Back in the land of the living, Nina and her friends (both dead and alive) arrive at the University Plate orbiting the frozen Earth. Their mission is to search for the Book of Spells that witches lost at the asteroid impact. Also they are to start their studies in witchcraft. Will they find the Secret Library hidden somewhere in the University Plate? Why do the dark witches show such interest in Nina? What does a living mummy have to do with any of it? Witches, an angel and a demon, a ghost and a mummy, dead and living people mingle in this humorous witch novel. If you like stories of witchcraft, space, and adventure, get this book!
What would you do if you woke up one morning with bite marks on your neck and learned you had been chosen as his bride by the cold-blooded prince of a local vampire clan? That’s what happened to Elena. On the brink of turning into a vampire, she learns she is a Creature with exceptional skills the vampire prince wishes to own through sucking the knowledge from her blood. She has two options for not turning into a vampire: 1) to drink a foul-tasting medicine only one person knows how to make for the rest of her life while running from Aaron, the vampire prince who will hunt her without mercy, or 2) find the mythical Creator Aaron wants to become by using the skills in Elena’s blood before he does. The Creator, that mystical Creature who can mold reality by writing – and maybe write Elena back to her old self. Together with a group of other Creatures, she escapes through secret goblin stone spirals and resolves to try and find the Creator first. A handsome demon, a very polite goblin, a pragmatic walker and a soulful vampire who only wishes to die, help her in her search. Will they find the Creator before Aaron catches them – or finds the Creator and starts writing the reality into what he wants it to be? If you love vampire stories, fast pace adventure and mythical creatures, buy this book
Kaylee and Luke have to follow their parents to a distant mountain village. The lord of the local castle has invited them to work on his Egyptological collection. So it is goodbye to friends and summer fun, hello to boring summer. Upon arrival, they learn the castle lord isn’t interested in their parents at all. It is Kaylee and Luke he wants – to search for seven ancient shabtis, little servant statuettes from ancient Egypt. According to legend, they were brought to the valley by a pharaoh’s daughter fleeing from ancient Egypt. The shabtis hold an unbelievable power – something people have been searching for thousands of years. Something they are willing to do anything for to find – even kill... The castle lord makes it clear that if Luke and Kaylee don’t find the shabtis, their families will suffer. And the first one to go will be Kaylee’s little sister Ellie. The castle is surrounded by a lake – and Ellie cannot swim. Luke and Kaylee begin their desperate search with only an ancient Egyptian hieroglyph as a clue. The clock is ticking and their families have no idea they are in danger. Will they find the first shabti in time? Is the legend of the pharaoh’s daughter true? Who is the ghost haunting the castle? The House of the Morning Sun is the first book in the YA series ‘The Seven Shabtis’. If you like mystery, history and ghost stories, buy this book.
Has Dana any chance of escaping from the FIrst Vampire who holds her prisoner 3300 years in the past, in Ancient Egypt? What happened to Shuet who had to escape the dark Nephilim Lord to the desert? Her sister Meryt-Neith is hiding too, to escape a destiny worse than death. Merit stays in the royal court of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, threatened by the same Pale Lord who hunts her daughters. And all the while the Time Walker team tries to find the first clue that will take them to the path that leads them to the hiding place of the Watchers, the angels who were the fathers of the Nephilim. None of them are safe from the enemy, and his trap to get what he wants is closing fast... Will the Time Walker team be able to save Merit's life? Amarna is the third book of the Nephilim Quest series. If you love ancient Egypt, human mythology and time travel stories, you'll love the latest book of the series. Buy Amarna to continue your discovery of the hidden secrets of ancient Egypt and the descendants of angels and humans, the Nephilim.
There were no official marriage ceremonies we know of in ancient Egypt. No blessings of the gods, no rituals in the temples. The young couple simply moved under the same roof and were considered to be married.
A baby is born in secrecy - a baby whose father is the embodiment of evil - and he wants to have his child.
They made the ultimate sacrifice to save the life of Shuet, Seth and their newborn son. And so they made a promise, and took Asule as their daughter.
