by Stephanie Dray | Dec 7, 2012 | Bloopers, Lily of the Nile, My Works, Song of the Nile
The Nile is a river in Egypt that empties into the Mediterranean. Its source, though hotly debated in ancient times and incorrectly theorized by King Juba II to be in ancient Mauretania, is actually (mostly) in Ethiopia. The river flows north. Consequently, when...
by Stephanie Dray | Aug 1, 2012 | Lily of the Nile, My Works, Song of the Nile
All hail Imperator Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus Divi Filius Augustus, the villain in my Cleopatra’s Daughter novels, and the man after whom the month of August is named. It is not, as some believe, his birth month. No, he didn’t want to be celebrated for...
by Stephanie Dray | May 20, 2012 | Excerpts, For Readers, Lily of the Nile, Miscellany, My Works
As part of my continued participation in the weekly Six Sentence Sunday exercise with other authors, here’s another snippet from my debut novel LILY OF THE NILE: A NOVEL OF CLEOPATRA’S DAUGHTER:The Roman guard actually put his unclean hands on our wizard’s...
by Stephanie Dray | Jan 31, 2012 | Articles, Daughters of the Nile, Lily of the Nile, Song of the Nile
The star of my new novel, SONG OF THE NILE, is Cleopatra Selene. However, another young woman plays a very prominent role, and that is Julia, the daughter of Rome’s first emperor. Though their parents were mortal enemies, in my novel, the two teenaged girls form a...
by Stephanie Dray | Jan 24, 2012 | Daughters of the Nile, Lily of the Nile, Research, Song of the Nile
In ancient history powerful women got a bad rap. This was especially the case for Rome’s first empress, Livia Drusilla, the wife of Augustus Caesar. She comes down to us as a sort of wicked step-monster of the Julio-Claudian family–one who murders, manipulates...
by Stephanie Dray | Dec 1, 2011 | Articles, Daughters of the Nile, Lily of the Nile, Research, Song of the Nile
Ancient Rome was going to get a new theatre; this was never in any doubt. Julius Caesar acquired and cleared the land on the shore of the Tiber River. However, his grand designs for the place were frustrated by his untimely assassination. Still, what are a few fatal...
