Posts tagged ‘Red Mirror’
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.
TV or Movie Pitch for the Red Mirror Series
I’ve been struggling to put together a TV mini-series or movie pitch for the Red Mirror Series. To be perfectly honest, writing the 1000 page trilogy was a whole lot easier than condensing the complex and intricate saga into a few words.
What genre of film would it be? A mystical Indiana Jones quest for magical artifacts? A coming of age heroine’s journey on the path to empowerment? A love story with the quest for Mr. Right? A time-travel thriller with good guys vs bad guys? A tale of the clash of great civilizations? A sexy romp through ancient history with rich roles for actors and actresses?
Log-line: Reality shatters when a Vegas party girl buys an antique red mirror and a circle of edgy lovers and villains tangle in multiple lifetimes.
Genre: epic romantic time-travel adventure
Synopsis:
Once a restless Vegas woman gets a taste of her sumptuous past in ancient Egypt, she wants more. Mystical objects, deadly foes and four powerful lovers appear in shifting roles on both sides of the Red Mirror. Isis goes back to save herself and others, but who can she trust in glamorous and gritty worlds, now and long ago?
Pharoanic Egypt – Red Mirror: A sensual odyssey down the Nile goes all wrong when a desert hunt ends with capture by a Persian General and Isis is forced to make terrible choices to survive. Ancient lovers, allies and villains start to show up on the Las Vegas Strip.
Greek Egypt – Emerald Tablet: A Royal commission to build a pleasure Temple with Antinous of the Library of Alexandria is complicated when Athena is taken at sea by the pirate Black Falcon. The circle of lovers, friends and foes intrigue in the past while their modern counterparts clash in New York, Copenhagen and Tahoe.
Roman Egypt – Black Scroll: A Roman sex slave in ancient Libya rises to Nile love goddess with help from a Berber sorceress. Hektor betrays Elektra, and the General proves an unlikely protector. Vegas Isis leads a rescue mission to militia-torn Libya that climaxes with the reincarnating circle facing off in a London showdown.
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)
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.
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
The Isis story in 3 versions: Original R-rated, X-rated Erotica and PG-13 Beach Read
The adventure of Isis begins. An edgy adult fable for the sensuous, intelligent reader. R-rated
The steamy, mystic tale of Isis and her men with links to the hottest love scenes. Erotica Rated X
A zippy romp through ancient Egypt following the adventures of Isis. Sanitized version. PG-13
The edgy Isis story of one woman and four men on a quest for power and love through time is told in three versions. I wrote each in their own style and with a tone intended for a different audience. Adult R-rated, sanitized PG-13 and X-rated erotica.
The mystic adventure of the Red Mirror Series begins with The Red Mirror, my original book. Detailed and intricate, historically accurate, the glossary offers a crash course in Egyptology. An adult adventure (R-rated) for the sensuous intelligent reader. 90,000 words – 290 pages
Isis Beach Read, written in a direct style that focuses on action, moves at a zippy pace. Beach Read tells the same Isis story while simplifying names and eliminating some characters and sub-plots. Sanitized sex (PG-13). 75,000 words – 234 pages
Isis Erotica, the most condensed version, is written in a style that oozes sensuality. The torrid love scenes are steamier still (X-rated). Bonus feature: direct links to the erotic scenes in eversion and special table of contents with relevant page numbers in print version. 60,000 words – 200 pages
The Isis Erotica eversion can also be downloaded in 3 separate ebooks, Part I The Red Mirror, Part II The Persian General and Part III The Emerald Tablet.
“Isis rules! Fifty Shades of Grey? Even better. Isis rules in 50 shades of full color.”
The Red Mirror, Red Sofa and Antinous from the Red Mirror Series
E-books have the advantage of placing links for readers who want to jump to more in-depth information, so I’ve linked these photos of the Red Mirror, Red Sofa, red-shaded lamp and the glorious Antinous taken from my book Sex and the Zen of Shopping.
BTW – I have used the Roman spelling of Antinous instead of the ancient Greek Antinoos, as the former is the most familiar. If you’re wondering how to pronounce this real-life (or rather, now deceased) beauty, you can try the Greek way of ‘an TEE no os’ which is four syllables. My feeling is that even the Greeks sped it up by saying ‘an TEE noos’ – just 3 syllables.
The Red Mirror with Antinous
The Red Sofa that hurts Barb’s back
The red-shaded lamp that burns outside the bedroom
Antinous of Isis (The Red Mirror), Athena (The Emerald Tablet) and Elektra (The Black Scroll).
The Red Mirror
Here it is – the real thing – the Red Mirror. And that gorgeous guy waiting for you in the looking glass is none other than Antinous. Is he not as beautiful as a marble statue – just like I promised!
The Red Mirror
S. L. Gore 
Neon hieroglyphs and giants with mystical crowns in the Temple of Dendur
Color the Temple: Scene I
The light projection project at the New York Metropolitan Museum Temple of Dendura
When I wrote The Red Mirror, I held an image in my mind of the interior of an Egyptian temple far different than anything I’d ever seen in photos or real life. The walls pulsed with a color palette so vivid that the strange giants with human bodies and animal heads with mystical crowns leapt from the stone to dance in the still air.
Here’s a quick excerpt from Chapter Three – The Temple:
Simmering hieroglyphs in colors bright as neon exploded from every surface. Giants with mystical crowns or the heads of animals performed strange rituals in soaring murals painted in vibrant red, yellow and blue.
I resisted leaning my head back to take in the vast ceiling with its elaborate geometric designs, absorbing as much as possible without being obvious. But I couldn’t stop my eyes from traveling everywhere at once.
As if in answer to my imagination begging for manifestation, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York recreated by magic of light projection what archaeologists believe are the original colors of one vignette in the Temple of Dendur. The scene couldn’t be closer to what I saw in my mind’s eye when my character, for the first time, walks back in time through the shadowy incense-fogged chambers of a temple on the Nile. Of course, in my vision, every square inch of the walls and ceiling throbbed with the same bold colors as you see in the photo.
Although the beautiful Egypto-Roman Dendur Temple relocated from Egypt is about 500 years “younger” than my temple in The Red Mirror, it reflects the stature and majesty of the setting in my novel. There, among the polychromatic neon gods and goddesses, Isenkhebe Nefrusobek (Isis) experiences her first encounter with Egyptian mysticism and sacred sexuality.
See the New York Times article here: NY Times article on Metropolitan Museum of Art Color the Temple Scene I
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February 3, 2016 at 1:22 am Leave a comment