Judith Starkston has spent too much time exploring the remains of the ancient worlds of the Greeks and Hittites. Their myths and clashes inspire her fiction and open gates to magical realms. She has degrees in Classics from the University of California, Santa Cruz and Cornell. She loves myths and telling stories, and her novels imbue fantasy with the richness of ancient worlds. The first book in her Trojan Threads Series, Hand of Fire was a semi-finalist for the M.M. Bennett’s Award for Historical Fiction. Priestess of Ishana, the first in her historical fantasy Tesha series, won the San Diego State University Conference Choice Award. Judith is represented by Richard Curtis.
In Daughter of Sand and Stone, Libbie Hawker brings us the timely story of Zenobia, an ancient queen of Palmyra, the beautiful ruins of which city ISIS recently destroyed. My review of this lush and vivid novel.
Posts I enjoyed from around the web this week: Hamilton, the Revolution as writing guide, Roman bones reveal widespread arthritis, Tut’s outer space dagger, Mesopotamian Foundation Figures at the Morgan & a Classics librarian goes punk
I recently conducted a series of interviews with many writers of fiction set in the ancient world and put together one of the cover articles for Historical Novels Review. Ordinarily you need to be a member (which I highly recommend you become!) to read the magazine, but I’m allowed to post it here as an enticement.
Some personal news, Hand of Fire is transitioning to a new publishing home and some posts I enjoyed from around the web: the excavations of Shakespeare’s Curtain theatre continue to surprise and a paper arguing that Roman women had more independence than we thought. (kind of depends on what you thought…)
Some posts I enjoyed from around the web this week: Athenian Trireme sails again, Bronze Age Cyprus wowing with size and reach, Tut disappointment, writing from a cartoon
Review of Emily Hauser’s For the Most Beautiful, a novel of the women of Troy.
Here are some posts I enjoyed around the web this week: Shakespeare’s Curtain Theatre excavated, Tarkhan Dress Oldest clothing dated, Mayan ruins or not, MM Bennetts finalists, gallery of historical novels
AZ Historical Novel Society, quail babies and some posts I enjoyed this week around the web: literacy in Pompeii, a huge stash of Roman coins found in Spain and keeping guns out of fairy tales.
Some posts from around the web that I enjoyed this week: the many genres of Cuneiform, mystery of Roman Britain skulls, the worst reading ever (but funniest), 2,500 yr old seals fr Jerusalem
Alison Morton guest posts about her novels of alternative Roman history. Ever wonder what alternative history is and is it looney? (no…) Teaser: the women get equal rights. Now that’s remarkably alternative! Alison knows her Romans and her world building, which makes this fiction very engaging.
