October 2026 – Veronica Scott

Having three of my ancient Egyptian romantasy novels available in a Special Edition hardback has been a dream of mine forever. Doing a Kickstarter for the DANCER OF THE NILE TRILOGY is so much fun and exciting besides. I commissioned three pieces of original character art, one for each book, and then I went deep into the character chibi universe. There are so many cute ones to go with this set of books, although we’ll need to unlock some of the stretch goals to make them all available.

I kept asking my daughter, who has done very successful KS campaigns for her own special editions and who is managing this one for me, “Don’t you think we need a chibi of a cat? A baby camel? Another god or goddess…” She assured me we had enough to offer now.

I probably drove my cover designer to distraction trying to explain what I was visualizing. I wanted a cover that really emphasized the richness and beauty of ancient Egypt while remaining clear this was a set of romances full of magic and adventure. I think she did an excellent job and the gilding is the final touch of perfection. We did a wonderful set of custom end papers and sprayed edges with more symbols. And I was very happy with the back cover and the gilded lotus flowers, which I felt really seemed as if they’d been plucked from a book in a Pharaoh’s tomb.

None of the photos do justice to the covers! The book is amazing in real life and the colors and the gold accents really pop.

Of course the books themselves are the most important piece of this Special Edition and DANCER OF THE NILE features one of my favorite couples, Nima the tavern dancer and Kamin the high born soldier. The duo comes together in an enemy camp where both are prisoners and clever Nima engineers their escape. Then it’s action and adventure as the pair are on the run from the enemy, fighting black magic, encountering various Egyptian gods and goddesses who help or hinder, a caravan master who may or may not be an ally, a troupe of Minoan dancers and more…and of course they fall in love.

In the sequel RETURN OF THE DANCER OF THE NILE (and okay I’m the first to admit I’m not too inspired when it comes to titles) Nima has to appeal to her patron goddess Renenutet the Cobra for help yet again while Horus the Falcon god assists Kamin. Another major figure in the Egyptian pantheon appears as well. This one is partially inspired by various actual events in ancient Egyptian history.

Then the third book DANGER ON THE NILE features their grown up son who is a captain in Pharoah’s Own Guard and a charioteer, and the priestess of Isis who is his true love as they’re on the run from invaders at the southern border of Egypt and trying to keep a sacred golden statue from falling into the wrong hands.

DANGER was the most recent book I’d written in my connected Egyptian series (in 2023) but I’m going to write a special novelette for this Kickstarter if we manage to unlock that stretch goal.

The Kickstarter did fully fund in the first 24 hours – thank you to everyone for their support! – but I’d really like to unlock the stretch goals and share all those cool chibis and the new story, etc.