Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Re-Thinking Sons of the Sphinx and the Kid Lit Blog Hop #52

This week I participated in the second of two Author Discussions/Reading with fellow author Gail Strickland. The event revolved around the influence of Joseph Campbell's The Hero's Journey in both of our books, Sons of the Sphinx (mine) and Night of Pan (Gail's). We do a good job together talking about the progression of the journey throughout our stories and illustrate steps of the journey through individual readings. Here we are ready for our audience with Gail on the left and yours truly on the right:


We each presented our stories as coming of age, but Gail also emphasized the historical accuracy of Night of Pan. On the way home, I got to thinking that I could have done a better job of introducing Sons of the Sphinx. I also kicked myself all the way home for not realizing this sooner.

Sons of the Sphinx is based on the schism that the Pharaoh Akhenaten shot through ancient Egypt when, according to historians, he turned his back on Thebes and the gods of Egypt. He built his own city to honor his god the Aten, and he insisted that the people of Egypt do the same. Along with this, he supposedly refused to send troops to defend Egypt's borders thus incurring the wrath of the then General Horemheb. When Tutankhamen becomes pharaoh, he reverses Akhenaten's proclamations and returns the governing center to Thebes and the worship back to the god Amun.

However, the damage has been done, and by the time Horemheb attains pharaoh status, he has proclaimed the betrayal of the Egyptian people by Akhenaten so widely and so much, all members of the family including Tutankhamen and Ankhesenamun and Ay are dishonored. Horemheb further insults the family by defacing Ay's tomb after his death. It is Ay's decision before his death to ensure that Ankhsenamun is not subject to dishonor by keeping her final resting place a secret.

The historical significance of my story is the main reason I was able to write Sons of the Sphinx. Needing to help right a wrong done over 3000 years ago and reunite the boy king with his queen (whose tomb has yet to be identified or found), allowed my protagonist Rosa to come to terms with who she is and what her place in this world is.

I would love to hear if you think this is essential/important information that would benefit readers of Sons of the Sphinx.

And now,

Welcome to the 52nd Kid Lit Blog Hop where we continue to develop a dynamic and engaged community of children's books bloggers, authors, publishers, and publicists.

On this Hop, Carpinello's Writing Pages interviews Tween/Teen author  
Krysten Lindsay Hager
and MG/YA author J. B. Pelts.
 
So, you are always more than welcome to join us by popping in a post and hopping around to meet some of your fellow Kid Lit bloggers and authors! For the first time, we will also be including a Linky Party to be held in conjunction with the Kid Lit Blog Hop. Every two weeks, you will have the opportunity to join in a linky party focused on one social media network, helping you to connect with and grow your network of fellow kid lit bloggers, authors, and parents. First up... the Facebook Linky Party. We are pleased to be welcome the following co-hostess with us this week: Katie from The Logonauts, a blog focused on sharing and discussing great books for elementary and middle grade readers. Please take a moment to drop by and say hello. Welcome Katie!  

Hostesses:

Mother Daughter Book Reviews

Julie Grasso, Author/ Blogger

Cheryl Carpinello, Author / Blogger

Stacking Books

BeachBoundBooks

Pragmatic Mom

Best 4 Future: Bringing Up Baby Bilingual

Reading Authors

 

Co-Hostess:

The Logonauts

 

Happy Hopping everyone and enjoy the Hop!

Kid Lit Blog Hop
 

Kid Lit Blog Hop & Linky Party Rules *Please Read*

1. Add the link to your Facebook fan page in the Facebook Linky Party linky list below. Be sure to visit, "like", and/or comment on your hostesses' Facebook pages as well as the two links directly before yours. Make sure to leave us a message if you are following us and we will be sure to follow you back.

2. Link up any Kid Lit related post in the Kid Lit Blog Hop. This can be a link to a children’s book review, a discussion about children’s literature/literacy, or a post on a recently-read children’s book or one that you love from your childhood.
* Don't link directly to your blog, it must be a specific post.*
* For Authors, we prefer you to link to your blog if you have one. Please link unique posts each time ~ no repeats please. *
* Make sure you include an image relevant to the POST (e.g., book cover), not your blog button or photo of yourself.*
* Feel free to link more than one post.*

3. Please visit AT LEAST the TWO LINKS from the Kid Lit Blog Hop directly ahead of your own and leave them some love in the form of a comment. We are trying to build a community of bloggers, readers, parents, authors, and others who are as passionate about children’s literature as we are so please CONNECT and follow any or all of the blogs that interest you! 4. If you like, grab the button above and put it somewhere on your blog, preferably the post you're linking up. If you'd prefer, you can just add a text link back to this Hop so that others can find it and check out all these great book links! 5. It would really help us get the word out about the Kid Lit Blog Hop if you would be so kind as to tweet, share, and spread the word about the Hop!
Interested in co-hosting the Kid Lit Blog Hop/Linky Party? If you've joined us before, you are welcome to join us again! Please email renee @ motherdaughterbookreviews (dot) com and put Co-Hosting Blog Hop in the subject line.
Happy Hopping!
 

FACEBOOK LINKY PARTY


KID LIT BLOG HOP

4 comments:

  1. As a reader, I so appreciate your passion to provide readers with such a well-rounded back story to the book they open. Thanks for sharing your story. (Hopping over from the kid-lit blog hop.)

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Jenny. I think I'm going to post to the book's buying pages. Thanks for taking the time to stop by, read, and comment. Much appreciated.

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  2. Replies
    1. Thank you, Cool Mom. Appreciate the feedback. Enjoy your week!

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