We don’t know a lot and so many stories are based on the writings. I wanted to write a science fiction book and began my research. I googled for images, but of course photography didn’t exist then. My sisters and brother both spoke Latin (yes the dead language), and I did take a Mythology course in high school. And the stories have such highs and such lows. Greeks myths are often tragic. Science fiction is chalk full of ancient stories with better endings. And one day I hope to write an amazing science fiction novel, but while researching I realized I love Myths and have this image in my head of the time period.
This leads back to rereading the myths and movies. I do love some movies and shows set in ancient times. Action rocks. Troy, 300, Rome Season One, Spartacus Season One, and I’m sure I’m missing a few on my list of favorites. Sometimes there are great movies to me, like these listed, set in those times. Other times, epic fail as I’m not connecting and cannot stand the movie or show at all.
In reading and researching, I realized I’ve never seen a fun action story starring the Theseus who lived in my head. The movies I saw that I enjoy from the past all helped me with the setting. I did forget the Kevin Sorbo Hercules, as that one really painted an interest in me with a setting of ordinary people against monsters or mythological creatures. Sorry went off topic for a second.
The idea of Theseus being a man, not a god, has always struck me as something relatable. Theseus goes to meet his father, confronts him, fights the Minotaur to save his father’s city-state, and then life throws a curve ball or two. Tragedy? Really? No, not in my head.
Also in the myth Ariadne is the girl with the red string who helps Theseus find the minotaur and free himself. She loved him, and I heard the heroine. She’s strong and goes after what she wants.
Stewing on these facts, I wove a story where true love wins, and heroes defeat monsters and their own internal fears.
I hope people allow me creative license. What I don’t know in Ancient Athens is the details of everyday life and I did research and decided take some liberties, like the mirror. I get that in that myth about the guy seeing his reflection in the water makes him fall in love with himself. But in wanting to stay fast paced, that minor detail of water reflecting versus someone’s ease of using a mirror… mirror won. And you can’t tell me mirrors didn’t exist at the time. You can’t prove it. I can’t prove they did and I moving along. And hey who knows perhaps it was all alien influence like another show tells me… I’ll get into anything for a good story.
Yet I did try to hold important truths and ancient writers, and have people live as close as possible as to me how humans interact is far more important. This is a value judgment, and my list. The Amazons did procreate in the manner I described sometimes, and they did cut off a piece of their breasts to shoot straight. This detail struck me as more important. They show up far later in the story. How did I learn this? Research. Books and Google.
Honestly, if there is a part of the story I can gloss over is setting. It’s why those movies I mentioned are so important. We don’t know so much from this time period. And characters are why I write. Stories are better with good setting. Oh and the pictures of what the togas and what a Chilton and how men and women dress differently, help tremendously. Google and online directions on how to sew one are fun, even if I can’t go in a straight line with a needle.
My characters, Ari, would have a keen eye on setting because she grew up in a palace and noticed everything. Theseus wouldn’t notice what color was in the tapestry on the wall or the significance. So the settings became through Ari’s eyes that the world gets painted because that would matter to her in Mything You.
So Athens is the perfect setting for your love story! Thanks for sharing that background with us.
I'm giving this small excerpt for everyone to enjoy for a taste of "Mything You" :
EXCERPT:
Theseus’ entire body must have been made in the nectar of desire because she wished to bury herself in his arms. And he didn’t stop her from running to him. She jumped when a crash cracked through the air. Blinking, unsure of what happened, her body became rigid. Theseus pulled her into his arms and onto the ground seconds before the giant flew over the pair of them.
He took his hand off her head. He had protected her. Again.
Staring up at him stirred something unique inside her that she never believed could happen to her. She’d seen the plays and the tragedy that love caused, but never understood temptation. The fire in her belly burned into every part of her body from his smoldering eyes. He looked down at her as he cradled her in his arms. “That was Sinus. I don’t think he’ll kill anyone else ever again.”
“He won’t. How do you know his name?”
“He’s the reason I chose this path when I was fifteen. I had planned to prove my courage to my father, and take out the biggest villain on the road.”
“Check that off the list of goals then.” she said. “Good job.”
She continued to embrace Theseus, making her body tingle from crazy stirrings. What would he taste like? She’d die a happy death if he put his lips on hers. My, what was she thinking?
“I never believed you’d be here, or that my goal in that moment would turn to protecting you.” he said, pulling her closer.
She shook off her desires. She needed to let him go. She focused on logic instead of the male body in front of her. “I don’t know what to say. Today has been the craziest day.”
“It’s the middle of the night, little one.”
“You’re right. I don’t know what’s happening to me anymore. Theseus, this never happens to me.”
“What doesn’t happen to you?” he asked, smiling.
“I don’t know.”
He played with her hair, and straightened her clothes. “Your innocence and desire are a siren’s call to me, Ari, and you don’t have a clue, do you?”
“Who’s Ari?” She half expected to be disappointed with whatever he would say.
“You are. It fits you much better than Ariadne. Ari trembles for me.”
She licked her lips, wanting to kiss him. But she couldn’t. Theseus embodied a man out of her dreams.
She looked away thinking of what waited for her when her father’s men found her. “I don’t know my bridegroom. I’ve only ever known my duty.”
Theseus’ body tensed. “You’re betrothed?”
“I never agreed. The bride price, I’m told, paid for my father’s upgrade to the artillery. In the morning or someday soon, I’ll be found. But…can you do me one last favor?”
“What, little one?” His arms grew warm again, tightening around her. She dared for a different life, where she lived with a chance of walking next to him in life. Letting him go and going back to the life her father chose sounded cold and dreary. She couldn’t, not yet.
“Kiss me, Theseus, just once.”
Taking a step closer to him, she looked into his mesmerizing eyes. His strong hands framed her face, his fingers circled her mouth and his eyes darkened with tenderness. When he leaned into her, her eyelids fluttered shut. His light pressure sweetly opened her mouth.
Her secret wish had come true. The prison walls in Ariadne’s heart disappeared in her soul, and today Ari’s lips ached.
He bent his head close. Then, she felt his strong lips on hers, and she lost control.
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This is a fun book for a lazy afternoon of reading! Deborah/TheBookishDame
