As a child I was drawn to ancient civilisations, especially Ancient Egypt. I’ve never grown out of this fascination, and I collect reference books that I use when researching my fantasy and children stories. There is plenty of information available online, but for me nothing compares to balancing these tomes on my knees as I ferret out useful facts or concepts. I record the snippets in note books – later to be excavated for inclusion in other worlds I’ve created. Writing fantasy gives me plenty of scope to mix and match from multiple cultures or concepts.
I pore over the architectural drawings and photos, marvelling at how advanced these ancient civilisations appear from my future perspective. The designs of buildings, tombs, monuments are all useful when I’m world building and wish to convey a particular sense of place or time. Artistic domes and spires, towers, or regimental blocks and straight lines. In my Windflowers series I tag the setting as reminiscent of Ancient Egypt, but the world is also a melding of Ancient Rome with Spartan influences.
Op shops, book fairs, garage sales, book shops are all fair game for my trolling of historical texts (I’m sure my high school history teachers would be thrilled to know my love of history has continued). Recently, I was privileged to attend the Miami Book Fair, my author senses were on overload as I gazed over thousands of books – sunshine bounced off shiny new covers, nestled amongst treasure troves of pre-loved books. Hundreds, possibly thousands of school children, in matching brightly hued t-shirts, exuberantly threaded through the stalls like centipedes. Book worms – more like book dragons.
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I unearthed a book gem, most of passages are in French (well beyond the strain of my school girl French lessons – talk about ancient history – my le’s and la’s are rust encrusted). Despite the language challenge, I knew this book was destined for my book shelves.
Thousands of drawings from Bonaparte’s foray into Egypt in 1798 – lotus columns, wildlife, fauna and flora, construction designs – history captured on the pages. This French Campaign gave birth to Egyptology – the Western world’s fascination with this unique civilisation.
Mindful of weight restrictions and suitcase dimensions I had to limit my purchases to a few well-chosen choices. I almost hyperventilated over a box of ancient texts: faded red covers worn parchment smooth, a lotus emblem embroidered on the spines, and the dog eared pages testament to being well-thumbed through by long ago students. A turn of the century (~1900’s) encyclopaedia set. My fingertips caressed the spines, futilely calculating if it was possible to ditch the entire contents of my case, and replace with these beauties. Did I really need clothes? How expensive for the surplus freight? Part of me ached as I crept away – if only I’d found this set in NZ, alas I was four flights from home.
Note to self: bring bigger suitcase next time.
Note to self: bring bigger suitcase next time.
