As many of you know, in 2011 I and my Egyptology professor, Dr. Kelly-Anne Diamond, spent the month of June studying in Egypt. Our intention was to document Theban tomb 123 and publish our findings…unfortunately, our permission never came through due to the instability in the government at the time and we were unable to even enter the tomb. While our original plans fell through, we did not waste our time in Egypt. We traveled from Cairo (where we crawled inside the Great Pyramid) to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings and from there to Aswan and Abu Simbel. Needless to say, traveling through Egypt was one of the most exciting and amazing trips I have taken and this time of year the memories come rushing back because the entire month of May 2011 I was in a constant state of anticipation and excitement and the feeling still resonates 8 years later.
As I finished up my online spring course at St. Catherine’s University I decided that this summer I would work on my book…again. This book idea has been banging around in my head for about 3 years now, and I have worked on it on and off again during that time but I’d like to see if I can actually write a chapter or two over the next few months. Since this book takes place in ancient Egypt (hence the introduction on my trip to Egypt) I have spent the majority of my time researching because I want the historical context of the story to be as accurate as I can make it but now I feel like I want to start writing the characters I have been creating in my mind over that past few years.
I have written many papers for classes (up to 100 pages in length!) throughout my academic career but I have the distinct feeling that writing this story will be a different experience. Research and argument papers are one thing…a novel is something else entirely. So here is a quick synopsis of my story…
This story is about three young ladies (10-12yrs. old) living at the time of Ramesses the Great, from different walks of life who become friends and work together to stop a palace conspiracy in the Egyptian capitol of Thebes (modern day Luxor). The idea is to have the reader learn about ancient Egypt through the lives of these young ladies and believe me, palace conspiracies were almost common place during the time of the Egyptian pharaohs so I am by no means stretching the truth in order to write this story! As a means to keep me working on this project and to hear any feedback you all may have, I’d like to share bits of the story/character ideas/writing journey on the blog over the summer months. I’d love to hear what you think of my ideas as I post them so feel free to message me on Facebook or post to The Book War Facebook page with any ideas or comments after I post about the book. The creative process of writing a novel is new to me and I’m excited to have you all along for the ride!
Next week I’ll introduce you to a couple of the young ladies whose story I’ll be telling…
Read (and write) on my friends!
