tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14107763052012786932024-03-21T10:38:44.423-07:00Max Overton BlogUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1410776305201278693.post-52830939559811547452013-09-03T17:02:00.004-07:002013-09-03T17:02:22.022-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2f-EpmSMJ4iTGI2tPQrugK6dwZ2CR9rT97qKpkiqKjBPpmw6Z0wh8pboc8YDYhHwLfvTaT0AFzv-XvhAo19gp43dt86MkMSC8aHPiP-dJhl4OVnPzrKDSrEQSTIYKzh8SYaF9g2tUjoY/s1600/BOOK-COVERS---ALL-3D-18-GOLDEN-KING.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2f-EpmSMJ4iTGI2tPQrugK6dwZ2CR9rT97qKpkiqKjBPpmw6Z0wh8pboc8YDYhHwLfvTaT0AFzv-XvhAo19gp43dt86MkMSC8aHPiP-dJhl4OVnPzrKDSrEQSTIYKzh8SYaF9g2tUjoY/s400/BOOK-COVERS---ALL-3D-18-GOLDEN-KING.png" width="253" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>THE GOLDEN KING</i></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>(Book 2 of the Scythian Trilogy)</i></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;"><i>Your historical books are filled with long names. How accurate
are these names, and if they are made up, couldn’t you have chosen ones easier
to pronounce and remember?</i></span><span style="color: #002060;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #002060; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A good question, and one which crops up fairly regularly. I
believe that if I am writing about a particular time and place, the names must
reflect those times. If I may offer a more modern example to start with – if
you were writing a Regency novel set in England in the late 1700s and early
1800s, you would come across many people called William or George or Mary – but
no Jason or Kylie. Modern names would look out of place and detract from the
overall realism of the writing. Similarly, writing about the time of Alexander
the Great necessitates the use of names common at that time. The protagonist in
the Scythian trilogy is Nikometros, son of Leonnatos. Greeks of his day usually
had one name, but would sometimes add their father’s name to distinguish themselves
from others of the same name. Among the Scythians, his name is sufficiently
different that he only has to use Nikometros – though Tomyra shortens it to
Niko when talking intimately. Scythians had a slight difficulty pronouncing his
name and often said ‘Nikomayros’ instead. The Scythian names used are accurate
and derive, for the most part, from actual names in Scythian history. When my
well of published names ran dry, I created similar sounding names using the
existing rules of construction. As for pronunciation – well, I don’t think
anyone really knows how Scythian names were sounded out, so have a stab at it
and anything you come up with is probably as likely as anything else.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #002060; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I will have more to say later as ancient Egyptian names also
cause problems for readers. Watch this space!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;"><i>I thought Scythia was a large grassland. How come there are
forests and mountains in your books?</i></span><span style="color: #002060;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #002060; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We tend to think of Scythia as sweeping plains of grass, perhaps
undulating slightly, but otherwise stretching to the horizon, with the wind
carving patterns in the swaying grass. That was only part of it though. If you
look at a topographical map of the area, you will see that the land popularly
known as Scythia is bordered on the south by the hot, dry, mountainous regions
of Sogdiana and Bactria, and on the west by mountains backing onto the Caspian
Sea. These were wooded mountains, mostly coniferous, but with stretches of
broadleaf forest. Many small rivers ran through Scythia, but the main one that
features in the Scythian trilogy is the Oxus River, which empties into the Aral
Sea in the north (also called the Mother Sea). This river carves narrow gorges
in the southern mountains where it flows rapidly, but slows to become wide and
boulder-strewn in its lower course.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1410776305201278693.post-48602441475691786082013-08-15T20:00:00.000-07:002013-09-03T17:03:18.750-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCfM6GW9lRNff9mv_QnzeOh0HpsCqdZ-k484hBs1SMXN5SUUWfkzpQ1gzIlNUHiJT3HmF8a3LzWTObIj1iDW_bs-tQMgH8KfZd6mEBmy0AsOPH44Eu0YD-0488CL6ih0alliqGUHOMIDM/s1600/BOOK-COVERS---ALL-3D-LION.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCfM6GW9lRNff9mv_QnzeOh0HpsCqdZ-k484hBs1SMXN5SUUWfkzpQ1gzIlNUHiJT3HmF8a3LzWTObIj1iDW_bs-tQMgH8KfZd6mEBmy0AsOPH44Eu0YD-0488CL6ih0alliqGUHOMIDM/s400/BOOK-COVERS---ALL-3D-LION.png" width="253" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>LION OF SCYTHIA</i></span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>(Book 1 of the Scythian Trilogy)</i></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><i>Why
