It was
relatively easy to write Book 2 (Sirocco,
Storm over Land and Sea) of my “Legends of the Winged Scarab,” that takes
place in 2012. It seamlessly follows Khamsin,
The Devil Wind of The Nile, which plays out in 3080 B.C. With five-thousand
years between the two novels, the only tie-ins were ancient Egyptian artifacts:
The Golden Tablets, their rims showing a Khepri, a winged scarab, thought to be
a First Dynasty high priest’s personal crest (or perhaps a touch of vanity to
be remembered in the future).
I am now in
the process of writing Book 3, After the
Cataclysm. It takes place two to four years later (2014-2016), and I find
it infinitely harder to walk the fine line between rationalizing what is
happening and why, without regurgitating things from Sirocco. Of course, one could always insinuate to “read bloody Book
2 first.”
Retelling
action from a prequel is one of the main reader complaints I am trying very
hard to avoid. While some brief flash-backs are necessary, I trust that they
will be interesting enough not to arouse the ire of my readers.
Meantime, I
keep plugging away hoping for a spring publication of Book 3 with many of the protagonists
from Sirocco. I am most excited to
reveal then also the name of the real ghost ship (and the website dedicated to
its search) that I am using in this new novel, just as I had used a real
(stolen) Rembrandt painting for the cover of Sirocco. I think it makes things more exciting and even
titillating...if only someone would find them both.
Don't Google for a ghost ship by this name--it's the new one I gave it.
(I wrote this post only hours before the real Lyubov Orlova heated up the media with supposed sightings and tales of cannibal rats - talk about premonitions)
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