From My Fantasy Writing Desk
This week, Libby Fischer Hellmann hosted me on her weekly show. The show is called Second Sunday Books. Although I’ve known Libby since the beginning of my writing career, we hadn’t caught up in ages. What a delightful conversation about writing historical fiction: Hittites for me, Vietnam for her. Challenges for both of us. We looked at the surprising parallels between her new novel, A Bend in the River, and mine, Of Kings and Griffins.
Here’s the show on YouTube:
Archaeology I Enjoyed
Glacier Reveals
Melting alpine glaciers are revealing many archaeological insights. However, the fragile finds soon decay once freed from the ice. The clock is ticking. Most of the potential finds will decay unfound without help from chance finds by hikers, etc. We might not find any more extraordinary discoveries like “Oetzi,” a 5,300-year-old warrior whose body had been preserved inside an Alpine glacier in the Italian Tyrol region.
However, the recent range of smaller finds indicates how much early peoples accessed the high mountains. They went in search of veins of crystal to sculpt tools, pasturage for herds, and routes to surrounding valleys and trade. The ice preservation of organic materials such as leather shoes, bark quivers, and plant textiles is a rare window into early human life. Click here for Archaeology News Network “Melting Alpine Glaciers Yield Archaeological Treasure Troves, But Clock Ticking”