isis | Veronica Scott

I’m so happy to say that the Release Day has actually arrived for WARRIOR OF THE NILE, my paranormal novel set in Ancient Egypt. The events are set in motion by the goddess Nephthys, sister to Isis. Khenet, the Warrior of the title, and Lady Tiya have to work really hard to accomplish the assigned task without dying and still satisfy the demands of the goddess.

Whenever twin goddesses are around, it’s tempting to assume one is Good and the other is Evil. But it’s not necessarily so! In Ancient Egypt Isis was the queen of the gods and represented motherhood, magic and fertility. Worship of this goddess endured for centuries and even spread through the Roman Empire. Wife of Osiris, ruler of the gods, her headdress was shaped like a throne and the pharaohs of Egypt were often depicted as being her children. She was associated with the rebirth that Egyptians expected in their afterlife. Pretty much the good stuff came to Isis.

Her twin sister Nephthys, although not depicted as evil, was associated with death, with battling demons, darkness and dangerous places like the edge of the desert. She and Isis were viewed by the Egyptians as different aspects of the same supernatural power.

One thing that is very useful to me in writing my paranormal novels of Ancient Egypt is the many varying interpretations and legends surrounding all their gods and goddesses, enabling me to pick and choose the aspects that work best with my worldbuilding and then I stay consistent in my choices. Nephthys doesn’t get things all her own way in my novel – Isis takes a hand in how events turn out, not exactly as her sister had in mind.

Here’s the story overview:

Egypt, 1500 BCE

Lady Tiya is bound to the service of the goddess Nephthys, who plans to sacrifice Tiya’s body to protect Egypt from an ancient terror. She embarks to meet her grim fate alone but for the hardened warrior Khenet, who is fated to die at her side. Tiya’s dreams of love and family now seem impossible, and Khenet, who is the last of his line, knows his culture will die with him. Struggling with the high cost of Nephthys’s demands, both resolve to remain loyal.

Neither expects the passion that flowers when Tiya’s quiet courage and ethereal beauty meet Khenet’s firm strength and resolve. On a boat down the Nile, their two lonely souls find in each other a reason to live. But time is short and trust elusive.

Without the willing sacrifice of Tiya and Khenet, a great evil will return to Egypt. How could the gods demand their deaths when they’ve only just begun to live?

The book has also been issued as an audiobook, which I LOVE…here are the buy links:

Amazon for kindle and audiobook Carina Press AllRomance eBooks Barnes & Noble

(And stay tuned for DANCER OF THE NILE, coming in late October, which I’ll be self publishing as a stand alone novel set in the same time frame.)

Depositphotos

Since I write a paranormal romance series set in ancient Egypt around 1550 BCE, I do a lot of research into the era. I’ve also used board games in many of the novels.

The Ancient Egyptians worked hard, but also loved to play. They had many leisure pastimes, with board games high on their list. One of the most famous games is senet, invented over 5000 years ago. Played with two sets of pawns, some kind of dice and a board with thirty holes, the game was symbolic of the journey of the dead. A player who did really well at this game was considered to be under the protection of a major god or goddess. We don’t know the actual rules any longer, although various scientists have put a lot of effort into coming up with reasonable ideas.

In Warrior of the Nile my Female Main Character discusses playing senet with the goddess Isis herself. Here’s the excerpt (Khenet, one of Pharoah’s warriors, is the MMC):

Isis returned to her contemplation of the game board. “Do you play senet?”

Startled, Tiya didn’t quite know what to say so she kept silent.

Picking up one of the major pieces, the goddess slanted a sideways glance at her. “I ask because life is much the same. I pose you a question – what outcomes are possible in senet?” She tossed the piece to Tiya.

Automatically, she cupped her hands to prevent the elaborately carved piece from falling to the ground. “Win, lose or draw, Great One.” Tiya glanced at the small token in her hand and gasped. The face was unmistakably Khenet’s, carved in great detail, even down to the scar on his cheek and the tattoo on his upper arm.

“Exactly,” Isis was saying. “Arriving at any one of the outcomes involves many game pieces, deployed in a vast array of choices. You and this Khenet are game pieces. Harsh for a mortal to hear, but true.” Shaking her head slightly, beads in her elaborate wig chiming, the goddess held out her hand for the pawn. Taking a step forward Tiya reluctantly set the piece upright in Isis’s palm. For a heartbeat, the queen studied the pawn’s face, before returning it to a position among the ranks of other pawns.

New cover SEPT 2019

In DANCER OF THE NILE the FMC plays a different, high stakes game with a wily caravan master. They play hounds and jackals, which seems to be an early version of our snakes and ladders. The object was to get your five pieces around the palm tree “course” and all safely onto the eternity hieroglyph first. I have a feeling you could probably send other players back to the start, depending on how the dice fell, but again, we don’t really know. The game pieces are irresistible though!

And then there was mehen, named for a great serpent who protects the sun god Ra as he makes his journey. I mention this one in GHOST OF THE NILE. This game is also about 5000 years old, played on a board shaped like a snake. The pieces may have been shaped like lions and lionesses, and there may have been dice or small stone balls like marbles. The serpent was segmented into “spaces” and it is believed as many as six people could play. Over time, the game fell out of favor, possibly due to an increasing belief by the Egyptians that the segmentation of the snake on the game board might actually be hurting or killing the “real” Mehen snake who guarded Ra, thus endangering the daily rising of the Sun.

Parker Brothers never had to worry about things like that with their games! Monopoly and Risk were always big favorites at our house, though we usually gave up before anyone declared a decisive victory. Scrabble and Parcheesi are the other, quicker games we play. I think the Ancient Egyptians would get the point of any of today’s games rather quickly and join right in!

What’s your favorite board game? What would you invite visitors from the past to sit down and play?

All books available wide. Here’s my series page with the buy links and more details.