Will Dana escape the First Vampire who kidnapped her in ancient Egypt?
Buried in the sand, Shuet and Seth wait, afraid the dark Nephilim will find them.
The first vampire has Dana - but will he be able to keep her as prisoner?
The legend of the Nephilim is old - it is already mentioned in the Old Testament. Winged gods and goddesses were abundant in ancient times - ancient Egypt included.
Shuet and Seth and their newborn baby are chased in the desert by the dark Nephilim.
Forced to obey the will of the First Vampire.
Daniel hunting the First Vampire who has kidnapped Dana.
Giving birth under the cold stars of the western desert of Egypt while being chased by the dark Nephilim...Trying to reach the safety of the hidden valley of the Nephilim in the Egyptian desert, Shuet and Seth escape the Pale Man.
People are living on plates rotating the sun after an asteroid hit the Earth and plunged it into permanent winter. On one of the plates, much to her surprise Nina wakes up dead one morning. Her death is not natural, and includes a cursed soul from ancient Egypt. Trying to get things back to normal with the help of dead people, an angel and a demon, she stumbles into an ancient secret of witches - both good and bad - who haven't disappeared anywhere just because the Earth is no longer habitable.
Never use spells light-heartedly...
How to save a possessed little girl?
When an evil mind takes over.
Merging with nature.
Searching for missing spells.
The third eye - the way to sense other realities.
What if you could write things down and they would happen?
When you give electric shocks to everything. Quite a nuisance.
Being chased by someone very bad...
When you are transformed to someone else completely...
The paparazzi attack.
The powers of the dark witches...
Everyone's dream - to win the lottery.
When the person you never wanted to find you appears on your doorstep.
What is the difference between a medium and fortune teller?
When you don't want someone to like you.
What would it be like to look at Earth from space, after an asteroid impact had plunged the planet into permanent winter?
The human kind - witches included - living on plates orbiting the sun after an asteroid impact on Earth.
Trying to find the source of the curse that almost killed Nina.
Not exactly. But strangling has a similar effect. Even if it is done by a ghost.
Nah... just a demon chasing a cursed soul.
Don't judge a ghost by their size - they can be really strong!
Being chased by a cursed soul...
Your dead. And then not quite. But it seems there is nothing you can do to stop it from happening.
So there you are, newly dead, and happy (well, sort of) to see your little sister. Who doesn't see you at all. Most annoying.
Angels, demons and orange marmalade. (And some flies. But the demon eats them.)
So you die before your time and end up in a dining room, drinking coffee with a bunch of dead people, an angel and a demon?
Not exactly an ordinary start of the day - waking up dead.
A spell book that won't be opened.
The Time Walker team is now in ancient Egypt. They don't knowing they have been followed by the most fearsome hunter of the dark Nephilim, no lnger faithful to his old Masters. He wants to find Dana for his own purposes. Will the Time Walkers find the path that leads to the Watchers, the forefathers of the Nephilim race? Will they find Merit who has accidentally fallen 3300 years back in time? Merit's daughter Shuet stays in the shadows of the court of Amenhotep III and Tiye, growing into her powers. Can she escape an enemy who patiently weaves his web around her?
Dwarfs were especially revered by the ancient Egyptians.
Arriving into the year 12 of pharaoh Akhenaten's reign.
When your dead friend is still around and trying to communicate with you.
How could a vampire bring back the woman he loved and killed thousands of years ago?
How Time Weavers find their way into the past.
Many of the ancient Egyptian tombs were robbed soon after they were built. The very builders of the tombs knew of their locations and security measures. And tomb robbing has continued to this very day - there seems to be very little respect for history and research around if easy income is to be had.
No love lost between dark #Nephilim, not even a father and a daughter....
#Hypnotised with music
To travel into the past an anchor is needed - an object from the time you are trying to reach.
Searching for Time Walkers lost 3300 years in the past. How could they send a sign they where and when they are?
An attack from the buffer zone...
