Posts tagged ‘Isis’
Antinous from the Altes Museum Berlin
This glorious marble from the Altes Museum in Berlin shows Antinous in all his glory. This is the first, fully intact, full body sculpture of Hadrian’s renown lover I’ve personally seen. Is it any wonder that Isis, in her many incarnations in my trilogy – The Red Mirror, The Emerald Tablet and The Black Scroll – finds solace in his arms?
Our stay at Mena House, the Giza Plateau and the Great Pyramid
Here you have two photos from an adventure I treasure. The first time I went to Egypt, my husband and I stayed at the historic Mena House, a converted Pasha’s hunting lodge at the feet of the Pyramids. Can you imagine the thrill when we arrived late at night and were ushered into our room? The bell boy threw open the shuttered doors to this heart-stopping vista of the lighted Great Pyramid. I don’t ever remember a thrill greater than that moment. Better than anything I’d ever dreamed.
The Great Pyramid at night from our room at the Mena House, Giza, Egypt.
The following dawn, the growls of camels and shouts of their drivers awoke us. “Yellah! Yellah!” the turbaned men urged with sharp cries.
With no strength or will to tear myself away from the terrace, we ordered a room service feast with hot crusty rolls, thick apricot jam, plump fresh figs, and syrupy black coffee. While Jesper gazes in wonder, the early morning mists melt in the warming sun. Magic. Just plain magic.
My husband Jesper enjoying breakfast on the terrace of our room at the Mena House.
I hadn’t started my trilogy yet. The Red Mirror was still years in the future, waiting for me to stumble over it in a Las Vegas antique mall. Isis hadn’t spoken to me; she hadn’t shared her story. But the seed was most certainly planted that dawn, on that very terrace, at the old Mena House in the shadow of the eternal Pyramids.
Lovers of Isis – Red Mirror Series Vignettes
I’ve had a joyful time putting vignettes from my Red Mirror Trilogy under one cover. This is the final of my goals that I set for myself when I started the Isis Odyssey four years ago.
First I wrote Isis, then Athena. Then I redacted Isis into Isis Erotica and Isis Beachread. Some people might not understand why I would recast the same story for different audiences. Let’s just call it a personal challenge to see if I could manipulate the characters, scenes and language, all the while keeping the essence. Maybe it is also a strong belief that the saga of Isis is one so compelling that it can be told in a variety of ways and still capture the adventure and mystery of a woman on the path to empowerment. A good, old-fashioned heroine’s journey.
The third novel in the series was to be titled Elektra but after several marketing sessions, we decided to re-title the three books as The Red Mirror, The Emerald Tablet and The Black Scroll with an eye to communicating the adventure slant of the trilogy.
This last step of creating Lovers of Isis Red Mirror Vignettes has been pure pleasure. I started out to grab all the sex scenes from the three books but found myself including other scenes of intense romantic and emotional impact that developed the characters of her lovers. I’ll freely admit that I adore all of these men for different reasons. When their reincarnations through three books and four lifetimes are telescoped in 300 pages, I believe it’s pretty clear why Isis loves them, too.
Here’s the cover – print and e.
![Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000037_00032]](https://sandragorenielsen.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/loversofisisprintcover-72dpi.jpg)
![Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000037_00032]](https://sandragorenielsen.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/loversofisis-ecover-72dpi.jpg)
Games, swords and jewelry from the life of Isis
All of us have seen beautiful works of art from ancient Egypt. Here I’d like to share some photos I’ve taken that give you a feeling for the daily life of my Isis of The Red Mirror. These are actual artifacts, thousands of years old.
If you’re like me, you love to imagine the hands that poured jasmine oil from glass flasks – or shaved heads and mounds with copper blades. Each object has a story – tales of love and disappointment, tragedy and triumph. And each object has a history that begins with the man who wrought it into being and those who used or wore it, then continues through the lives of all who have held the object in their own hands over the centuries – and finally to those who gaze upon it in wonder today.
