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.
Favs from around the web this week: Kate Quinn’s Lion and the Rose gets a great review by Stephanie Thornton, Deb Swift on the expulsion of Muslims fr 17th C Spain, dynamiting ancient tombs in Turkey (what!?), Heather Webb on pulling Josephine, Napolean’s Empress, out of the salacious mud, & choosing language for historical fiction by Josh Getzler.
My favorites from around the web this week: Egyptian pyramids, Florentine marbling, love of reading, mystery humor, and symbolic pomegranates.
See the cover of Hand of Fire & read about Vikings, food in fiction, St. Francis’s female sidekick, an interview with Fireship’s leader, how not to behave as an author, and how to prep for research travel–and what to do with all that research once you’ve done it!
Kanner has filled in the sparse Biblical account of Noah, telling the story of the flood from the point of view of Noah’s wife, and thus creating an extended modern midrash.
Meet My Main Character: Briseis. I’ve been tagged by historical fiction author Nancy Bilyeau in a blog hop.
A newly discovered sarcophagus and gold seal ring that could be right out of my manuscript and two reviewers’ reading advice on great books from Heather Webb and Gabrielle Zevin.
2017-2018 AZ Historical Novel Society Calendar
September 23, 2-4 pm
British Tea party and conversation with authors Juliana Gray (Edwardian) and Charles Todd (WWI), followed by an informal meeting in the new room at the Poisoned Pen. We have some catching up to do after our long summer break.
Bring sweet or savory snacks and beverages to share–or just bring yourself.
We meet at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore
4014 N Goldwater Blvd #101
Scottsdale, AZ 85251
Phone:(480) 947-2974
Click through to see upcoming and past meeting topics. Everyone welcome–writers and readers. We’re an informal group with no dues just lots of great community and information sharing.
Medieval nuns & prostitutes, Feminists fr. preRevolutionary NY & Mesopotamia, telling history fr the pagan peasant point of view, and translating an Egyptian stela changes the chronology of the Near East, starring some of my favorite writers, bloggers and historians: Nancy Bilyeau, Bruce Holsinger, Kim Rendfeld, Shirley Graetz, Sarah Johnson, Nassem Al-Mehairi, and University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute.
Set in Galveston in 1900, The Promise brings us inside two utterly different women’s voices and experiences as they cope with upheaval, loss and love. A masterful book.
AZ Historical Novel Society Meeting April 5: History of Sex. My favorites on web this week: oldest winemaking, Tolkien’s Beowulf, overview of historical romance, Celebrating Women continues w/ Catherine the Great, ancient female philosophers & Medici heroines.
