Spartans are Bad Ass

The Princess of Sparta – Book One of the Trojan Saga

Yeah, I’ve been tweeting about it, but I’m proud to announce officially, I got the first draft down on my new book, THE PRINCESS OF SPARTA.

How did this project come about? I was gun-ho on writing The Omega Project, a YA science fiction future dystopia about cloning. I got the first act done on that book and WHAM, totally shifted gears.

One, blame JR. He wanted me to go back to my archaeology roots. So grudgingly, I began brainstorming ideas that always intrigued me. A few conversations about fairy tales and mythology and I stumbled across my old love…

Ah, the Bronze Age, the Age of Heroes and Legend. The time when Empires rose and fell under the power of warrior kings… and the exciting part about those stories is– they are all REAL. This wasn’t a comic book or made up future. This was history, based on archaeological record, the real events that created the world we live in.

Okay, I’m a history dweeb. I studied this era in undergrad, memorizing slides of digs in Iran and Iraq from 60 years ago by Professors who dressed like Lawrence of Arabia. I went to the Near East for field study, walked the ruins and became enchanted by the land where Christ walked, and before him, all the legendary characters of the Old Testament. Israel, Jordan, Egypt — those lands have memory. You can feel it soaking into your body as you walk throughout the sites.

There is so much to Grecian history, and the origin of the western world, than most people know. It began at a critical period in ancient times, during the 13th century BC. Rameses II ruled in Egypt, the Jews endured the Exodus out of slavery, a volcano erupted in the Aegean, and the old empires were struck by a mysterious force archaeologists have still been unable to identify. Circa 1250 BC, these mysterious Sea People attacked, clearing out the rot of the old rulers, and paved the way for the rise of Greece.

Yes, the thirteenth century BC was a climatic time. And it just so happens this was the era that the Heroes of Homer walked the earth.

Was it coincidence? I think not.

I’m going into overtime editing this piece. When it’s done, it will be a cross breed of mythology set into the actual historical context of the Bronze Age. It will have the same cast of colorful characters you’ve come to love: Odysseus, Agamemnon, Menelaus, Achilles and most importantly– Helen and Paris, but told with a fresh prospective, one that acknowledges their place in a complex world. A world where the power of true love, not just swords, will determine the course of history for the ages to come.by