 Photography by Tim Huitt Graphic by Lina Rose, Cover model Nathan Schultz I wish I could date Achilles!! He’s strong, golden, fierce, HOT as f@ck and...a little bit ruthless. He’s the bad boy of Greek myth and the tragic hero of the Iliad (maybe this is what’s wrong with my love life!). As I began the Homeric Chronicles years ago, I realized that the story I wanted to tell was bigger than my skills at the time. I wasn’t ready. I had to get some writing under my belt, some serious reading done, and get over my fear of writing steamy sex scenes alongside gory battles scenes. I was AFRAID to write sex scenes!! Well, I’m not anymore. Needless to say, the Homeric Chronicles are for a mature reading audience. I wanted this series to feel realistic, one epic story where several story lines of heroes and heroines converge at the Trojan War and beyond. This began the hair pulling task of attempting to piece together a timeline of events, because stories unfold chronologically with the occasional flashback and perhaps some subtle foreshadowing. The late George Shipway, author of Warrior in Bronze, a story about Agamemnon said in his chronological note to readers that, “...it would be a rash scribbler who ventured on definite dates.” Well, I am that “rash scribbler.” (Side note: the timeline he created is only 17 years ahead from mine, so we wrote in a similar mindset.) Writing realistic mythology is tricky, especially Greek mythology because so many people are familiar with the major components of the stories. So, how does a writer approach the known with fresh content and a sense of realism? It’s bloody hard! First of all, I had no intention of twisting the major myth structure with some alternative endings, or creating a tertiary character, like a slave, to tell the main hero’s or heroine’s tale. I also didn’t want to simply regurgitate the Iliad and the Odyssey, because that’s been done before. What makes the Homeric Chronicles different from other Trojan War tales is that the series is an epic tale of Greek mythological heroes whose destinies take them to Troy and beyond, in chronological order. I used extant archeological data about Troy and Asia Minor and Greece, as well as scholarly literature to create the massive timeline. I had to use all my research training as an historian to get this off the ground. It’s an on-going effort to maintain the integrity of the chronological structure with a few surprises here and there. The Homeric Chronicles is, therefore, a combination of myth and history. I invite you to begin your journey with birth of Paris and Achilles in the Song of Princes, Book One of the Homeric Chronicles. Available in kindle and paperback @ Amazon. If you enjoyed this post, give it a LIKE or a TWEET :) And by all means, SHARE :) If you'd like a heads up on future Big Ten Interviews or giveaways, join my email list. The only spam I like is with my eggs.
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