I Love Research From Chariots to Crocodiles

...but I can get lost in it sometimes! I do the most in depth research for my paranormal novels set in ancient Egypt. It's not that I don't research some specific things for the science fiction, but the Egypt of thousands of years calls to me. I maintain a large library of actual books, most of which I list on the my blog under the topic of overall historical accuracy. At some point I realized I probably owned a lot of the books I’d need if I was pursuing a degree in Egyptology (but facing no tests).

So how do I pursue this research? I don’t write strictly historical novels because I wanted to have the Egyptian gods and goddesses take direct action in the events. Right away this takes me outside the boundaries of what’s acceptable for historically accurate. I don’t want my novels to be “wallpaper historicals” either though, where I just toss in a few cool looking Egyptian words and make reference to the pyramids, pat the Sphinx on the head and I’m done. I want the Reader to be in ancient Egypt, even if it’s my paranormal version. There are some plot conveniences I want, like talking about actual coins (which the actual deben system was not). I do some deliberate anachronisms to serve my stories.

Let’s take my latest novel MAGIC OF THE NILE. Since it’s a sequel to PRIESTESS OF THE NILE, I’d already done the research into the Crocodile God Sobek, hero of the first book and major player in the second. But for the new book, since we spend time at the temple my heroine Tyema runs, I researched how Sobek’s temples were organized 4000 years ago, a lot more details about crocodiles, how processions were conducted, which deities were important in the capital city of Thebes, the hierarchy of an Egyptian temple’s priesthood, what Pharaoh would wear for different activities, what foods would be served on a big feast day…

I needed my hero Sahure to be dashing, so he’s a charioteer, which was about as dashing as you could get in 1500 BCE. That led to research on chariots, including a wonderful NOVA special, called “Building Pharaoh’s Chariot.” (Available on dvd.) Watching a team of British researchers attempt to reconstruct the chariot of ancient times, with the help of Egyptian craftsmen, basically by studying tomb paintings and the few actual surviving chariots, was amazing.  But where does Sahure need to drive in his gleaming, horse-drawn vehicle?

Turns out there was a chain of fortifications along various Egyptian borders, including at the Southern Oasis of Kharga, located on a major caravan route. I’d already researched caravans pretty heavily for a sequence in DANCER OF THE NILE. That’s one nice thing about writing a series – I can build on the tidbits I’ve learned before.  Also, research suggests plot points and vice versa. Since I’m a seat-of-the-pants writer, this approach works for me! Now I know all about Kharga, including the topography and weather.

At one point, Sahure needs to tell Tyema about a battle he’s fought in beside Pharaoh. I drew a suitable tale to adapt from translations of  4000 year old eyewitness accounts of actual warfare and gave my character the right ‘memories’ to share with the heroine. I also needed to be able to talk about his weapons and tactics. Back to researching bows and arrows of the time…

Were the native people of the Southern Oasis descended from the goddess Sekhmet? They apparently thought so, which sent me off to ponder all the cool facets of her powers and background.  In many cases there are alternate versions of the myths surrounding an Egyptian deity so I’m free to choose the aspects that work for my story and to extrapolate other ideas for my plot.  

A lot of the research I do never shows up directly in the novels, so if by now you’ve been thinking that my books must be pretty dry, dusty tomes, possibly akin to the textbooks, let me reassure you. I have to be able to put myself in the headspace of ancient Egypt, so I can create characters who are believable residents of that time and place, even while they’re having these amazing adventures. I don’t have to show off all my research (except maybe in blog posts LOL). If it doesn’t serve the plot, it doesn’t go in the book, but the knowledge might influence the story’s direction.

It’s trickier than you might think though and I know I don’t always succeed. Let me give you an example from the first draft of DANCER OF THE NILE: “The chariot bounced over iron hard ruts…” The problem? The Egyptians didn’t have iron at this point in time! So I changed it to “bronze hard”…but to a modern reader that’s an unfamiliar phrase and it took me completely out of the flow when I read it. Eventually the line became: “The chariot jounced over deep, hard ruts…” 

So there's my example of how researching one thing takes me to the next and so on and so forth...