When your nightmare stands right in front of you and you know you only have moments to live.
Even the most powerful lady of the Two Lands was a mortal despite being declared divine by her husband, the pharaoh Amenhotep III.
One of my very favourite objects (and person) of ancient Egypt - the little portrait of Tiye, the Great Royal Wife of Amenhotep III. She plays a prominent role in Nephilim Quest -series.
The #Nephilim using their energies to get to the buffer zone, the misty world around our physical world.
The eyes of the dark Nephilim.
Bathing, washing the mouth with natron and shaving all bodily hair was the way to enter the temple in a pure state in ancient Egypt. Here Shuet's hair is shaved off before she can enter the tent of embalming to learn the ways the bodies were prepared for death.
How the shadows were made and connected to their humans in the buffer zone.
When you are so much in love you'll give your lover anything. Anything at all.
A #vampire choosing not to feed so his hunter instincts would be sharper.
Searching for the Gate to the Buffer Zone - the mists surrounding our physical world.
A seer in ancient Egypt.
Why did the bees' behaviour change suddenly towards Meryt-Neith? The very bees that were supposed to protect her and her family from harm.
The temple dancers of ancient Egypt were not only supposed to entertain the god of the temple, but also to arouse and invigorate him with their movements.
When the #dead come to greet their loved ones.
Seeing the #dead
When the most dangerous hunter of the Dark Nephilim sees his prey.
Unlike many other ancient cultures, Ancient Egypt did not have labyrinths. One place was later called a labyrinth - Amenemhat's cult temple.
Ma'at and the Great Royal Wife
Food for a transforming vampire.
A dark presence eavesdropping the connection through 3300 years to the future.
Vampires are made from humans. But what if it was possible to make a shadow into a vampire... A creature that had never been human.
Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
The weavers of the Time Walker teams knew how to connect into the past.
When your twin soul dies, you do not wish to keep on living.
In ancient Egypt the temple dancers' job was to awaken and arouse the god for the new day.
When a sister envies the love her mother shows to her twin...
Searching for the connection to your loved one who is somewhere 3300 years back in the past, in ancient Egypt...
Merit has kept her past a secret from her daughter who was born 3300 years in the past, in ancient Egypt.
Who was this strange pale man who appeared out of thin air?
Turning into a vampire...
There was nothing worse for an ancient Egyptian than to be buried without proper rites in a tomb where relatives could come and visit, say the dead person's name out loud to make sure they had an afterlife.
Angel, the second in command of the leader of the dark Nephilim.
A timewalker team is 3300 years back in time, in ancient Egypt, trying to connect back to the modern times.
In ancient times one of the most feared diseases was the plague - most likely brought to Egypt by rats in foreign merchant ships.
A Time Walker team's weaver connects with the future to hear what happened since they had to escape to the distant past.
One the daughter of the sunlight, the other a daughter of the night...
How do you know a vampire is around... The silence is your answer.
Words of divination by a small child to the Great Royal Wife of the pharaoh.
If you heard your loved one who fell back in time 3300 years could still be alive there, in the past... Wouldn't you do anything to try and reach them?
Could it be they met someone who knew the whereabouts of Merit who fell 3300 years back in time to ancient Egypt?
The legendary Book of Thoth that so many esoteric schools are searching for. And Merit found the clue to its whereabouts in ancient Egypt. Only the secret was like nothing she expected.
The making of a vampire - using love as the bait.
The rock paintings telling of time when the Sahara was a lush green land with lakes and animals is so fascinating...
The First Vampire meets a Nephilim lord.
Fallen back in time 3300 years Merit reads an ancient scroll - written in language that would be born far in the future.
The position of women in ancient Egypt was way better than her sister' in neighboring kingdoms. Still - with no social security system her hopes for a secured old age lay in her children.
When someone is clearly observing you, planning something, and you have no idea what it is.
Vampires look different in sunlight.
Having fallen 3300 years back in time Merit is after one of the oldest of mankind's secrets - the origin of the Nephilim, the offspring of angels and humans.