Isis wears a beaded dress to the Khent-min market. This version was worn by a 12-year old concubine of a Pharaoh. Petrie Museum
Detail of a beaded dress British Museum
The curled hair and beard of another Persian General. British Museum
A faience beaded necklace that Isis could have worn. British Museum
Egyptian game Isis might have played on her barge to pass the time. British Museum
Sit-Hathor could have worn this wig. Cairo Museum
The Vulture with outstretched wings painted on temple door lintels. Valley of the Kings tomb
Glass flasks like these held the oils that Maia poured into Isis’ bath. Petrie Museum
Sistrum with Head of Hathor. British Museum
Copper blades like these shaved Isis’ head. Petrie Museum
Sedge rope to lash Isis’ barge to the stone quay. British Museum
Antinous drew one of these swords when confronting Hetmus. Petrie Museum
From Antinous to Isidora. Greek style jewelry. All gold and no stones. British Museum
Isis would never have worn the plain sandals of a common Egyptian. Petrie Museum
Standing up to write The Black Scroll
Here’s where I’m writing The Black Scroll. Notice my makeshift high desk so I can stand?
Doesn’t look very glamorous, and not my greatest photography, but here’s a shot of my workstation for writing The Black Scroll.
Hope you’ll notice the height and no chair. After some back problems from sitting in front of a computer all day, I elected to write standing up.
I’ll admit it took a little getting used to, but I seem to have come over the hump. My brain’s working; the Muses are singing.
The screen on the left is the book itself as I write in InDesign. The laptop screen has my Excel spreadsheet with research including the 500+ quotes I’ve collected. I also do frequent Google searches to research details and fact check.
The eyes of the woman on the screen are Elektra, protagonist of Book Three. The pink towel between the two banker boxes is for my cat who sometimes sleeps there while I write.
Stack of books? Hadrian, The Roman Cavalry, Atlas of Classical Archaeology (for city plan of Leptis Magna) and Sex and Society in Greco-Roman Egypt. Under it all is a binder containing pages of notes.
Hanging above the work station is a photo I took on the Nile, a movie poster from ‘The Eagle’, a map of the Ancient Nile Delta and a map of the Mediterranean. To the left is a printout of an email from my friend Ann Calhoun with much appreciated (and always needed) words of encouragement.
On the far left, taped to a book shelf, is a printout of my favorite cover – but one I’m not using. It’s the Red Mirror with Isis’ eye. I opted for another cover to make the series more identifiable and the covers more cohesive. Could never repeat, no matter how hard I tried, the power of that Eye.
In case you have trouble making out details, standing on the shelf above my head are two sailing ship models, a bust of Aphrodite, Nefertiti’s head, a statuette of Athena my daughter brought me from Greece, a sitting Japanese sage, a carved wooden “Old Salt,” and a bronze figure of Shiva. Oh! don’t want to forget the brass falcon head of a shoehorn.
Here I am working on this very blog post.
On the desk always my cup of black tea with milk – or my snifter of brandy or scotch depending on time of day.
The Black Scroll – 84,433 words as of yesterday. 38 Chapters. 261 pages.
The Isis story embellished with my photos
I’m posting a few of my Egypt photos here in hopes that I can bring the Isis story even more to life for my readers. Click on the image to enlarge. Look for more Sandra Gore photos in upcoming posts 🙂
Some of the following pictures are from one of my visits to Egypt. Some of the shots are from the British Museum in London, while a few precious ones are from the wonderful Petrie Museum just a short walk away. What a reservoir of history is the Petrie, and not just the ancient artifacts of pre-dynastic times – of which there is an abundant and rich display. The Petrie is a step back in time to the first days of true Egyptology.
Isis might have seen this fisherman casting his net on the glassy Nile.
When Isis sees wings painted on the lintels above her head, they might have looked something like this.
Example of painted open Papyriform capitals. Imagine the jewels colors when they were new! Taken at Ramesseum outside Luxor, Egypt.
