Sometimes people think being an historian is all about names and dates and politics, but it’s so much more. My favorite thing about studying ancient Greece is getting to a museum and looking at all the pottery. You get to see these beautiful works of art close up. Pictures just don't do justice to the sheer size of some of the pottery. My favorite place on the west coast to gaze at antiquities is the Getty Museum in Malibu, California. If you get a chance to go, you should. It's amazing not only for its art work, but because it's an actual replica of wealthy Roman villa complete with gardens and a giant pool.

While writing the Homeric Chronicles, I reference amphorae quite a bit because these vessels were commonly used to store wine, oil, and water much the way we use Tupperware. So, one vessel that intrigues me is the two handled amphora depicting Achilles and Ajax playing dice while trying to relax during the Trojan War. The vessel is from the Archaic Period (525-520 BCE).

I love this scene and decided to reference it in Rise of Princes, book two of the Homeric Chronicles. Playing dice humanizes the Greek heroes, making them reachable characters because they too needed reprieve from stress and bad days, as well as the grinding hardships of war. Enjoy the video :)

Start your journey with the Homeric Chronicles grab Song of Sacrifice today!

A generation before the Trojan War begins...
meet the royal families of Troy, Ithaka, Sparta, and Mycenae.

The Trojan War has turned into a bloody seige...
Achilles and Hektor rise to fame and glory.

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© Janell Rhiannon2016
Any information from this blog must be properly cited :)

Good Morning Everyone!!!
Today, I have a fun surprise that I’d like to share with you.

I’ve teamed up with over 45  fantastic historical romance authors to give away a huge collection of novels, PLUS a KINDLE FIRE to one lucky winner! 

You can win my novel Song of Princes, plus books from authors like Margaret George author of The Confessions of Young Nero and Elisabeth Storrs author of The Wedding Shroud. I am so honored to be a part of this promotion. I wish you the best of luck and fortune!!
 
Enter the giveaway by clicking here: https://www.booksweeps.com/enter-win-50-historical-fiction-books-feb-17/

Good luck, and enjoy!
Janell Rhiannon

The book tour began a couple weeks ago, so I started biting my nails. It's a nerve wracking thing to just put your work out there and then wait, hoping someone will like it. After your book is done is probably the hardest thing for indie writers. You've spent months on this narrative, spent money on the village that helps you get it looking good, you upload it to your platform (we mostly use Amazon, because who doesn't use Amazon these days) and wait some more. You get the congratulatory email from the virtual giant and your book baby is published. And you wait some more. Then you think, "How the f*ck does anyone even know I did this thing that ate up all my spare time when I could've been dating, or having cocktails, or singing karaoke on the beach in an over-sized sweater..." [Let's be honest, I did all that except the dating part.  I can sum up everything I know about dating in my little pinky. ] My answer to this was: I NEED HELP!!!!  So, I hired Nicole and Giselle. Nicole is a virtual assistant to writers and Giselle runs Xpresso Book Tours. 

Nicole has helped me organize my random and wild thoughts. I start down some marketing hole and look back only to find, I've not written anything for a week and it's already the next week.  She helps me keep it together. Giselle organizes the touring of book excerpts, reviews and giveaways. This has been great. I wanted to acknowledge these fine woman for their contribution to my indie author life and getting Song of Princes (re-titled Song of Sacrifice) out there in the blog-o-sphere.

Song of Princes (re-titled Song of Sacrifice) is doing fine... I've listed a few link below where you can check out who said what. And much thanks, by the way, to these dedicated blogger/reviewers. Because Amazon has changed it's policies up, most of the reviews are on individual sites and/or on Goodreads (it has a 4.26 rating as of 10/10/2016). If you really like Greek mythology, a little sex (okay a lot at times), romance, battle, you will like this series. I'm happily banging away at the computer keys half way through the second installment...65,000 words and counting.