When you loved one is in danger and you can do nothing about it...
Pharaoh Amenhotep the Third had several "harems", kenerets, in ancient Egypt. His visit must have been a great event to the women living there.
You can run but you can't hide...
When 3300 years separate you from your loved one
Reading and writing were rare skills in ancient Egypt.
The most lethal killer of the dark Nephilim prepares to catch his prey.
There are legends world over of secret scrolls, writings and books that reveal the secret of creation. The Book of Thoth is one.
What we know of Akhenaten has changed a lot during our times. At first he was considered to be almost a Christian king with his monotheist religion, but the picture is not so black and white. He was the one who worshiped the Atenon behalf of his people, together with his family. And people were supposed to worship them, not the Aten directly.
Amenhotep III was known for his many wives - he had "harems" all around the country and married many foreign princesses. This way he ensured peaceful relations between Kemet (Egypt) and the nearby kingdoms. These marriages, however, ensured peace between kings, not countries, and when the old king died, new relations had to be established (and new princesses married).
Could you contact someone in a different time with your thoughts?
The albino children are still in danger of this treatment in some parts of the world...
Akhenaten wanted to erase the name of the state god Amun from the temples of ancient Egypt. Was it just religious fervor or was there some other animosity between the king and the priesthood of Amun?
Albino children have always been considered special, magical. They've experienced both reverence and discrimination, and even today they are killed in Africa so their body parts could be used in magic. No doubt they were considered special in ancient Egypt as well.
Imagine you killed the one you loved the most, spending the never ending years of an immortal vampire, listening to her voice speaking to you through your blood, now mixed with hers in your body...
A pregnant angel falling from the sky?
How would you feel if you fell into a misty world surrounding our physical reality?
Imagine what we would look like to the eyes of someone 3300 years back in time. Our hairstyle, our clothing - and our overall good health.
Imagine standing face to face to one of the most famous queens of ancient Egypt - Queen Tiye, the Great Royal Wife of Amenhotep the Third, grandfather of Tutankhamon.
The Egyptians worshipped snakes as the protective element of the sun god Ra.
How would you feel when you realized you had actually fallen through time 3300 years...?
I know many an Egyptologist who would give their right arm for a chance to actually visit ancient Egypt for real.
When you have emotions for someone, and it is forbidden.
Wadi Hitan is a place I would love to visit. Ancient skeletons of whales, millions of years old, in the midst of the desert. What an impressive sight!
There are times when something so bad happens that we are pushed over the edge. The only thing that is left for us, the only thing that keeps us alive, is the wish to revenge.
When you wake up in the middle of the desert and your loved one is gone. There are subtle changes in scenery and even the stars look different. You are alone. All alone. Too afraid to admit what this all might mean.
The Sand Dwellers - people who can live in the hottest desert - have always intriqued me. And somehow I always saw Mut-Bity, the Mother of Bees, as someone from the desert.
The truth about her ancestry is not an easy thing for Dana to accept – she was deliberately created to perform a task, to find something that should stay hidden, or it might threaten the world of humans as Dana knows it. Her existence is tied to the myth of the Nephilim, the descendants of angels. Dana must prepare for a long search in ancient Egypt, hunted by creatures of darkness.
When I wrote about this self-illuminating underground lake in the Western Desert of ancient Egypt I was thinking about the microscopic organisms in water that emit light when touched. I imagined this lake to be similar - lighted by bioluminescence.
How vampires came to be.
When the very walls turn into creatures from hell.
The presence of your loved one forever whispering in blood.
A notebook that has traveled through time - with a message about one of the most ancient secrets of humankind - the abode of the Watchers, the angels who fathered the Nephilim with human wives.
What if you were forced to meet the shadow of your nightmares in full daylight?
What kind of anchor should you use to travel to the past?
When you have such a strong connection to someone you don't want to keep on living after the other one dies...
This is how those traveling the deserts of ancient Egypt could trust there would be water to drink.
You promised to be the goddess's servant for all eternity. Now the time has come to redeem your promise...
