From My Fantasy Writing Desk
I spent two fulfilling, brain-twisting days in an online editing course with an excellent teacher I’d studied with before, Margie Lawson. A friend gifted me the class. Margie shows her students a huge number of editing tools. I had incorporated some of them into my regular practice after the first class several years ago. However, there were so many other tools that had slipped through my sieve of a brain.
I will be concentrating on binding some shiny new editing tools into what I do as I rework a novella that is my current work in progress. This tale has the challenge of no human characters. It’s set in the land of the griffins well before the time when griffins enter my Tesha novels. Those of you who have gotten to know Bolthar, the griffin king in my novels, will be happy to meet a much younger Bolthar—and my griffins live for centuries!
Archaeology I Enjoyed
Anatolian Female Figurine
The most recent find at Kültepe, the excavation of Kanesh, one of the oldest Hittite cities: a 17” tall female seated figure. “Enthroned” women are an Early Bronze Age type in Anatolia. Generally, archaeologists call them fertility goddesses. Interestingly, no male figures come to us from this period.
This article notes the somewhat larger size of this newest figure and includes photos. She looks thinner, less rounded than is often the case with these figures. Her arms are drawn in towards her chest. However, in the photo I can’t tell if she’s holding an infant as these figurines often are.
Hypothesizing a set of religious beliefs from these figures is, of course, tricky—although that does not stop people from assigning ritual significance to them. However, the predominance of women is distinctive. Click here for the Daily Sabah “Biggest goddess statue of Early Bronze Age found at central Anatolia’s Kültepe site.”
Minoan Summer Palace Reveals its Treasures
I have happy memories of a couple weeks spent on Crete during a college summer, climbing around archaeological sites, but not this lovely site at Zominthos because it was not discovered until 1982.
This elegant summer palace once belonged to Minoan aristocracy. It has yielded many more of its priceless secrets during recent dig seasons. Excavators have concluded that the original structure was three stories tall. Some buildings and ramps go back as far as 2000 BCE.
In a fun bit of serendipity, a sudden rainstorm revealed one golden plate, which on closer look turned out to be 90 or so golden plates. They also found ivory figurines clad in a thin layer of gold. Click here for the Greek Reporter “New Secrets Unearthed at Minoan Palace of Zominthos on Crete.”