Zaheerah of Book Reader and Reviewer said:  "...What’s great about The Song of Princes is that it involves all the characters, rather than focusing on one. We see how one action of one character come to affect another and the events seam together effortlessly."
The Pursuit of Bookiness said: "...I am now a convert, hooked on this series and eagerly awaiting the next book.  Written in a style that is easy to read while at the same time pulling you in to the story.  A real page turner and a book I couldn't put down."
Married to Books Review and Blog said: "...Plenty of action, thrills and spills, the storytelling was very well portrayed in a world full of myths and legends. For action readers, lovers of Greek Mythology and historical fiction lovers, Song of Princes offers a rich, detailed story line into the lives of the Gods."
Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile said: "Truth be told, I know that this is a series that many readers are going to love. I don't blame them one bit. It's tough to take something that's already a legend, and mold it to your own devices. Rhiannon has accomplished just that. Readers who love this kind of book, filled with fate and fortune, will likely fall in love with Song of Princes as well."
Liz Gavin said: "Being a huge fan of mythology in general – Greek, in particular – I started off Janell Rhiannon’s book with great expectations. Which she totally fulfilled and then some. As I said before, my standards regarding Troy were already quite high; but, Song of Princes knocked them into the stratosphere...Fast-paced story lines, poetically described settings, realistically developed characters. These are just a few examples of the book’s qualities. Mix them up with clever shifts of POVs and engaging dialogues, you’ll have an engrossing novel you cannot put down."
Fanatical Paranormal Romanitcal said: "I loved this book!!! ...I loved this book!!! After slogging through Homer’s “Odyssey” TWICE (once in high school and again in college), this is a much better telling of the ancient story. The author actually draws you into the story and makes you WANT to continue reading."
Taking It One Book at a Time said: "Any fan of Mythology, or Gods, will devour this book. Not only did the author provide you with a beautifully written fictional tale, she was able to intertwine facts elegantly within the story. There were no boring moments or lulls at any point during this story...in fact it was a whirlwind of excitement! Really quick, can we talk about how delicious this cover is too?? O-M-G! (I can only fantasize about what it looks like in person) Trust me when I say that the passion blasted all over this cover reflects throughout the book....and there isn't a speck of disappointment here."
Mama Reads said: "Rhiannon’s spin on these wild and exotic stories definitely nods to the commonly known tales while giving us an original epic fantasy with characters we can become wrapped up in and worlds full of wonders."

Thank you to all the bloggers and reviewers who took the time to check out the book, and also a huge level of gratitude to all the readers who bought it, borrowed it and read it as well!
***
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© Janell Rhiannon2016
Any information from this blog must be properly cited :)

When I first began toying with the idea...what if you could see the mythological stories surrounding the major figures of the Homeric tales (the Iliad and the Odyssey) in a seamless telling? The cast of characters is a celebrity Who’s Who in the world of ancient Greece: Achilles, Paris, Hektor, and Odysseus. But, you can’t begin to tell their stories without reaching beyond what Homer provides and dig into other mythological cannon to discover more about Helen, Hecuba, Cassandra, Andromache, Leda, Deidamia, Priam, Agamemnon, Menelaus, Tyndareus, Peleus, Thetis, and Chiron. Then, there’s the pantheon of gods and goddesses to contend with. The major heroes of Homer’s tales are entwined with other characters and to get a sense of how that’s even possible, I had to dig deep and make some choices.
 
I used the events of the Iliad and the Odyssey as the backbone of the chronological story. But after days of compiling data, I realized the task was much more difficult than it seemed. The original storytellers weren’t trying to make chronological sense of the various stories. The first glitch was the Paris and Helen myth. Everyone who’s familiar with the story assumes that Paris gives the judgment of the fairest to Aphrodite, who has promised him the love of the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen of Sparta. Soon after, Paris goes to Sparta and absconds with Helen and sails back to Troy. This widely held assumption is, well, wrong. Let’s examine why.
 
The golden apple event that occurred was at the wedding feast of Peleus and Thetis. These are Achilles parents. So, Achilles, the greatest fighter of all the Greeks has NOT been born yet. He’s the star of the Iliad. The Muse sings about his wrath, his undoing of character after Agamemnon humiliates him and his cousin and comrade, Patrokles, was killed. So, the judgment Paris gives about who the “fairest” goddess is takes place soon after the wedding feast, before Achilles is conceived or born. Bottom line, we have to wait at least 15 years for Achilles to grow up, get trained, and father a son BEFORE Odysseus can discover him on Skyros, dressed like a girl and call our hero into action. This means two things: Paris has to be at least 15-18 years old to be considered MAN enough to judge the female flesh; therefore, he’s 15-18 years older than Achilles. Most movies and books depict Paris and Achilles about the same age. But they can’t be. Paris is definitely his elder.
 