How would you explain your mother the color of your eyes has suddenly changed?
When you are ready to die but love refuses to let you go...
A kiss of true love...
Sometimes you sense that a person you considered evil is actually asking for help, even if they cannot express themselves with words.
How would you know a Nephilim is near?
What would people's dreams look like if you got to see them?
To be so in love with someone it feels like you are one soul in two bodies...
Imagine if you could actually travel through time to ancient Egypt...
Ancient Egyptians treasured amber.
The blood of the silver Nephilim
People were supposed to worship Akhenaten who - together with his immediate family - were the ones who could directly approach the Aten.
Will the Nephilim inherit the earth?
Sibling envy.
Being bullied by other for years until one day you snap...
The plans of the dark Nephilim...
One of the things I feel sorry about appeared in my book: how tourism has suffered in Egypt, and the long reaching consequences of it on the lives of ordinary people.
An ancient hunter whose mission is to kill the silver-winged Nephilim.
The power of the Nephilim...
There are times when you may feel a scent around you and you have no idea where it comes from. It can be flowers, it can be cigarette smoke... And you remember someone who has died and who smelled like that. They say that our departed loved ones can tell us they are present by using scent. I've had such experiences - the scent on hyacinths in the middle of winter with no flowers around.
Mr Donnelly meets with the ghost of a recently deceased girl.
Meeting someone from the City of Immortals - and he doesn't match your idea of what immortals should look like at all.
The legend of vampires is an ancient one - maybe leading up to the Old Testament myth of the Nephilim, the descendants of the Watchers and human women.
What if there was a war going on around us we had no idea about? War among the mythical Nephilim?
If you had been cursed not to be able to be touched by sunlight ever again and someone offered you a safe place to stay... Would you take it, if it meant you had to become a killer?
Promises made and broken long time ago?
Hearing you have been deliberately bred to be who - or what - you are by your worst enemy.
A curse to take away the daylight from his life...
What would you do if you knew you had to kill your own brother to prevent him from turning into an evil creature of legends?
Mr. Donnelly thought all his dreams had come true - he would get out of his debts, and do serious scholarly research. If only he had known who - or what - his new employers were.
When you thought you were an ordinary human being...
The most famous oracle of ancient Greece - the Pythia of Delphi.
What if you found an old book that contained a clue to find the place where the Watchers - the angels who took human wives - were banished for all eternity?
What if you learned your missing loved one ended up in ancient past and tried to reach to you through thousands of years?
The legends of the Nephilim tell that they live many times longer than the average human being.
Falling in love... with an angel.
Mr Donnelly had searched an answer to an ancient myth for years. And now fate had given him a notebook from someone who had fallen through time to ancient Egypt - and she had found the answer.
Have you ever sat still in the middle of the night and had the feeling the universe was singing - a voice you you felt more than heard?
Be careful what you promise. A promise to be a servant forever more may turn out to be just that...
When you realize you have nowhere to hide from your worst enemy...
Being caught behind a wall of fire, with no way of escape...
Mr Donnelly keeps reading the strange notebook that is clearly centuries older than it should be. He tried to keep it hidden from the Masters...
Wouldn't you want to see a group of time walkers returning from the past through a gate that lead to timeless realms?
What if you were certain your loved one has died and then... you receive a message from them. A real, physical message.
Those silent moments of loneliness when you almost feel your loved one speaking to you in your mind - even though they died long ago...
One day Dana thinks she is just an ordinary person, and then she finds herself in an alley next to an angel, chasing shadows...
When the shadow finds what it has been trailing - and wishes to revenge what it has lost.
As I child I remember reading a story of two women who had been walking in the garden of Louis XIV - I think it was in Versailles. And suddenly they began seeing people in costumes of the times, and the surroundings were different too. It seemed they had spontaneously traveled back in time to the times of Louis XIV. The thought of time travel has intrigued me ever since. And here Mr. Donnelly, the head librarian of the City of Immortals suddenly finds a notebook whose writer seems to have fallen 3300 years back in time to ancient Egypt.