And below the art is the NOVA special on chariots:

>

My Hero Has A Side Kick

Well the science fiction romance heroes do anyway. In my SFR's the heroes are usually Sectors Special Forces operators (the far future version of SEALs, you see) and they almost always have a sergeant working alongside. The sergeant is also a medic and all around badass. I have great respect for sergeants. My father was a sergeant at the very end of WWII (busted back to PFC for reasons he was proud of, regarding his men, but we won't discuss all that here.) My late husband was a Staff Sergeant in the USMC Reserves when he was killed (in a civilian accident).

Also, the sergeants are my little tribute to the character of the sergeant in the original 1951 version of "The Thing From Another World." (shown above) Crew chief Bob in that movie knew everything. He was the linchpin of the whole team (and is in the center of the photo).

I like the idea of a tight, two man team sent to deal with dangerous situations, watching each other's sixes.

In Wreck of the Nebula Dream, my hero Nick Jameson is on his way to be court martialled for the loss of his entire team, including the sergeant, on a mission gone really south. When the civilian ship he's on has its catastrophe (this book isn't referred to as "Titanic in space" lightly), his ad hoc team becomes one D'nvannae Brother (think deadly assassin/bodyguard serving an alien goddess) and one determined businesswoman who isn't waiting around to be rescued. Help her or get out of her way, you know? His team expands as they fight to survive and get off the ship. He also ends up shepherding an elderly alien woman, two small children and a Socialite girl who surprises everyone....I deliberately wrote Wreck of the Nebula Dream in classic disaster movie style, so that was the logic behind who forms the nucleus of passengers Nick cares about and tries to save.

Now in my Egyptian series, the plots focus much more tightly on the hero and heroine. The gods of Egypt take an active part in the action but I don't think Horus the Falcon or Sekhmet the Lioness would appreciate being labelled as anyone's side kicks. I know Renenutet the Snake Goddess wouldn't!

The series anchor character is my Pharaoh, Nat-re-Akhte, and through the different books we also catch glimpses of his Great Royal Wife Ashayet and his Chief Scribe, Edekh. While being far too grand to be viewed as a sergeant, Edekh is like Crew Chief Bob - he knows all, he takes care of everything before anyone else even realizes there's a need. Maybe someday I'll have a novel that calls for me to tell you more of Edekh's backstory. I have a whole court of characters ready to deploy if and when the plots call for them to take a bow.

We know from past posts here I don't plot in great detail before I dive into the writing, but I do usually know if there's going to be a "sergeant" involved! I write who and what the book calls for....there will be many minor characters perhaps, like the caravan master in Dancer of the Nile or the lady-in-waiting in Magic of the Nile, but they aren't significant-enough players in the action to be a side kick.

Sometimes the World Is Already Built

I write two different series - a loosely connected set of science fiction romance and adventure  novels set in the far future of a galactic civilization I call the Sectors and another loosely connected set of paranormal romances set in Ancient Egypt. 1550 BCE  Egypt to be pretty exact.

Talk about a rich background in which to to set stories! By then the Egyptians had about 1600 years of history already behind them, the pyramids were built long ago, there were myths and gods, heroes and legends, male and female pharaohs, and a well organized civilization with all of its own rules and intricacies. OK, so I did not create Ancient Egypt. But I don't write pure historicals either...I want, no I need the gods to be personally involved in the events that occur during my novels. So I do research and more research and I never know where the research will lead me, in terms of either new plot ideas or facts to weave into the stories.

It really made my day when Kirkus Reviews said I'd "clearly done my research".  Thanks, guys!

So I invented my own Pharaoh, made him a composite of several real men who sat the on the throne around that time. I gave him a Usurper Pharaoh to fight  and she's very loosely based on Hatshepsut. My ruler and the heroes and heroines of my books constantly battle the Hyksos, who were Egypt's primary enemy at that time, and their gods and demons, which I freely admit to having developed myself, based on research into a great many belief systems of ancient peoples in that part of the world (Sumer, Mesopotamia, Akkadia) and what little we know of the Hyksos.

