BOOK REVIEW: Neferura: The Pharaoh’s Daughter by Malayna Evans
You’ve probably heard of Nefertiti, queen of Egypt. But Neferura? Who’s she?
LOOKING BEYOND THE BLING: A Review of Toby Wilkinson’s Tutankhamun’s Trumpet: Ancient Egypt in 100 Objects from the Boy King’s Tomb
This unique and engaging retelling of ancient Egyptian history is not without flaws.
NEED FOR A HIGHER STANDARD: EGYPTOLOGY’S LAST PREJUDICE
Ableism, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is the “discrimination or prejudice against individuals with disabilities.” So what does this have to do with the study of ancient Egypt?
THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO ONE OF THE ANCIENT WORLD’S GREATEST RULERS: A REVIEW OF PETER J. BRAND’S RAMESSES II, EGYPT’S ULTIMATE PHARAOH
While for many people, their introduction to ancient Egypt began with King Tut, for some, it was Ramesses II portrayed by Yul Brynner in the 1956 movie The Ten Commandments who drew us in. If you fall into this die-hard Ramesses II fan club, then this is the book you’ve been waiting for.
NOT MUCH NEW UNDER THE SUN: A REVIEW OF THE HISTORY CHANNEL’S ANCIENT EMPIRES
There is much to like about Ancient Empires. Each episode presents a decent overview of these individuals’ lives–hitting all the important points…. But the series does have one major flaw.
CLEOPATRA 2.0: THE FAMOUS QUEEN’S SURVIVING DAUGHTER FINALLY GETS HER DUE
Cleopatra’s Daughter fleshes out the life of this little-known yet very successful Roman client queen.
R.I.P. KMT: Eulogy for a Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt 1990-2023
Since its beginning in the spring of1990, Kmt offered articles on current topics in Egyptology.
A TALE OF TWO BOY KINGS: HOW THE MUMMIFIED REMAINS OF AN OBSCURE PHARAOH MIGHT SHED LIGHT ON THE LIFE OF KING TUT
They lived 150 years apart, but their lives followed similar paths. Both were born into the ancient Egyptian royal family…. They came to the throne during turbulent times, and died young….and they just might share the same medical condition.
THE –ISMS OF EGYPTOLOGY: A DISABLED READER’S PERSPECTIVE OF BOB BRIER’S TUTANKHAMUN AND THE TOMB THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
While Part I superbly calls out the colonialism and racism in Egyptology’s past, Part II raises another –ism still very much alive in the field: ableism.
AFTER ONE HUNDRED YEARS, STILL A LONG WAY TO GO: A REVIEW OF THE DISCOVERY CHANNEL’S “KING TUT: A CENTURY OF SECRETS”
The two-hour show, hosted by archaeologist Josh Gates of “Expedition Unknown,” and featuring over a half-dozen experts, covered a wide range of topics related to Egypt’s famous “Boy King.” In doing so, it reveals both how far the field of Egyptology has come in one hundred years and how far it still needs to go.
CAESAR VS. CLEOPATRA: EXPLORING THE WAR THAT ENDED PTOLEMAIC EGYPT
In a year where the limelight shines on King Tut—2022 marks the hundredth anniversary of the discovery of his tomb—another Egyptian monarch takes center stage in a gripping account of the war that ended her reign and her country’s independence….
WHY THIS TWENTY-YEAR-OLD QUESTION IS STILL RELEVANT TODAY
A search for names of prominent Egyptologists throughout the history of the field would yield far more Westerners than Egyptians. And that is why Donald Malcolm Reid’s WHOSE PHARAOHS? remains a must-read even though it was published twenty years ago.
KING TUT: HIS PAST HUNDRED YEARS – A Review of Christina Riggs’ Treasured: How Tutankhamun Shaped a Century
Treasured: How Tutankhamun Shaped a Century provides a fresh angle on the pharaoh by focusing on the influence his discovery has had on the modern world.
A WRITER’S CONFERENCE ON A BUDGET: WRITEONCON 2022
In past years, I have opted for extended admission in order to take advantage of the material for the longest time possible. Here are some of the pros and cons based on my experience with previous WriteOnCon conferences.
STRANGERS IN THE TWO LANDS:THE IMMIGRANT EXPRERIENCE IN ANCIENT EGYPT
Tired of the yearly threat of famine? Sick of unpredictable floods that rivers like the Tigris and Euphrates bring? Then it’s time to consider a move to the Two Lands, where the Nile floods on time each year and harvests are abundant.
FLAWLESS PHARAOHS? A Review of Kara Cooney’s The Good Kings
Based on the title of a more recent volume by Kara Cooney, professor of Egyptian art and architecture at UCLA, one might expect more fulsome praise of pharaohs. Instead, The Good Kings turns Breasted’s kind of thinking on its head. Cooney, author of The Woman Who Would be King and When Women Ruled the World, describes herself as “a recovering Egyptologist” (12). In her latest work, she warns against the tendency to romanticize the past and explores how many aspects of ancient Egyptian authoritarianism are still with us today.
HORRIBLE HOREMHAB? A RE-EVALUATION OF KING TUT’S SUCCESSORS – PART 2
It’s easy to picture Horemhab as a social-climbing military strongman, and this is often how he appears in film and fiction. Could he have taken advantage of his position and slain the young king in order to take the throne for himself?
EVIL AY? A RE-EVALUATION OF KING TUT’S SUCCESSORS – PART 1
King Tut was only in his late teens when he died. The images in his tomb show a heathy, active ruler, hunting in the marshes and charging into battle on his chariot. How had he died so young? When X-rays taken in 1968 revealed a fracture on Tut’s skull, the answer seemed obvious. King Tut perished from a blow to the back of the head. So who killed him?