The other question in this story is: When does Paris meet and woo Helen? And how old is Helen? Paris couldn’t have taken off with her any time soon following the judgment because that would mean they’d be in Troy for years before Menelaus even tried to get her back. Even if you take the whole jaunt to Egypt bit seriously, that still leaves too many years in between the kidnapping and the attempted rescue. Remember, no matter what, Achilles has to be old enough to lead the Myrmidons (some sources say Achilles was 15 when he went to Troy. (I gave him a few more years to make it more plausible, using Alexander the Great as a close model. Alexander led his first troops into major battle, under his father’s command,  at Chaeronea at age 18). So, if Helen were already born and left with Paris shortly after the judgment, she’d be away in Troy for 15-18 years before Menelaus went for her because he’d have to wait for Achilles to be born and grow up. That makes no sense.
 
Also, there is the first kidnapping Helen endures by Theseus when she was just a young girl, probably pre-teen around 12 or 13. She’s the  hostage of the king of Athens, or rather his mother’s hostage, until she’s eventually rescued by her brothers, Pollux and Caster, and taken safely back to Troy. She is married to Menelaus shortly after this event to secure her safety and the safety of Sparta. Menelaus did not marry an old maid. Helen would have been about 15-18 years old. This is the young queen of Sparta who was seduced by a much older Paris. Their elopement/kidnapping is the precipitating event of the Trojan War. This is the dogma of the mythology surrounding Troy that we can’t alter. Therefore, Helen is most likely Achilles age. She would’ve had to been born about 15-18 years before the ships launch to rescue her. Achilles would’ve had to been born at least 15-18 years before he led the Myrmidons across the sea to Troy. Paris is in his 28-30 and Helen and Achilles are contemporaries at 15-18 years of age.
 
This means Paris has an entire life he lived as a man, long enough to be abandoned by Priam, raised by Agelaus, married to his first wife, a nymph named Oenone and to have a son with her named Corythus. He also had to be discovered by Priam and re-embraced as family. Then sent by Priam to rescue Hesione, Priam’s sister, who was kidnapped by Herakles...you get the picture. One thread wraps around another thread and so on. And yes, some times the “trying to make sense of it” turns what we think we know on its head.
 
I read a review of Song of Princes, by Nadine Paque-Wolkow, she said, in reference to the ages of Paris, Helen and Achilles, “...this may sound like a good idea so first, but I was nervous when Paris was still a child at 30% of the book. Then there was a small leap in time, Paris is now 18, but neither Achilles nor Helena are even born. I admit that I can not recite the dates of birth of all Trojan hero from the head, but in my head [it] is all messed up, just because I already (through books and films etc.) had a picture of all. Also, I glanced back to the percentage display...Half the book was almost already read! Helena was a baby and Achill[es] five at scarce 50%. Hector but already late twenties! And there are still decades until the big final battle of both the gates of Troy! For me, most people had therefore a completely wrong age and everything felt ... wrong and strange.” I think a lot of readers may also have this initial dissonance about the dates and timeline, because most films and books haven’t tried to put a logical chronology to the mythology. (I have a very detailed timeline in the front of the book.) I’ve tried to do just that. By leaving the seduction/kidnapping/eloping of Helen with Paris as the definitive catalyst of the war, it has made several other elements of the entire story sync together in a way most people haven’t thought of, or even entertained. That and there are the many fragments and other sources for these characters besides Homer that had to be integrated.
 
And if that doesn’t get your stars in a twinkle, think about this. The Iliad begins almost a decade after the ships disembarked from Aulis for Troy, making every hero and heroine ten years older when we read about them, than when they set out on the adventure. They are all full grown men and women by the time we see them in action in Homer’s tales. I welcome comments and questions. And again, I thank Nadine for her thoughtful and detailed review of book one of the Homeric Chronicles. It certainly made me get this blog about the timeline question out in a timely fashion :)
 
Here’s the link to Nadine’s original post. It’s in German, but you can easily translate it to English in Google Translate. Happy reading!!
http://meineliteratour.blogspot.de/2016/07/rezension-song-of-princes.html

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.
© Janell Rhiannon 2016
Any information from this blog must be properly cited :)

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.

Achilles was the greatest warrior to have ever lived. He was the Golden Warrior of the Bronze Age. Even Alexander the Great admired and emulated Achilles throughout his life, sleeping with a copy of the Iliad under his pillow. And yes, for me, Achilles was as real as Alexander was. The Trojan War by Barry Strauss clearly made my day when I read, "Did they exist or did the poet invent them? ...names are some of the easiest things to pass down in an oral tradition, which increases the likelihood that they were real people" (11). He continues "it's plausible but unproven" and that is good enough for me. 