But it's not as simple as plunking my characters down in hot, sunny ancient Egypt during the Nile inundation and "just"  writing. I want  the people in my novels to inhabit their world believably, even if black magic is going on and the goddess Isis is issuing commands... First of all, while we know a great deal about the civilization, most of the knowledge is from tomb paintings, scraps and fragments of papyrus, broken columns etc. So a lot of what we "know" is theorizing, which leaves me room to maneuver. Secondly, the Egyptian pantheon of deities had origin stories that shifted over time. Not only that, the gods themselves changed during the thousands of years the Egyptian civilization reigned. In some cases three or four previously separate gods eventually morphed into one. And many cities and towns had their own local  god or goddess, or a version of one of the more well known gods.

So like anyone who has built a world from scratch, I have to keep track of which aspects of the mythology and the history I've chosen and be consistent. I have to try to weave daily details into my novels that place my characters in ancient Egypt for you, without either going overboard on how much research I've got at my fingertips or having the dancers, priestesses, warriors and others take too much notice of things that would be routine to them.

I enjoy the challenge. I love the time period, which is part of why I write novels set there...I sometimes create

deliberate anachronisms to make the story flow a bit more easily...I catch myself in other anachronisms that need to be fixed. "The chariot jounced over iron hard ruts..." Umm, no, they didn't have iron at this stage. and saying the chariot jounced over bronze hard ruts is just going to take my Readers out of the story most likely so...time to rewrite that sentence!

So yes, I "moved into" a world that I didn't have to create from thin air, but once I was there, I definitely did some rearranging and expansion to make the background into the place where the stories I want to tell can take place.

Maybe another week I'll tell you about my science fiction world building. Anything can happen at Word Whores!

Villains (Twirl Mustache Now)

I think the actual subject this week is something along the lines of Villain as Protagonist, which just isn't something I really do in my books. Obviously there has to be a "villain" of some kind. I was imprinted young by two very different, old fashioned science fiction classics (as shown on late night TV, badly cut up to allow time for endless used car dealer ads). So on the one hand we have Ming the Merciless whose only motivation seems to be that he feels born to rule the Universe and consort with hot babes...and on the other hand we have Dr. Morbius in Forbidden Planet, who has so many motivations and so much backstory, including being based on a Shakespeare character, that it's hard for one movie to contain it all!

Flash Gordon kinda says "Not my planet and not my hot girlfriend - hands off!" in reaction to "his" villain. Captain J. J. Adams  has to keep Morbius's id from killing them all, rescue the hot lady (and the all knowing robot) and get the heck back into space before the planet blows up.

Entertainment Weekly very conveniently has a story written by Anthony Breznican on this very subject in their November 8, 2013 issue, which I received today. Good thing I got my mail today! I don't know if the article is also on their website at  http://www.ew.com/ew/ but it's a fun story, including a table of the five Archetypes, including such tropes as The Snubbed Sibling and the Vengeful One, tracing them backwards and forwards in time. Sauron from LOTR is a Power Monger, according to them. I think Ming probably falls into that category too, although I can't recall Sauron paying any attention to women, which was a key oversight on his part. (SPOILER: Remember Sauron's subordinate the Witch-King and what Eowyn did to him?) And we don't know if Sauraon had a mustache, come to think of it.

The article also has this great quote from Sean Bailey, President of Production at Walt Disney Studios:
"The better you make your villain, the better your hero has to be." Mr. Bailey goes on in the article to discuss John McClane of "Die Hard" and how he had to rise to a level where he could defeat Hans Gruber.

Some of my books have a specific villain, as in Escape From Zulaire or Dancer of the Nile, but often this person is working within the framework of bigger events, like a war. So he's on his side, which is the opposite side from that of my hero and heroine. The conflict doesn't start out as personal.  In Wreck of the Nebula Dream the disaster traces back to a greedy corporation more than anything else and the fight during the book for Nick and Mara is just to survive and get off the wrecked ship.

Now I am writing a villain (or maybe a villainness, just to keep you guessing) in Magic of the Nile, which will be out in January, and I'm giving this person more of an in-depth set of reasons why they do what they do, and why they feel what they feel about the heroine and her hero.... no war, no wrecked cruise ships...

But so, if you know that I began with Ming and Morbius, you can probably figure out that I won't be writing any villains on the level of what my colleague James A. Moore talked with such enthusiasm about on Monday.

Although I do have an idea for a D'nvannae Brother* gone bad......never say never, I guess!

(*think Ninja/Monk/Badass/serves an alien goddess - first introduced by me in WRECK)