Ηats of the Ancient Near East
Today’s post is all about cool f**king ancient hats. I’ve been reading way too many anally retentive fanboy arguments recently about...
top of page
Author of Historical Thrillers. Unlikeable Heroine.
The World of The Very Wolf
The Very Wolf is set on the shores of the Black Sea in what is now Turkey, during a war between the Roman Republic and the Kingdom of Pontos in 89 BC.
Pontos was one of the few empires to seriously challenge the rise of Rome. A fascinating blend of Greek, Persian and local cultures, it was home to some of the Ancient World's most brilliant scientists, philosophers and soldiers.
But Pontos was part of something even bigger. The Hellenistic world that flourished in the Middle East and North Africa after Alexander the Great's wars was huge, dangerous and diverse, and modern art and science would not exist without this melting pot of religions, cultures and ideas.
On this blog I will explain the history behind my story and the inspiration for my characters. I'll talk about how I've gone about writing historical fiction and the ethics, pitfalls and pleasures of that. I've also pulled together a Bibliography for those of you who want to explore Hellenistic Pontos in more depth.
Search
Happy Birthday, Alexander the not-so-Accursed
Last week was the anniversary of the birth of Alexander King of Macedon, better known as Alexander the Great. Or, if you’re a medieval...
Why I don't want to write a bestseller
When was the last time someone asked you what you want to achieve as a writer? I don’t mean when was the last time someone told you how...
Invisible women: spies in Ancient Rome, Greece and Persia
The Roman Republic had no secret service. I’ll just let that sink in for a moment. This vast, complex, heavily militarised state had no...
Meet the Amazons: Ancient Persian women and families
The Ancient Greeks told stories about fierce warrior women from the East. In this land turned upside down they had little time for men...
Ancient Greek Courtesans: Distracted by the sexy
Few women in the ancient world captured the feverish, custard-and-crumpets-and-flogging Victorian male imagination like Ancient Greek...
The man in the sarcophagus
I’ve written about needing an aristocrat in my novel The Very Wolf for plot purposes. What I mean by that is really two things. There was...
How to use objects in Historical Fiction
If you only write historical fiction about the people who wrote history, you’re missing out a lot of the past. But how do you write about...
When you fail at Indie Publishing
I used to teach people how to run research projects at a University. I had a presentation I gave my students several years running, and...
Ma: Mother Goddess of the Wilds
Gods come and go in Anatolia, brought by wars, trade and migration. But the Great Mother may have been there before any of the others,...
Mithra in Anatolia
In the old Achaemenid Empire, Mithra was the aspect of God that oversaw covenants, oaths, order and light. Ahura Mazda created these...
Bitchface: Swearing in Historical Fiction
Luckily, I enjoy swearing. It's an essential part of British English. Doing swearing right is key to fitting in and getting on in my...
Men Pharnakou, moon god fit for a king
The origins of a forgotten god and very not-forgotten flag. We’re starting our series on the weird and wonderful world of Anatolian...
bottom of page