did you write this book?</i></span></b><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #002060;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Lion
of Scythia was my first book and I really wanted to write about Alexander the
Great. </span></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #002060;">However, my childhood hero, Mary Renault, had written about him brilliantly
and I didn’t think I could match her. why write about someone who had already
been covered so well? This was in the days before I recognised that two authors
could write about the same subject yet turn out finished works that were very
different.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #002060;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Anyway,
I conceived the idea of writing about someone close to the great man, and from
there to a fictional hero whose life impinged on that of Alexander. So
Nikometros son of Leonnatos was born. A young officer, relatively
inexperienced, is wounded and left behind by the Macedonian army as it marches
eastward. Many men were left behind to garrison the forts that kept the peace
in the newly conquered lands, so although the character is fictional, his
general situation is not.</span></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><i>Why
Scythia?</i></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #002060;">Partly
because it was in the right time and place. Alexander was conquering the
Persian Empire and moving rapidly eastward, so there was a need for military
garrisons to be left behind to manage the territories. It would not have worked
further west among the Greek cities of Asia Minor or in Egypt, nor in the Indus
Valley before he turned back to Babylon. Ancient Bactria was exactly right, and
Scythia even more so. Alexander had tried to conquer the Scythians, but their
forces just melted away into the endless plains of grass in the face of his
army. He left them to in and turned toward India once more.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #002060;">The
Scythians in my stories (the Massegetae) live near the Oxus River south of (and
around) the Mother Sea (Aral Sea). Scythians moved westward over time, and a
few hundred years later, occupied lands north of the Black Sea where most of
their later cities are found. In the days of Alexander the Great, they were
still found in the east.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #002060;">Who
were these Scythians that Alexander could not conquer? Horsemen - nomadic
tribes that wandered the steppes of Asia, living off their herds and fighting
whoever they came across. What was their world like? My research revealed
tantalising snippets of information that hinted at a simple life, but one that
was completely unlike any of their more settled neighbours. They had cities,
but were still nomadic or at least semi-nomadic - taking their herds out into
the grass plains in the summer and wintering close to their towns and cities.
They were cultured, had a rich artistic life, and had a fierce sense of honour.
Though formidable warriors, they tended to be undisciplined and needed a firm
hand to control them. They followed non-hereditary chiefs and priestesses of
the Mother Goddess. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #002060;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Add
a naive young Macedonian officer, of couple of his men that survive the ambush,
and mix with a young priestess who is also daughter of the chief. Throw in some
factions like an ambitious son of the chief, a few nobles looking after their
own ends, and young firebrands seeking to make a name for themselves, and you
have a story worth telling.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3FoQd5HiNPlOiq7A3hLh3cudyfgAWyxoRM3OfZz8YKUxdHo3DfWjevUiz4cB2Ab6w8fK_XtmaVdOiQNf2nsllNygsMVN4BOG-ZjftqkG-_NPuJY-B5PTYpcHrX_Y88NuvchQXMTlSjTg/s1600/SCYTHIAN+MAP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3FoQd5HiNPlOiq7A3hLh3cudyfgAWyxoRM3OfZz8YKUxdHo3DfWjevUiz4cB2Ab6w8fK_XtmaVdOiQNf2nsllNygsMVN4BOG-ZjftqkG-_NPuJY-B5PTYpcHrX_Y88NuvchQXMTlSjTg/s400/SCYTHIAN+MAP.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><i>Why
a Lion? Surely lions are African?</i></span></b><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #002060; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Yes,
they are, but once upon a time they were found in Europe, the Middle East, and
throughout the Persian Empire and beyond. You only have to look at stories like
Heracles killing the Nemean lion, Samson wrestling with a lion in the Bible,
and the Mesopotamian hero Gilgamesh hunting lions, to see that these beasts were
once common in Eurasia. By Alexander's day, they were less common, but a
doughty warrior could still be compared to this symbol of royalty. Nowadays,
the lion is mostly confined to Africa, though there are some still living in
the Gir National Park in India's Gujarat State.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0