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I had only  made it to the top of page four in my new novel when my character wound up pressing his lips together.  But I’m not going to dither around and find a better way to put it for now.  I’d really like to try moving more quickly through a first draft.   So I’ll…

“After all, if they wanted a good picture of the sphinx, they needed to do it in the cool, early morning when the rising sun shone directly onto its 30-foot high face.” That’s a short excerpt from my work-in-progress set in Egypt.   And since I was following in the footsteps of my characters, I naturally…

In SAVING THE GRIFFIN, laurel hedges were rather important to my plot.  That’s why I took time to describe these evergreen leaves.  The trees and plants weren’t quite as important in my novel set in Egypt, but I still needed to establish a sense of place.  When you’re moving your characters through various forms of…

While I didn’t set a scene at Al-Ahzar Park, my characters visited it between the ending of one chapter and the beginning of another.   It also came up in conversation a number of times for various reasons.  So of course, I had to go.   Several supporting characters in my novel belong to the same ex-pat family.   While…

Egypt has over 5000 years of recorded history.  Often, people concentrate on the days of the pharoahs from Menes (Narmer) to the suicide of Cleopatra VII.  But Egypt continued to play its part in world history even though it wound up being ruled by a series of invaders: Romans, Arabs, Fatimids, Mumluks, Ottomans, French and English.…

Abusir is not one of the classic, must-see sights of Egypt. As one of my characters observes,  “No one says ‘I want to see Abusir before I die.”  The pyramids there are 100 years younger than those in Giza, but in much worse condition. I can just hear some Ancient Egyptian bean-counter saying over 4600 years…

In every other project that I’ve done up until MARK OF THE SCARAB, I experienced things before I created characters.  In fact, on my website, there’s an article about how I wasn’t able to write about Merano, Italy until I got to know it. My friend Jeanie Ransom said something like the following: “You’re living in…

I was mowing my lawn one day when I found myself thinking about how I might be able to deduct a visit to see my sister on my taxes.  At the moment, I was thinking more in terms of trying to get a paid author visit to the school where she teaches, the Cairo American…

Last week, I put the finishing touches on a middle grade novel and sent it off to my agent.   It had undergone one major revision and any number of minor ones.  Once I fixed various problems with setting, logic, characterization, and plotting, it was time for the line edit.  I don’t want my agent or…