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.
This little book would be a great Father’s Day gift. Katheryn has collected thirty-five brief stories and essays written by daughters about the impact their fathers had on their lives.
The Great Plains during the post World War I boom years of “big wheat” provide an unusual setting for a mystery. The charm of this book is as much in its intricate descriptions of the steam driven machinery that made the big harvests possible as in the story, although the story became increasingly compelling as I read. For a vivid portrayal of farm life at the beginning of the twentieth century and for an even more vivid picture of life on the fringes of this most iconic of American lifestyles, read Big Wheat
The late archaeologist of the Troia Project, Manfred Korfmann, suggested that there probably was either one or several “Trojan wars.” The archaeological dig at Troy certainly supports the idea of a large, powerful city that underwent a long period of attack.
“You are a woman and think like one. You know nothing at all.” So, in a Hittite myth, says a very grouchy husband to his wife when she has asked yet again about his inability to get her pregnant. Does this show that Hittite men had a decidedly low view of women?
In the Hittite law codes a woman could both initiate a divorce and keep her inheritance and half her husband’s estate if she divorced. On the other hand, the expressions used in Hittite for marriage—there is no one abstract word for “to marry”—reflect the control men exercised over women, “to take a wife” “to take as his own wife” “to make her your wife.” The laws of adultery and rape present a similarly mixed bag.
In the Hittite world the hasawa served many essential roles. Using the sacred stories of myth, she brought the human and divine worlds back into harmony. She performed rites to “cure” family quarrels, disease, and injury. She made divinations to read the will of the gods and she delivered babies.
One way to see how a society views women is to examine its leaders. Are women included and, if they are, to what extent? Both the Hittite and Mycenaean world had powerful queens, in particular: Queen Puduhepa and Queen Helen of Sparta
This article discusses the lives of Hittite and Mycenaean women and the wide range of work they performed, including powerful landowning priestesses and skilled artisans. It also examines the relative wages of men and women in the Hittite and Mycenaean worlds.
A lovely article about how writing a novel can be a lot like having a baby by Ann Brashares, author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Happy Mother’s Day, a bit late!
Amy Dominy’s book isn’t my usual historical fiction, but many of my subscribers know Amy or the Speech and Debate team she based her book on–Desert Vista’s very own champions, so here is a review lots of you will care about.This debut young adult novel, OyMG will warm your heart and make you laugh out loud whether you are 13 or 53. With the precision of a stand-up comedian, Dominy hits every hilarious beat in the stressed-out world of high school speech and debate. With equal precision she portrays the confused inner world of fourteen year old Ellie, a Jewish girl who really wants to win a scholarship to Benedict’s high school, and thinks a Christian speech camp is the way to her goal. But maybe her Zeydeh’s got it right–you have to stand by who you really are.
