Where do the thoughts of a Writer come from?

A writer writes what she thinks, but where do the thoughts come from?

From her past and present…

From the world around her…

From what she sees, hears, smells, reads, does…

From what happens to her and hers…

A storyteller weaves a story, but where does the yarn come from?

From what happened and what didn’t…

From what should’ve have happened but didn’t…

From events and from people…

From what should be but isn’t...

“The Price of Nofret’s Nose” is a work of fiction. It’s story is about what happened and what didn’t, what must have happened but didn’t, and what should have been but wasn’t; and yet it’s also a story that has characters and reflections from the writer’s past and present and of what happened to her and hers.

The Price of Nofret’s Nose.

 

 

 

Charmed.

Another 5 star review. I’m charmed. Actually, I’m inspired. Thank you, dear unknown reviewer. I’m glad you stopped by to share your thoughts.

I’ll return to share my thoughts on “Strange Weather in Tokyo” and a couple of other books that I’ve read recently.

Thanks 🙂

 

Becoming a GoodReads Author

About thirty minutes ago, I joined the GoodReads Author Program. My Author Profile is available at: https://www.goodreads.com/SRAnand, and I have no idea what I’m supposed to do with my GoodReads account 😦

So far, I’ve been following their instructions to the letter.

They got me started by making me rate some books. I did that. They kept pushing me toward the beautifully rounded and rather luscious figure of twenty by telling me that they’d be providing personal recommendations if I rated twenty books. I did that. Then they asked me to claim my books. I did that too.

Why did I do all this?

I happened to chance upon this short and sweet review of Mysterious Kemet Book I, and I suddenly felt all warm and fuzzy toward GoodReads. Thank you, dear reviewer. You made me smile.

So I climbed the bandwagon – with absolutely no inkling of the direction in which it might take me.

If you’ve been there and done that, I’d be happy for some guidance 🙂

My books, including “Mysterious Kemet: Book – I”, can be downloaded from Amazon.

 

Hatshepsut – in Life and in Death

Hatshepsut is one of the first symbols of feminism that we see buried deep in the sands of time. Three thousand and five hundred years ago, she ruled Egypt more successfully than many other Pharaohs, and yet her monuments were defaced, and attempts were made to obliterate her from history.

Who was this woman Pharaoh who defied tradition and strapped a false beard to her chin? 

Imagine a young girl, about fourteen or fifteen, married to an aging Pharaoh, who finds herself widowed at the age of thirty and finds herself at the helm of the affairs of state – co-ruling Egypt with her two-year-old stepson. The infant pharaoh, still in his swaddling clothes would contribute little more than ear-splitting shrieks to the administration of Egypt. We see here, a capable woman, possibly ruling in the stead of a child, who is not her son.

She obviously was in a position to control the destiny of Egypt and also steer the career of the young Pharaoh, who, upon attaining majority, was promptly sent off to the Egypt-Syrian border to defend it.

Djeser Djeseru, the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut tells us a lot about this woman Pharaoh, and also introduces us to a possible paramour. Senenmut.

The Morality of Sibling Marriages in Ancient Egypt

Immoral is…”conflicting with generally or traditionally held moral principles.”

– Merriam-webster.

As the “generally/traditionally held moral principles” are dependent upon time and place, we might say that what may actually be considered immoral in one place at a given time, may have been or could be moral in another place or at a different time.

Automatically then, we begin to understand and appreciate a lot of ancient mores that flummox us. For instance, the Ancient Egyptian practice of marriages within the family. We call these marriages incestuous today, but two thousand years ago, in Ancient Egypt, this word didn’t exist. They used the terms brother and husband, and sister and wife, interchangeably.

While laws, moral standards, and traditions are temporary and change with time and place, human nature has by and far remained unchanged, which is why it helps us understand the practices of other cultures. Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs tells us that humans are motivated by need, desire, even greed.

Morality is Temporal.

Imagine the Ancient Egyptian Royalty trying to keep the crown in the family. Imagine a pharaoh reflecting upon keeping it all.

“The Price of Nofret’s Nose – Honor and Murder in Ancient Egypt” Published.

Dear Readers and Fellow Bloggers,

I’m glad to announce that “The Price of Nofret’s Nose – Honor and Murder in Ancient Egypt” is now available on Amazon both in eBook and print formats.

Following are the links:

eBook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078ZJJTQC/

Print: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1980404461/

If you are interested in Historical Fiction and/or thrillers/mysteries,  I believe you’ll enjoy reading this thrilling mystery set in Ancient Egypt. Head over to Amazon to read its synopsis and sample the first 10% of the story.

I leave you with the first review on the book:

Now “Menkhaf’s Scrolls” are screaming for my attention. While I figure out what’s troubling those ancient scrolls written by the Immortal Menkhaf, please head over to Amazon and check out Nofret’s Nose.