Each one of us has a darker side, a side we need to keep in check. But what if we did not do that - what if some of us could send our darker side out there in real physical form to steal, to kill - with no conscience?
One of the main characters of the story appears. And she wants to convince someone there can be messages from the other side.
I have always liked bees. The way our poisonous pesticides are killing the bees puts us in danger as well. So much of our food production depends on bees.
Mr Donnelly slowly translates the strange notebook...
What if you found out there are gates you can walk through to get to the past?
What if there was a nightmarish creature after you, patiently searching for your trail. And then it would find it....
The ancient library of Alexandria that burned down. The loss of irreplaceable ancient writings... What if you found a place out of time where original scrolls of the library still existed?
The need to survive - the most basic instinct.
Stories of human kind are full of angels and winged creatures, but how would you react if you actually met one? Dana certainly fainted...
History is full of references to winged beings. Gods, angels, descendants of angels. Nephilim Quest is about the offspring of angels and humans - one of the oldest myths of human kind, first mentioned in the Old Testament.
I often fly in my dreams. I manage to get up in the air by concentrating on the energy on my back, directing it upwards. And I used this dream experience of mine in the Nephilim Quest when I explain how the Nephlim fly...
If you could travel into the past, where would you go and why?
One of human kind's oldest dreams - to live in a place where time cannot touch you. Would that really be so wonderful?
Ever felt like someone's voice was hypnotizing you?
When you have lost your loved one and search for their presence inside you. If only there was the slightest whisper of connection, still there, reaching through time and distance...
Have you ever dreamt of a place where time cannot touch you? What if such a place existed?
When you hear there is such a thing as traveling through time on purpose.
When the person you suspected was not ordinary at all proves your suspicions correct. (And happens to be your grandma of all people!)
Music sometimes has a surprisingly strong effect on our minds and bodies.
There are times when you realise familiar people aren't what you thought they were...
Would you not get curious if you found a book that was clearly older than it should be? Mr Donnelly certainly was...
It really happens, lucid dreaming. I've had a few lucid dreams and it is great fun. You need to stay calm, though, as it seems that strong emotions pull you back to sleeping state. And the methods described in this chapter are real - they are used to induce the lucid dreaming state. So they work for Dana too. You can do all sorts of things with your dreams - in one lucid dream I decided I wanted to have red tulips grow out of rock surface. And they did! (But then of course I got too excited with my success and fell back to an ordinary dream)
We have all been there - met someone irresistible and made a fool of ourselves...
I know I would be scared out of my skins if i saw anything like Dana. "...an invisible form that somehow warped everything around into its shape."
The ancient Egyptians were real storytellers. Many of their stories have survived the ages. They were firm believers in magic, so there was nothing odd in their opinion that a man could stay underwater for seven days and be alive when called with magic...
Mut-Bity is a central figure to the whole book series of Nephilim Quest. She is a beekeeper, and a storyteller - and knows the stories and myths of ancient Egypt. But who is she, really?
The advice on inducing a lucid dreaming experience is actually true - the ways to begin waking up in your dreams are the ones I have written into this chapter. And I have managed to lucid dream too - it is fun to mold your surroundings in dreams with your thoughts. I managed to grow some tulips straight out of rock in one of my dreams before I got too excited and I fell back into ordinary sleep.
I've had cats since childhood and sometimes I think they see things that are invisible to us. Once, after a family member had died, all of our three cats suddenly froze and stared at a spot in our living room. There was no one there. Not even a fly. And then they turned their heads simultaneously, staring in the same direction, as if they were slowly following someone walking through the room.
Remember, when you were a child and certain there were shadows spying on you, hidden under the trees, in dark alleys, in the darkness just outside the sphere of the street lamp... Your parents told you you were imagining. But what if you weren't...?
So where did all those stories of the monstrous human-shaped creatures come from? Were they first just shadows thrown on cave walls by the fire? Or were there real ghosts that showed themselves to people, who then weaved them into the stories that generations passed on?