THE SUICIDE OF CLEOPATRA: HISTORICAL FACT OR ANCIENT ROMAN FICTION?
In Alexandria, Egypt, on August 12, 30 B.C.E., the woman known as the Last Pharaoh, Cleopatra VII, died. The official story was death by suicide. Her weapon of choice: the Egyptian cobra…
PHARAOHS’ INFIRMITIES: WHY STUDIES OF DISABILITY IN THE ANCIENT WORLD MATTER
The way these physically challenged individuals were presented by their contemporaries speaks volumes about the ancient societies they lived in.
DIVERSITY MATTERS IN ARCHAEOLOGY
This spring, the American Society for Oriental Research (ASOR) has taken steps to address the issue of diversity in archaeology.
OUT OF AFRICA? DISCUSSIONS OF RACE IN ANCIENT EGYPT
“If you’ve been to Egypt, you haven’t been to Africa.”
I don’t remember how I replied, though I’m sure I didn’t say what I was thinking: that last time I checked a map Egypt was located in Africa.
DISCOVERING ANCIENT EGYPT IN THE TIME OF COVID
One of the positives of 2020 for those of us who are history buffs was many in-person meetings, conventions, and lectures were moved online. As a result, some surprising facts came to light.
Here are a few mysteries of ancient Egypt revealed in 2020…
TALES FROM THE CRYPT II: RAMESSES III GIVES THANKS
Last month, while Tutankhamun, Thutmose IV, Ramessess II, and his Great Wife Nefertari shared their thoughts, a fifth akh was inadvertently shut out of the conversation. To rectify the error, the ancient Egyptian Netherworld now presents a message to posterity from Ramesses III, the Should-Have-Been-Greater.
TALES FROM THE CRYPT: THE MUMMIES SPEAK
When ancient Egyptians died, they became akhu, powerful spirits. With the proper post mortem care and continual offerings to sustain them, they could enter the Netherworld, join the Sun-God Ra on his nightly cruise of the Twelve Regions, sit on deck, and reminisce about their lives—and afterlives.
IT’S ALL GREEK TO ME—BUT MAYBE IT SHOULDN’T BE
Those of us who live here call our country the Two Lands. The fertile area by our river is Kemet, “The Black Land” …. Any Kemetiu will tell you, we wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.
THE DIVINE AUGUSTUS?
On August 19, A.D. 14, the Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus died in his family villa at Nola, a town in Southern Italy….The deceased emperor was declared a god, but not all deities readily welcomed him into their ranks…
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY, 1555 B. C.
In 1663 B.C., invaders from the Levant (Southwest Asia) conquered the northern half of the Two Lands (Egypt), claiming it as their own…. The North seemed lost, until a noble family, known as the Taosids came to power with a plan for reunification. This is their story.
RAMESSES THE NOT-SO-GREAT? – THE MANY FACES OF PHARAOH RAMESSES II
Ramesses II (sometimes spelled Ramses), the third pharaoh of Egypt’s 19th dynasty, gets a bad rap. His monuments have irritated poets and historians alike. But there’s more to Ramesses than a pretty ugly face.
PANDEMICS IN THE ANCIENT WORLD: KING TUT, PLAGUE SURVIVOR
The ancient world had its share of pandemics, and Tut’s Egypt was not immune.
FROM THE TWO LANDS TO THE ETERNAL CITY: HOW CLEOPATRA OF EGYPT INFLUENCED THE EMPRESSES OF ROME: As recorded by Seshat, Daughter of Thuti and Egyptian Goddess of Writing – PART 4
Here, I will continue to trace the lives of Augustus’s female descendants, with the tale of his great-granddaughter, a woman who made herself empress.
FROM THE TWO LANDS TO THE ETERNAL CITY: HOW CLEOPATRA OF EGYPT INFLUENCED THE EMPRESSES OF ROME: As recorded by Seshat, Daughter of Thuti and Egyptian Goddess of Writing
My previous work explored the life and death of Caesar Augustus’s only daughter, Julia, the princess who might have been a queen. Here, I will trace the lives of Julia’s female descendants, beginning with the daughter who challenged an emperor.
Crafting the Query
You’ve written the novel and tackled the synopsis. Now, as if wrestling hundreds of pages into a 1-2 page summary wasn’t challenging enough, it’s time to condense your story even further in the query letter.
A MUMMY OF DADDY: REMEMBERING THE FATHER OF KING TUT
The coffin’s face has been torn away, and the cartouche—the oval-shaped carving containing the occupant’s name—is hacked out.
And the mummy inside? More skeleton than embalmed flesh.
Who was this individual, and how did he wind up in such a sorry state?
Novels
Young Adult Historical Fantasy Kingdom of the Serpent Fifteen-year-old Princess Ankhes longs to emulate her father, the pharaoh, whose powerful prayer-spells command the sun to rise each day. When an ancestor spirit offers to teach her magic, Ankhes seizes the chance—even though she has to keep her lessons a secret from those she loves, including… Continue reading Novels
Links
Short Stories “Breath of Amun” http://lacunajournal.blogspot.com/2009/10/breath-of-amun.html “As Day Follows Night” http://n3f.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/ES202003.pdf Memberships http://illinois.scbwi.org/ http://www.arce.org/chapters/illinois/Home / https://www.facebook.com/ARCEChicago/ Acknowledgements “Talisman and Bone” – Online Writing Workshop Editor’s Choice February 2017, Short Story / 2018 N3F Short Story Contest Honorable Mention / Silver Honorable Mention for the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest 3rd quarter (April-June 2020)… Continue reading Links
Comments
Karen L. Kobylarz 