As it's National Poetry Day, I thought I'd share a few thoughts on Byron. The celebrity cult of Lord Byron began while he was still alive, boomed when he died, and still continues today. He remains an object of fascination, scandal, and appeal. I've been interested in him since I first read about him in a "Famous People" encyclopaedia. It was a children's book, so it did not explore the more infamous aspects of his life. But it was enough to inspire me to delve further into research on the man and the myth - including the puzzle of the mirror . Ultimately, Byron went on to become a major inspiration for my first published book Day's Dying Glory , right down to its title. His early poems (generally my favourite ones) feature heavily in the book, and I enjoyed weaving in lines and references which Byron-fans would spot where others might not even notice them. Poets and poetry have inspired hundreds of writers. It is fascinating that language can be so power...
It's #HistFicThursdays again, and this week I'm delighted to be welcoming back N.L. Holmes as part of her Coffee Pot Book Club tour for the final instalment of The Lord Hani Mysteries. Find out about how she engaged with writing this book, and how it felt to complete her series, in the guest post below. But first - let's meet the book...
Blurb
Hani must secretly obtain a Hittite bridegroom for Queen Meryet-amen, but Ay and the faction behind Prince Tut -ankh-aten are opposed -- to the point of violence. Does the death of an artisan have anything to do with Ay’s determination to see his grandson on the throne?
Then, another death brings Egypt to the brink of war... Hani’s diplomatic skills will be pushed to the limit in this final book in The Lord Hani Mysteries.
Pilot Who Knows the Water is available via this Universal Link
Guest Post
What was the hardest thing to research for this book?
I think the hardest part of researching the background for this book was trying to sort out what must actually have been going on politically between the reigns of Akhenaten and his son Tutankhaten. We’re not even sure who was on the throne in that interim! Clearly, a big pushback to Akhenaten’s “reforms” was brewing, because they would all be blown away in a very few years, but was the reaction violent? In short, was there a civil war? And how much would that have impacted the ordinary person? The more research I did, the less clear it was, because scholars are by no means united on the answers! The sequence I have come up with seems increasingly to be accepted: namely, that Akhenaten’s brother (son? nephew?) Smenkhkara shared the throne with him but didn’t survive him. That Akhenaten’s wife Nefertiti succeeded him as king for a brief period. And only then did “Tut” come to the throne. Another related question is who was the “dakhamunza” who asked the Hittites for a prince to become her bridegroom, against all Egyptian tradition? We only have Hittite testimony of this; the Egyptians have obliterated it from their history. People used to take for granted that she was Ankhesenpaaten, the widow of Tut, thus putting the event some ten years after the interregnum. But, thanks to outside evidence like a solar eclipse, more and more scholars date this request before Tut. Thus, the likelihood that the king’s wife (in Hittite, dakhamunza) who approached Hatti for a bridegroom is either Nefertiti herself or her daughter Meryetaten, widow of Smenkhkara and formal wife first of her father, then of her mother. Confusing? You better believe it! Fortunately, I write fiction!
What are the pros and cons of writing a series rather than a stand-alone book?
The good part about a series is that after the first book, you already have your characters formed and their relationships worked out. Their voices are clear in your head. You don’t have to redo all the research to create the basic world. Pilot was the sixth in a series, so I felt like I knew these people and their times well by that point. But of course, you can’t be sure that everyone who picks up the book and reads it will have read all the previous ones, at least not recently. Thus, there is a need to recapitulate, yet you don’t want to bore readers who are tunnelling through the books one after another with too much repetition. It’s a fine balance. New readers tell me that they were able to jump in without being lost, so perhaps I have succeeded. Then, in this case, which is the final instalment, I was writing a book that had to satisfy all the arcs that had carried on throughout six stories—personal stories that opened up in the course of the other five books that needed to be resolved here. That meant, too, that I had to keep track of everyone’s ages and the names of their children in a cast that had gotten bigger and bigger over the years. But that was only a matter of bookkeeping, so to speak.
How did it feel to complete this series? Do you think you’ll return to Ancient Egypt for more books? Why?
It was a little sad to finish with the Lord Hani series, because I genuinely loved him and his family and their colourful, dangerous world. I think a lot of readers felt the same way. I had a commitment after that to do another story set in the Hittite Empire (The Players, which will begin appearing soon on Amazon’s Vella format), but Hani fans, rejoice! I’m working now on a spin-off series centred on Hani’s daughter Neferet, a physician in Thebes/Waset, who will carry on the family tradition of unravelling crimes. Hani himself will show up too. There is also a more practical reason for sticking with the Egyptian setting: a lot of readers are deep-dyed Egyptophiles, whereas the Hittites don’t have such a devoted lobby!
Now, let's meet the author:
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N.L. Holmes is the pen name of a professional archaeologist who received her doctorate from Bryn Mawr College. She has excavated in Greece and in Israel and taught ancient history and humanities at the university level for many years. She has always had a passion for books, and in childhood, she and her cousin (also a writer today) used to write stories for fun.Today, she and her husband
live in France with their chickens and cats, where she weaves, plays the violin, gardens, and dances.
You can follow N.L. Holmes on these links:
Thanks very much for hosting N. L. Holmes today, with such an interesting post. xx
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