The little girl in me had a lot of fun inventing this code, using a real old dream book. And here the secret of the Unseen Worlds is revealed.
As a child me and my best friend used to invent codes and secret languages. And I suppose that interest never went away.Codes were used when people did not want their message to be understood by anyone else but the recipient. They were used in times of war as well.I loved the idea of finding an old book with a hidden message in it. And so this old dream book was the one I used in the story to deliver a secret message to Dana.
I have always been interested in dreams and dream interpretation. Dreams can tell so much about our spiritual state, how we see the world and other people.
The oldest dream interpretation books are thousands of years old. People have seen dreams as messages from the divine, and as predictions to the future. The book I mention here actually exists and I used it to create the cryptic message Dana doesn't yet understand...
It doesn't surprise anyone who knows me, but I was a bookworm big time at school. I walked to the library bus when we still did not have a library in the neighbourhood and returned carrying such piles of books I barely saw my way back home from behind them. And once the library was build, the same thing continued... And the comment about studying Egyptology is genuine - when I told people at work that I would start studying it, I got those blank stares and someone actually asked me "Egyptology? What´s that?"
Dana's attitude towards books matches mine... I also have my books on double rows on my bookshelves (especially books about Egyptology). I can easily walk past stores selling clothes, makeup or just about anything, but just you let me loose in a bookstore...
The time it took for the ancient Egyptians to prepare a body to eternity was 70 days. That is the time it took for the star Sirius to disappear from the night sky and reappear again. Its reappearance marked the beginning of the New Year, and so it was a good symbol for resurrection from death.
What are the secrets that are written on Shuet's mother's mummy bandages? Where will she be buried? What is the place where the secrets of the creation are hidden, the place she wants Shuet's father to find?
That is what the whole book is about...
The Book of the Dead was actually called Going Forth by Day by the ancient Egyptians. They believed that the dead would travel through the underground afterlife to have their hearts weighed against the feather of truth. This ceremony was to prove their hearts were not heavy with evil deeds so they could proceed to Field of Reeds where they could live all eternity with their loved ones. They followed the sun god Re's retinue through the dangers of the afterlife to reach the gates of the new morning. They also believed the deceased's body was to remain whole so it could remain as the home of the soul.
Discussions in dreams... I've had those with the dearly departed as well as people some might call our guides. One example was an old man I met in the woods. He opened the door to an old house, and invited me in. Then he showed me a special painting technique, step by step. When I woke up I tried it and painted a more live-looking horse than ever before. It was much later that I leafed through an art-technique book in a bookstore and read that the technique actually existed. It was called the grisaille-technique. I had never heard of it before.
When my loved ones have died, I have seen them in my dreams. Maybe it is just my subconscious coping with the loss - but sometimes the emotions I feel in these dreams are so vivid, happy and real that they feel much more than dreams. Also the ones who have been very ill before they died become younger and healthier in each dream. Their bodies heal, and so do their traumas and depressions. It is a very comforting experience. Personally I believe we meet our dearly departed ones in dreams... Or Dreamscape as I call the place in this story.
I remember when I read about the meteorite glass in Egypt's Western Desert for the first time. I saw it in my minds eye - light green, jewel-like pieces just lying there in the sand under the sky. Millions of years old. The ancient Egyptians valued it also - one of Tutankhamon's beautiful scarabs has its body made of this light green meteorite glass. The Egyptians valued the color of a stone more than the fact if it was a real jewel or semi-precious stone. To them this glass was valuable and beautiful. And so I made Dana's ancient pendant out of this glass.
I'm sure I am not the only one who suspects our dearly departed are trying to communicate with us. I've had things that moved on their own when talking about someone who just passed away; I've seen someone from the corner of my eye and when I turned there was no one there - yet my cats were staring intently at the spot. My grandmother swore she saw my grandfather in her home after he had died - and he talked to her too. And a friend's two-year-old pointed to an empty spot at home and said "grandpa!" - the morning they were leaving for his funeral. Just a few examples. Maybe you've had similar experiences too?