The Mist Maiden (Story)

For a fleeting moment, he saw her, and then there was just the mist that rose from the Nile and hovered over the calm surface of the water. She had disappeared. Just like that. Was she a wisp of memory rolled so thin by time that it had transformed into a shimmering film of nothingness? Or was she someone his tired imagination had conjured?
“No, she wasn’t a figment of your imagination,” said the old man who had once been a priest of Amun.
“A memory then?” he asked, anxious that the man might confirm it.
“No. She was something else,” replied his old hunchback companion whose eyes were nearly hidden under the lose folds of his lids, and who appeared to be as ancient as the necropolis at Saqqara.
“Then who?”
“She was a woman,” he answered.
“A real woman?” he queried, confused. “Where did she go?”
“She didn’t go anywhere,” replied the old man. “She is still there, on the bank of Nile.”
“But then, why can’t I see her anymore? Does she still live?”
The old man chortled. “Oh, she is. But you can’t, because you don’t.”

Honor and Murder in Ancient Egypt: The Price of Nofret’s Nose.

 

Imba’s hands began slipping down caressing her neck and chest…a token of gratitude – or servitude?

The similarity between Imba’s situation and hers made her cringe. Imba and she were both slaves. They did things because they had to, not because they wanted to.

“Imba, I don’t need you anymore,” Nofret said. The girl’s relief was evident in her alacrity to run and find her faience belt. Nofret passively lay in her bath and watched Imba’s perfect young body as she twisted and turned to clip the belt around her waist.

In two years, I’ll be thirty. The age at which some women become grandmothers!

She slipped back into the water, caressing her own body, trying to discover a wrinkle or a loose fold, but her skin was still supple.

There still is time, she thought.

As Imba walk out of the door, Nofret closed her eyes and allowed her to fall into her private abyss of reflection.

Her life so far had been a rapidly growing collection of regrets.

Twelve years worth of regrets!

Her twelve years of marriage had transformed into a decade of longing and a myriad lost hopes.

If only she had run away with the poet who she had been infatuated with.

If only her father was an Egyptian and not a Philistine on the run.

If only her mother had been of noble birth.

If only Idut had been more considerate and loving.

If only the flame of her desire not singed her wisdom.

If only…if only…if only…

 

The Price of Nofret’s Nose: Honor & Murder in Ancient Egypt is arriving on March 01, 2018. It is currently available for Pre-order on Amazon.

 

The Price of Nofret’s Nose – A Murder Mystery set in Ancient Egypt.

I’m glad to announce that “The Price of Nofret’s Nose” can now be pre-ordered on Amazon 🙂

Please click the following link to book your copy.

The Price of Nofret’s Nose: Honor & Murder in Ancient Egypt

Apparently everything is well in the Amaat Household.

The elder brother Idut is favored by Pharaoh and has been appointed administrator of the Net-uri quarry in the Bekhen valley. His wife Nofret is a lovely young woman who stays home with his blind mother, and his bright young brother Lumeri has now joined him at the quarry.

But when Idut falls to his death at the quarry, cracks begin to surface. Lumeri knows that his brother’s fall wasn’t an accident. In his quest to find justice for his brother, Lumeri discovers a truth that devastates him; and yet nothing can prepare him for the unexpected face of evil that awaits him at home.

In this tale of love & loyalty, greed & lust, and life & death, walk the streets of Qift and Memphis and stay in a noble’s house, where the price of a nose would be paid with lives, and the only thing standing between good and evil would be the loyalty of a slave.

A thrilling murder-mystery, “The Price of Nofret’s Nose,” is set in the New Kingdom, and it opens an intriguing window into the lives of the Ancient Egyptian nobility. As you turn its pages and lose yourself into it, it makes you recoil in horror, smile with hope, blush in anticipation, and sigh with satisfaction.

Thanks.

I wish all my friends in the virtual world and my dear visitors, a great year ahead 🙂

Necrophilia in Ancient Egypt

Possibly the only thing that has remained unchanged throughout our history is human nature. The dark recesses of the human brain have continually goaded a few to seek goals that repulse most of us. Time and again a few who walk and breathe among us have allowed their perversion to reach beyond the grave and indulged in necrophilia.

Instances of necrophilia abound in the modern world, and while most cases aren’t discussed openly, a few have made the world sit up and take notice. The possible desecration of Eva Peron’s corpse by one or more officers who were supposed to guard her embalmed body, had attracted the attention of the whole world to the case. Thirty-two-year old Eva Peron was the wife of Argentina’s then President Juan Peron, when she had died of cervical cancer in 1952, and was embalmed on the request of her husband.

Lesser known instances of Necrophilia  can be found in the historical records from the nineteenth century, where some men of noble birth were found to be necrophiles. Evidence of Necrophilia has been found around the world and throughout history, including in Ancient Egypt.

And yet, what makes Ancient Egypt different is the way not only necrophilia but rape and incest too is