Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai

Category Archives: Aculeo & Amunet


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Travelers’ tales, gossip and word of mouth

220px-Herodotos_Met_91.8This guy here on the right is Herodotus.
Or an acceptable likeness thereof – a Roman copy of a Grecian bust.
The Romans loved Herodotus – and according to Cicero he was the Father of history.
To me, he’s a fun read, and also the first stop for me when I decide to write a new Aculeo & Amunet story.

The Histories of Herodotus provide a wonderful collection of facts, hearsay and speculation about the Ancient World…

This is the display of the inquiry of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, so that things done by man not be forgotten in time, and that great and marvelous deeds, some displayed by the Hellenes, some by the barbarians, not lose their glory, including among others what was the cause of their waging war on each other.

Continue reading →


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Amunet?

I found by pure chance this beautiful image, part of a stunning photoset by Captain Irachka Cosplay, that captures1  just my mental image of Amunet, from my stories in the Aculeo & Amunet series.
It was shocking, in a very pleasant way.
The photo is absolutely gorgeous (in case you thought I didn’t notice) and I take it as a sign that it’s time to start working on a new story about Aculeo & Amunet.

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In the next few days, I’ll try and get in touch with this lady, because it would be a wonder to be able to get one of her photos for the cover of the next Aculeo & Amunet collection. She also has a Patreon page, in case you guys should feel like giving her your support.

  1. unwittingly, of course. Let’s be serious, my stories are not so popular they could inspire a cosplayer. ↩


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My girl’s gonna be popular soon (well, maybe)

I wonder if this will have any impact on my sales.
Yes, I’m as mercenary-minded as they come, but really, bear witrh me.
Here are the trailers for the forthcoming reboot of the Mummy franchise.

Now, to be completely honest, my interest in this movie is not very high – I liked the first Brendan Fraser Mummy movie, great pulp entertainment, but the rest of the series bored me somewhat.
This new one does not tickle my fancy.
Oh, I’ll see it, one way or another, sooner or later, because, you know, it’s in my field and all that, but I’m not overly eager to buy a ticket.

But now turns out the mummy of the movie is the mummy of an evil Egyptian queen called… Amunet.
And that sort of rings a bell, so to speak. Continue reading →


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A new song for old faces

Talk about never throwing away anything.

It was August 2014, my life was pretty different, I was about to publish a new collection of Aculeo & Amunet stories and I mused about doing a spin-off of the series, focusing on the character of Centurion Nennius Britannicus and his contubernium.

connollyFor the uninitiated, the contubernium is the smallest unit of the Roman army – a band of eight men, led by a decanus, with two auxiliaries, and maybe a mule. The guys, called contubernales,  lived together and fought side by side. It was a very tightly knit sort of military unit, and probably one of the (many) reasons why the Roman Legions were so awesome in the field.
So back in the summer of 2014 I decided I’d do a spin-off series, and call it Contubernium. I said I would be…

Something like Hill Street Blues, but set in Alexandria, in the Third Century.
A city filled with zealots, fanatics, weirdos and loose women.
With Lovecraftian creatures.
It would be fun.

But then the project went nowhere.
I had my Scrivener file with all its odds and ends and stuff, but quite clearly there was not a good story in there. So I filed the lot away.
Fast forward 30 months. Continue reading →


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Writing Prompt – Tomb king

This one was supposed to go online yesterday, but then more urgent matters required a post. So here it is now…

the_tomb_king_by_jarrodowen-da9632j

The painting is called The Tomb King, and was created by Jarrod Owen. My friend Marina saw it, and pointed it out to me.

And this is an anomalous prompt, because it is actually a perfect reference for a story I am writing. The story is called The Revenge of Ankhefenkhos, and it is part of my series about the adventures of Aculeo & Amunet. It will probably be the longest thing I wrote about these characters, and it will take time.