Why do I love and admire Achilles so much? Let me count the ways. The "Greatest of the Greeks" stood taller than the rest, he was passionate, reckless, stubborn, and fierce. And yet, he loved. His struggle to balance his swift-years, or short life, with the acquisition of honor and glory is the universally symbolic struggle to discover one's purpose on earth. Why are we here? What are we supposed to be doing with the time we've been granted? Achilles knew from the beginning that his years would be short, that he was destined to die at Troy, and that his legacy would forge for him an immortality that few have ever achieved. The list of names that have achieved that level of renown is very short, and ironically includes my other favorite hero, Alexander the Great.

Achilles represents the passionate side of human nature ruled by the heart. He loved as fiercely as he fought. It is well known that Achilles had great affection for Patrokles, his elder friend and comrade in arms. They grew up together, trained together, and fought bloody battles side by side facing death for years before the Trojan walls were breached by Odysseus's plan.  The nature of their relationship has been hotly debated for centuries without any conclusion because we simply do not know. Homer never said they were or weren't. However, silence on the subject isn't proof that they Achilles and Patrokles were anything other than heroic friends, models of what love looked like between warriors who faced death and depended on each other implicitly for survival. For me, the silence means they were exactly as Homer portrayed them, heroic friends who had a deep bond for one another. 

Achilles also loved a two women in particular: his wife Deidamia and later after her capture, the princess Briseis. Hidden among the ladies in the court of King Lycomedes of Skyros by his mother, Thetis, Achilles met Deidamia. They were young (still teenagers) and affectionate, eventually married, and parents to Achilles's son, Neoptolemus. When the Golden Warrior was about about 20, he was called to war by Odysseus on behalf of Agamemnon to go to Troy. The war his mother was trying to protect him from came knocking at his door. Achilles left for Aulis joining the other Greeks (the Achaeans, the Danaans, and the Argives). They set sail for the east, their heads full of dreams of gold and plunder...and women. Achilles is credited with sacking several cities before Troy, and in one of those cities, Pedasus, Achilles captured the princess Briseis of Lyrnessus, wife of Mynes. He came to love her, regarded her as his wife, and even Patrokles had an affection for her, promising to throw a wedding feast once she and Achilles returned to Pythia. 

It was the passion Achilles bore for Patrokles and Briseis that caused him to face the ultimate question we all must answer if we expect to live a life with any happiness at all. How do I know myself? Achilles was a warrior. It was the biggest part of his person. His greatest strength and also his greatest weakness. How to balance his purpose, his drive with love? That he loved the princess and she loved him is undeniable. Their bond was deep enough that Achilles's outrage, when Agamemnon took her from him by decree pushed the Golden Warrior to the edge of madness. His first impulse was to slit the old king's throat in rage...the rage that the muse sings about in the opening lines of the Iliad. Only Athena could hold him back...literally yank his hair back to stop him from killing the king in cold blood. She counseled caution. Achilles response was fatal withdrawal of military support. He removed himself and his Myrmidons from the fighting, which was a devastating blow to the Greek efforts because Hektor took the opportunity to hammer them miles back to the beaches. Agamemnon forced Achilles to choose between love and honor. For Achilles it was no simple matter. His days were numbered, he knew he must fight, and be true to his nature as a warrior (his purpose) to survive on the battlefield. The king's actions threatened to rob him of glory and honor, in essence his life's purpose. 

This reaction caused a chain of events that are no less tragic than any Shakespeare play. Patrokles felt bad for the losing Greeks and begged Achilles to borrow the Golden Warrior's armor so he could encourage the Greeks to not give up. Achilles granted the notion and as a result, Hektor, killed Patrokles thinking it was Achilles.  When Achilles found out, he lost his grasp on his rage and unleashed his terrible fury on Hektor. He rejoined the war effort and killed Hektor in hand to hand combat. Briseis was returned to him and she loved him more than ever, maybe out of a desperation that he was all she had left in the world. In the end, it was Briseis who washed his corpse and wept for her dead lover. Achilles's life purpose was completed, all prophecies were fulfilled, and his immortality secured. I suppose you could say, love, was his Achilles heel. The research continues...
--Janell Rhiannon © 2015
Keep in touch. The Homeric Chronicles are coming...2015 

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.
© Janell Rhiannon 2016
Any information from this blog must be properly cited :)