Pompeii: Haunted by History
More than nineteen hundred years ago, on August 24 (AD 79), volcano Mount Vesuvius, located on the Gulf of Naples in Campania, Italy, roused itself…
Disney’s The Little Mermaid Movie 2023: Not the first of its kind
Disney’s live action movie “The Little Mermaid” hits theaters on May 26, 2023. Long anticipated though not without pre-release controversy, the film promises to immerse…
Mermaids, Dolphins, and Humans: A True Fairytale
Mermaids, dolphins, and humans are forever bound. This claim all Merfolk will swear is true. Just how this came to be is told in a…
Walt Disney Pictures The Little Mermaid: Why the Controversy?
🐬 Walt Disney Pictures live-action adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s beloved story “The Little Mermaid” will hit theaters in the U.S. on May 26, 2023.…
Gryphons Were Real—Part I
Gryphons were real…or so the ancient Greeks believed. Could they have been right? After all, they did have proof. The Gryphon was unique in…
Gryphons Were Real—Part II: The Hard Evidence
Around 675 BC, a wandering Greek poet made the wondrous claim that gryphons were real—not a mythic creature lost in the mist of time, but…
The Strange Tomb of Babylonian Queen Nitocris
Long after her death, Queen Nitocris of Babylon slapped the hand of a Persian king while serving up a lesson on greed. I would have…
Syrian Goddess Atargatis: The Known World’s First Mermaid
Framed against blue sky in modern Turkey, the ruined stronghold of Syrian goddess Atargatis (ah-TAR-gah-tis) still stands. She is the known world’s first mermaid.…
Dancing With Words: Why I Write
The same breath behind our words and the same life rhythm in our language infuse the movement of our bodies and find wordless expression in…
10 Fantasy Clichés and Ideas to Change Them by Gabrielle Rhody
Gabrielle Rhody introduces “10 Fantasy Clichés and Ideas to Change Them” with a provocative observation: “Walk into any book store, and you will find shelves…
Mermaiding: Be a Mermaid
🐬 “Always be yourself. Unless you can be a mermaid. Then, always be a mermaid.” – Anonymous 🐬 Ancient myths. Sworn accounts by seafaring folk.…
Mysterious Realms of the Sea
🐬 “The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net forever.” Jacques Yves Cousteau 🐬 Beautiful, vast, and mysterious, the sea calls…
Ghost Ship Trouvaille
🐬 In the gray false dawn, when sea and sky meet seamlessly in mist, ghost ships with tattered sails form silently in the fog. Crewed…
Aristeas of Proconnesus: The Disappearing Poet
🧿 What better way to launch a writing career than to stage a dramatic disappearing act? That’s exactly what Aristeas of Proconnesus did! His epic…
The Disappearing Poet Returns
🧿 Aristeas of Proconnesus (poet and mystic, 7th century BC) had a fine flare for theatrics. As described in my previous post, he began by dropping…
The Fall (and Rise) of Ancient Babylon
🧿 Quest for Gryphon Gold begins in ancient Babylon, 553 BC. How do you rebuild a once-great city fallen to dust? Capital of the ancient land…
Ancient Nineveh: A Fragile Treasure
🧿 Beloved of blessed Ishtar, ancient Nineveh once sat like a jewel upon the banks of the Tigris, where those sacred waters meet the river…
Naqia-Zakutu: Assyria’s Last Great Queen – Part 1
🧿 Research for Quest for Gryphon Gold turned up some interesting stories that did not make it into my book. This one about Assyria’s queen…
Naqia-Zakutu: Assyria’s Last Great Queen—Part 2
🧿 A royal inscriptions venerating perhaps the most influential woman in ancient Assyria reads: Naqia-Zakutu, wife of Sennacherib, king of the world, king of Assyria,…
Legendary Gardens of Mesopotamia: Coloring the Past – Part 1
🧿 The legendary gardens of Mesopotamia: What can they tell us about the Land Between Two Rivers? In Quest for Gryphon Gold—a 6th century BC odyssey—my hero’s…
Legendary Gardens of Mesopotamia: Coloring the Past – Part 2
What more can legendary gardens of Mesopotamia tell us about the Land Between Two Rivers? In Part 1, we glimpsed public and private oases of…