historical Facts, Random Musings
Under the ancient oak, home to mighty Zeus, a priest holding a thin sheet of lead is waiting patiently for the widow before him to ask her question. She hesitates for a moment, listening to the rustling leaves over them. “It’s my job to interpret...
Nov 4, 2015 | Interviews Features and Reviews
You may remember the charming Celine Jeanjean from my recent post, A Perfect Blurb. Having read Pearseus: Rise of the Prince, Celine interviewed me, asking some great questions about the true story of the Grecopersian wars; my inspiration behind Pearseus. We ended up...
Sep 2, 2014 | My Publications
People ran around her, shouting and screaming. Sol could not move under the weight of the guard and raised her head to seek her brother. As she did, a second arrow passed so close to her eye that its feathers scratched her eyebrow. Blood flowed from the wound,...
Feb 21, 2014 | Fun Historical Facts, My Guest posts
Women feature prominently on Pearseus. But what was their place in the antiquity that inspired the book? An abridged version of this piece was posted on Bravebird Publishing. Women in history: truth stranger than fiction “People ran around her, shouting and...