The details of the decorations of the tomb stone are from real life. A friend's 16-year-old daughter died in a traffic accident. After the funeral her friends brought flowers and little figurines to her grave. I have written what I saw here. It is not a situation you ever want to be in - standing at the grave of someone who died so young.
We've all had that sensation that someone... or something is following us, yet there is nothing when we turn to look. But what if there is? So well hidden our eyes don't register it? A shadow, following us, waiting for the chance to attack...
No matter how wonderful technology is, receiving a hand-written letter is something special. Especially if it is from your friend who has just died...
I've had dreams that have revealed to me when someone is about to leave this physical existence. I've heard stories of how people have seen invisible people - often family members - shortly before it is their time to go. I have actually witnessed these moments, even if I haven't been able to see them myself. And I have heard stories from people very close to me about how those who have passed away have shown themselves to their loved ones. I am quite convinced that life continues after what we call death. And so this belief of mine has woven itself into the story-line of this book.
I suppose we all wish to have a little secret place of our own, something we share with only our very best friend. It can be the best of places - and it can be the worst, if one day you need to go there alone, and your friend is gone forever...
When you are young and your best friend dies... It stops the world and nothing is the same anymore. The thought of going on living is unbearable... There is only pain.
The air raid sirens... I've listened to recordings of them and they sound like a woman's scream. An absolutely horrible sound with all the fear and destruction it represents.
How many mothers must have escaped the bombings into air raid shelters with their children, fearing for their lives?
Fear can make us see things that aren't there. Shadows, horrible things. But what if they are real and we try to explain them away because it would be insane to believe in them? Until they threaten us in a manner that cannot be denied...
I was watching one of my favorite TV series the other day, namely the "Call the Midwife": There was a mother who pretended to be pregnant because her unmarried daughter was in the family way. It was too much of a shame and they delivered the baby in secret in their kitchen. The mother was to present the baby as her own to the neighbors. This is a similar situation - the baby is born in secret, and presented as someone else's. I wonder how many destinies were shaped by similar events... Now it is hard to imagine the shame it was to be an unmarried mother not so many decades ago...
Great love, shared in secret - and then... Fear shattering it all. Still, allies can appear from unexpected places...
Will people ever manage to create a world without war? I've been watching the news about the refugees trying desperately to find a way to a peaceful European country. Families walking tiredly, and many people traveling alone. I cannot but think whom have they been separated from, are there families and loved ones left behind, how much of their past have been destroyed by weapons…
My own father did not speak much of WWII. He and his family escaped the Soviet invasion of Viborg in Karelia when he was a small boy..
I have a letter where his aunt is asking relatives if they have cream and flour to spare. Her husband, an engine driver had died when Soviet planes bombed the railwaystation his train was in. His widow wanted to arrange a funeral "If there is anything left to bury" and wanted to bake something for the funeral.
I was thinking of them when I wrote this chapter. A young woman running for safety with her newborn baby, not knowing where the father of the child was, fearing they would be blown to bits. And those horrible air raid sirens screaming like a living thing…
I did not really plan Shuet to be who she turned out to be, when I started writing Nephilim Quest series. What I thought I needed was a strong character in ancient Egypt. A woman, yes, but what I had in mind was a strong young woman who would walk under the sun and could face physical challenges. Instead Shuet wrote herself into the story. She belonged to the deep dark hours of the night, and she hid herself from the sun. And she turned out to be something completely different than what I originally thought my ancient Egyptian protagonist would be. I had many discussions with her in my mind, when I learned to know her. And from these discussions the world around ours, the one I call the buffer zone in the book, was created. The world of dreams, of afterlife, of time travel - and of the nightmarish shadows we all were afraid as children, and who still haunt us in our dreams as adults. No matter how we try to run but we cannot escape them. The buffer zone is a world we all dreamt of entering at some point in our childhood - a secret world where we would learn we are special, unique, and courageous when we fight the darkness inside us all.
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