Today’s special author guest is historical fantasy novelist Nicole Sallak Anderson. We’re chatting about Origins.
During her virtual book tour, Nicole will be awarding a $50 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice) gift card to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit her other tour stops and enter there, too!
The books will be on sale for $0.99 during the tour at Amazon.
Bio:
Nicole Sallak Anderson is Computer Science graduate from Purdue University, and former CTO for a small Silicon Valley startup, turned novelist, speaker, and blogger, focusing on the intersection of technology and consciousness. Her essays range from AI and Zen to direct democracy to the loneliness of modern parenting — featured as a top twenty story on Medium. In addition, her work on Universal Basic Income has been included on 2020 presidential candidate, Andrew Yang’s, website: https://www.yang2020.com/policies/the-freedom-dividend/.
Her latest project, The Song of the King’s Heart Trilogy, is a series about the last native Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt and his quest to take back his ancestral kingdom from the Ptolemaic Empire. The first two installments, Origins and Blood and Chaos, are available on Amazon. The last novel in the series, Civilization’s End, will be released October 2021.
Welcome, Nicole. Please tell us a little bit about Origins.
This is the lost story of Lord Ankhwenefer, known to the Greeks as Chaonnophris the Rebel, the last native Egyptian Pharaoh. The brilliance and heartache of his rebellion weave a tale that history has forgotten.
Until now.
In the year 205 B.C., after centuries of Persian and Macedonian occupation, a rebel king rises from the south to take ancient Egypt back unto native hands. He will battle the Ptolemy line for twenty years, and rule almost eighty percent of Egypt, yet in the end, history will never mention his name.
Born Prince Ankhmakis, the last in a line of native Egyptian kings, he is raised with one purpose—to help his father reclaim Egypt from the Macedonian occupiers and return their country to dynastic greatness. Fate, however, has its own plans. For lies and deceit live in the hearts of all involved, from his family to the priesthood, and the Greeks aren’t the only ones who seek to destroy him.
Natasa is in training to become the High Priestess of the temple of Isis. Her task is to strengthen the royal family with the magic of the goddess through love and pleasure. She never thought the connection between her and Ankhmakis could be so strong, or carry a power coveted by those lurking in the shadows. Nor did she know that the child they would create would have her own great destiny to fulfill.
Together, Ankhmakis and Natasa must defend the potential of their love from those who would seek to use it for their own gain. Theirs is a world of magic, power, riches, and lust, and there are those within the court who would do anything to keep Ankhmakis and Natasa apart. Between mystical forces, murder, and illicit schemes–only the gods know if they’ll survive.
Excerpt from Origins:
Before sunrise on the final morning of their journey, Natasa woke to the sound of gentle music. She slipped away from her snoring father, who was, of course, sleeping beside her and made her way up to the deck. There she found Iu-Amon standing in the shadows. He was watching Ankhmakis, who stood at the bow playing his pandura, unaware he had an audience. Natasa smiled at how beautiful and noble the prince looked, singing to the rising Sun God, Ra.
“What’s he doing?” she asked Iu-Amon.
“He’s played this song every morning since Alexandria,” Iu-Amon whispered.
“It’s beautiful,” she sighed.
The sky turned purple, and streaks of pink and gold paled the horizon.
“Why does he do it?”
“Well,” Iu-Amon said, smiling as bright as Ra himself, “it’s been my experience that only one thing compels a young man to sing to the sunrise.”
“What?” she asked.
“I think the prince is in love.”
How do you develop your plot and characters?
I go into it with an idea of the overall storyline but take the time to “date” my characters, getting to know each one until I can let them tell the story and I just become their scribe.
Please describe your writing space.
At the moment, I’m writing in an oversized closet that I think was once a dressing room. It’s the quietest place in the house. I have a desk, some shelves filled with books and a small nature table filled with symbols that inspire me to keep writing, even when I might not want to.
What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
Chocolate anything.
Which mythological creature are you most like?
The Baba Yaga from Russian fairy tales. I dream of being an old witch in the forest who everyone is afraid of but comes to nonetheless when they need a magic potion.
What is the first book you remember making an indelible impression on you?
The Little Prince. I first read it in 8th grade and have kept a copy ever since. There’s something about that story that moved me in such a way that I read it even to my sons when they were babes in my arms.
Links:
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The books will be on sale for $0.99 during the tour at Amazon.
Thanks for hosting!
Great post, thank you.
Thank you so much for hosting Origins. I’m very excited to share this trilogy with others interested in ancient Egypt and the power of love during a time of war.
Sounds like a very good book.