From My Fantasy Writing Desk:
Double the Poisoned Pen Launch Fun
Sometimes the best of plans just get better.
I announced a while back that for Sorcery in Alpara’s launch party, I’m celebrating with five other women authors for a mixed-genre afternoon on Saturday, November 9th from 2 to 3 pm at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore, 4014 N Goldwater Blvd, Scottsdale, AZ.
I’m looking forward to this animated occasion. Our books represent an entertaining range including historical mysteries, historical fantasy, contemporary detective fiction, thriller, and cozies. You’re all invited. Join me!
But Wait, There’s More
And then, this week I was at the Pen for a friend’s book launch. Pat King, who oversees the fantasy collection at the store, invited me to participate in an evening of fantasy authors on Friday, November 8 from 7 to 8 pm at the Poisoned Pen.
I’m honored to join two hugely successful authors, Jen Lyons with The Name of All Things and Kel Kade with Fate of the Fallen. You are all invited for this evening of epic fantasy.
Join me at both events or pick your favorite.
I will bake plenty of “bloody daggers.” Fortunately, my dangerously delicious Linzer tart cookies work thematically across multiple genres!
Archaeology I Enjoyed:
Save that Painting!
Herculaneum’s wall paintings are getting a much-needed conservation. Due to a new technique they may actually survive both time and an earlier misguided “preservation.” Herculaneum was a smaller but wealthier town than Pompeii. As a result, the houses offer some exquisite architecture and art.
There’s around four meters of ash burying Pompeii, but 15 meters of rock over Herculaneum. This is a good thing in the sense that more of Herculaneum remains untouched because it’s hard to excavate. (Read undestroyed by previous looters and early, not-yet-competent archaeology.)
But one 3 story house discovered in 1938 had its paintings coated in wax to preserve them, as unfortunately, many Pompeiian ones have been. The wax destroys them. It causes the paintings to pull off from the wall and crumble. Now conservators have developed a technique with a non-organic rigid gel to remove the wax but leave a stable painting layer. Apparently, it took a lot of experimentation to come up with this method.
The paintings were magnificent when photographed in 1938, but they had almost disappeared before this restoration. Now the Bicentenary house, as it is known, is open to the public again after being closed since 1983. They will apply this technique widely to other paintings that need to be saved from early misguided preservation. The conserved areas depict two large mythological scenes. one shows Venus and Mars, another Daedalus and Pasiphae. There are also paintings with Dionysian themes. Click here for Archaeology News Network “New Technique Reveals Lost Splendours of Herculaneum Art”
“Lost” Greek City Shows Off Its Roman Flair
photo by VladoubidoOo Wiki
The excavation of Tenea continues. Legend says this Greek city was founded by Trojans sometime around 1100 BCE. In the myths, Oedipus grew up in Tenea before the oracle drove him out in an ill-advised effort not to kill his father and sleep with his mother. The city prospered throughout the Greek and Roman periods until it, for reasons unknown, ceased. Even its location was forgotten. No one knew where the “lost” city was until 2018 when its discovery rocked the archaeology world.
The current dig layer is Roman. They’ve uncovered an extensive bath complex. Some of the clay floors still have paint on them. Recent finds also include an intriguing pile of religious artifacts purposely buried by a well. Both Greeks and Romans tossed lead curse tablets and other magical objects into wells. This deposit of figurines and miniature vessels lies next to rather than inside the 15-meter-deep well. It appears to be an intentional burial of religious significance. Click here for Archaeology News Network “New discoveries at ancient Greek city of Tenea”