Unexpected Time Travel to Ancient Egypt in Vanessa MacLellan's THREE GREAT LIES

One of my favorite new markets for speculative fiction is the Dreaming Robot Press series Young Explorer's Adventure Guide. I was honored to share the 2015 table of contents with Vanessa MacLellan, and I'm further honored to have Vanessa as a guest today to discuss her new novel, Three Great Lies.

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When I was little I had three great fascinations: Dinosaurs, terraforming other planets, and Egyptian mythology. Sit for a moment and remember the focus you had as kids, when all you wanted to do was play ball, or teach your dog to fetch, or read about space aliens? Well, for me, those three were tops. I had plastic dinosaurs I'd play with in the mud; they built towns and had a government. Read sci-fi where human colonists turned desert landscapes into rolling fields. And I had this great picture book with pyramids and pharaohs and mummies in it, along with a description of what each god meant.

I've been fascinated ever since. So, back in 2008 when I was preparing for my fifth NaNoWriMo challenge, I began to ponder... how well would I survive in an ancient world, like, say ancient Egypt?

Thus the seed was planted and much research was tackled.

A major aspect of the book (the stray dog theme) sprang to life at an agility dog show. The midsummer day was baking hot and I had parked myself under a tree for the next show. A Jack Russell Terrier was looking at me with that intelligent tongue-lolling smile terriers have. Honestly, the dog was smiling.

And that was the original start of the novel: "The dog was smiling at her." It's since changed, but that line and scene are still in there, the theme planted throughout the novel. The story just unfolded from that one dog's smile. I thank the heavens for smiling dogs!

After that, sitting in the hot sun, I began writing long hand. Then moved the novel to my computer and it flowed from there. I wrote 50,000 words of a woman fumbling her way through ancient Egypt, being chased by mummies, crocodiles and slave masters. Of her using her vast knowledge from spy movies to infiltrate a spy ring and help a young woman find her purpose and a mummy find his soul. It was a good ride.

It is still a good ride. One that's just starting.

Blurb for Three Great Lies:

While vacationing in Egypt. . .
Jeannette Walker, a cynical scientist jaded by swarms of tour groups and knick-knack shacks, is lured by a teenage tour guide to visit a newly discovered tomb. No other tourists there! Inside the chamber, she tumbles down a shaft and 3000 years back in time.

Now, in a world where deities walk the streets and prophecy stinks up the air, Jeannette is desperate for normal and the simple pleasures of sanitation and refrigeration. However, a slave master hawking a cat-headed girl derails her homebound mission, and Jeannette—penniless in this ancient world—steals the girl, bringing down the tireless fury of the slaver.

Saddled with a newly awakened mummy and the cat-headed girl, Jeannette, through her unparalleled experience gained from watching spy movies, contrives a plan to free them from the slaver's ire, but will she have to dive into the belly of the beast to succeed?

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Follow Vanessa MacLellan on her website, Facebook, and Google+.

You can purchase Three Great Lies on Amazon. 

Barbara Burgess talks YA, Fantasy, and Medieval Lit

Please welcome my guest, Barbara Burgess. She shares with me an educational background in the Middle Ages, although she went the more fantastical route for her new YA novel, The Magic Manuscript: The Nine Companions (second in the Magic Manuscript series), which places contemporary teens into the legendary period of King Arthur. Barbara discusses the inspiration for her series. 

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Thanks so much, Anne, for having me as a guest on your blog. 

Today, I’d like to talk about the roles that the key female protagonists play in my latest YA fantasy novel. I thought to open with this quote from sixteen-year-old Malala Yousafzai’s inspiring words at the United Nations the other day.  Her words about helping young women around the world realize their own strength and potential deeply resonated with me. “We call upon our sisters around the world to be brave – to embrace the strength within themselves and realise their full potential.”

I specialized in medieval English literature at McGill University. My thesis advisor had been tutored by C. S. Lewis at Oxford University and introduced me to “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” and other Arthurian legends. Years later, I decided to write my own version of the timeless Arthurian legend. My YA fantasy novel, The Magic Manuscript: Book One – Voyage to Eve Ilion, was first published by Piraeus Books in 2011. Two teens, Jennifer and Arthur, are thrown back in time after Jen finds a medieval magic manuscript in a cave in England. They meet the wizard Merlin in England around the year 500 AD. In my latest novel, however, The Magic Manuscript: The Nine Companions, I decided that Merlin should reappear in the twenty-first century as a beautiful Welsh woman in her mid-twenties—Bronwen—who has a key position at the UN. She becomes a mentor and guide to Jennifer Gael, the main heroine in the story. I wanted to present to teenage girls—and all readers—the ideal of a strong and influential female leader. When Jennifer, Lance and Arthur first meet her, Bronwen tells them:

“I’m the daughter of a prominent politician. My mother was a minister in the government. I grew up meeting cabinet ministers at the dinner table—a kind of modern-day court. At university, people became interested in my poetry and ideas, and I found myself in the public arena, championing idealistic causes. The UN has commissioned me to write a manifesto of peace … I need you three to stand as warriors against darkness. Jennifer, this is the age where women can be powerful leaders. That’s that why I returned as a woman, this time around.”

The theme of free-spirited young women reclaiming their right to independence certainly runs through this second book (which can be read without having read the first book). Jennifer and her boyfriend Arthur time travel again; this time, they land in the desert of ancient Sumeria in the year 3200 BC. The two youths are kidnapped by Faizi, a tyrannical leader. He tries to push Jennifer into an arranged marriage. They must escape Faizi, and as they flee through the desert, they are aided by other young companions who also want a life of freedom from oppression and tyranny. Throughout their journey, we sense the hidden, mysterious and beneficent power of Lady Eve. She is the goddess whom Jennifer met in her earlier time travels (described in book one) and who helped Jennifer develop her intuition, ability to understand all languages, and unfold hidden potentials and superpowers, such as the abilities to fly and prophesy.

The cover of The Magic Manuscript: The Nine Companions was done by artist David Russell, who has worked as a storyboard artist on movies such as “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi,” “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” and “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” to name but a few. I was honoured and delighted that he created such a splendid cover for The Nine Companions, in which he depicted Lady Eve, goddess of the island of Eve Ilion. Russell portrayed her just as I envisioned—a powerful young woman with great strength, determination, beauty, and grace.

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You can read more about Barbara Burgess and the making of The Magic Manuscript: The Nine Companions at her website. 

The Magic Manuscript: The Nine Companions can be purchased directly from the publisher, and on Amazon.