A piece of sedge rope that would have tied Isis barge to the quay in Sais. British Museum
Example of Aramaic writing. Aramaic was the lingua franca spoken by Eben, the Kabbalist and among the Persians soldiers. Isis spoke Aramaic with the General.
Here is the cow-eared goddess Hathor. The same face would have topped the pillars in the Hathor Temple. Known as the Queen’s Boat Hathor Head, British Museum.
Beaded “fishnet dress” similar to one Isis wore on her visit to the Temple of Min in Khent-min. Petrie Museum.
Glass vials like these might have held medicines, oils or the poisons designed to terminate Isis’ pregnancy – or even her life if captured. Petrie Museum.
The curled hair and beard of a Persian man. British Museum.
Example of how hieroglyphs were painted in colors. This was taken in the tomb of the sons of Ramses III in the Valley of the Kings, Luxor Egypt
Isis had a chest of precious papyri like this. British Museum.
Sit-hathor might have worn a wig like this when she summoned Isis to the temple to tell her of the mission. Cairo Museum
Egyptian swords and dagger from the Petrie Museum.
Heavy gold bracelets like these adorned Ankh-hor’s arms when he feted Isis and Qeb-ha at the feast in Hermopolis. British Museum.
These eyes are made with faience, the process somewhat between ceramic and glass, of which the amulets were made that Isis traded for goods in the market. British Museum
Palm-fiber sandals from 18th dynasty (more than 3000 years old). Petrie Museum.
Sacred Sistrum with head of Hathor that Isis might have used in the temple scene with the Crown Prince and Setne the Scribe. British Museum
Persian lion shield ornament. This would have adorned the leather vests of the Persian soldiers in the desert. British Museum.
A strand of polished Carnelian beads as might have been “strung on long ropes” in the marketplace of Khent-min. Petrie Museum.
Gold pieces from an Egyptian necklace. Most likely would have been strung with beads made from faience or semi-precious stone such as turquoise or carnelian. British Museum.
Egyptian “board game.” Not senet, but would have been played in similar fashion. British Museum
This could have been done in mosaics on the floor of Isis’ villa. British Museum.
Faience and gold amulets, cartouche, pendant. Any of these would have been commonplace in Isis’ world. Petrie Museum.
Egyptian glass fish showing millefiori glass technique. Isis would have stored her precious scented oil in vials made of this glass. British Museum.
The Black Scroll has entered edit phase
The Black Scroll. A story of black magic and power in Roman North Africa
June 24 was the day I “finished” The Black Scroll. I put ‘finished’ in quotation marks because I’m starting the edit.
But the story is told. It is out of my imagination and now exists in the concrete world of words down on paper. Paper in this case is a digital format, but you get what I mean.
Whew! What a mind-bending experience. I had to pinch myself this morning. I did it! I wrote the trilogy that I’ve envisioned since 2010. The stories of Isis, Athena and Elektra.
There’s been months of hiatus here and there. The Arab Spring starting with Egypt and continuing through Libya. The remix of Isis to Isis Erotica and Isis BeachRead. Family trials and tribulations of late. You know – life getting in the way.
More intricate and involved with a much wider scope than The Red Mirror and The Emerald Tablet, The Black Scroll took a tremendous expenditure of psychic energy to tell. The Romans weren’t nice people. I was juggling memories of four lifetimes with recurring characters. I wanted to wrap everything up – cross all the t’s, dot all the i’s, tie up loose ends.
It’s a longer book, which may or may not remain so after the editing. But I have a feeling it will. The story is complex and action-filled. At least I hope so. It is in my mind, anyway. A fellow author said satisfyingly, “The monumental third volume.” I like the sound of that.
I’ve promised a couple of people to be first readers, and I haven’t forgotten that pledge. I’ll do an edit and then print a few draft copies for distribution.
In the meantime, I’m gonna savor my thrill. There’s not many moments in a lifetime like this.
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June 26, 2013 at 4:55 pm 1 comment