Ancient Egypt of course, given the paranormal novels I write, which are set in 1550 BCE.

Here’s what I said last year in a post on world building for Here Be Magic:

The Egyptian civilization has almost 3000 years of recorded history to work with, beginning over 5000 years ago. They believed in a pantheon of gods and goddesses with authority over every aspect of life, many of whom have multiple origin stories and attributes. The Egyptians were lusty and loving, devoted to family and home life, while also building a rich, powerful nation, all things centered around the bounty of the Nile. Despite their endless fascination with preparing for and ensuring a satisfactory afterlife, they were quite practical, yet poetic, in their daily pursuits, leaving us fragments of poems and songs and science, math and medicine, tales of battles and magic and pharaohs.

As a writer, I couldn’t ask for a more wonderful setting.

So far I’ve written four novels in this connected series, with many more ideas queued up in my brain, waiting for me to have time to sit and write.

I keep this gentleman on my writing desk, as a stand-in for my Pharaoh Nat-re-Akhte, the anchor character in my novels. He sends people hither and yon, fighting to protect Egypt.

Found this neat quote from Ray Bradbury: “A new book smells great. An old book smells even better. An old book smells like ancient Egypt.”