Kiya: Inside the Egyptian City of Amarna

World-building is such a huge part of what we, as writers, do. Sometimes the city in which our story takes place can take on a life of their own. Just look at Tolkien's Middle Earth or the world of Hogwarts from the mind of J.K. Rowling.

Sometimes, though, they can be plucked right from history. I'm not sure which is harder--starting from scratch or doing the research for a real place. Katie Hamstead is here to show us the end result of her hard work for her novel Kiya: Hope of the Pharaoh (available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble) by giving us a brief tour of the Egyptian City of Armana as seen by her main character.

Be sure to check back here for a guest post from Katie! Until then, you can follow her on Twitter or check out her blog!

The city of Amarna, built by Pharaoh Akhenaten’s decree and under his direction, was a short lived capital of Egypt. But, it is the city in which Kiya: Hope of the Pharaoh is set. So, I’m going to give you a guided tour through Kiya’s eyes.

The city was centered around the main city, with suburbs built to the south.

“…and I beheld for the first time the city of Amarna. Long, white walls ran along the eastern shoreline, with a wide gate framed by pillars that faced the stone wharves. To the south of the main city, I saw smaller enclosed areas made from darker stone—the residential districts.”

Kiya, having grown up in Thebes, which was considerably older, not to mentioned designed for more than just one god. As she moves through the city she observes:

“I saw open streets and courtyards. The white walls of the buildings reflected the glare from the sun; the architecture looked modern and stylized, with hieroglyphs depicting the great Aten over each doorway. The men led me toward the palace down a wide, busy road, where people stopped and moved aside to watch us.

We passed under a covered bridge that led from a large, elaborate house into the palace, which had windows cut out along the middle.”

The city itself was used by later Pharaohs as construction material and torn down, so what is left now is mostly foundations which were buried by the desert. As a result, I couldn’t find much information on precise details. All I knew was the palace was located to the north, with the royal residences also in that vicinity. So, also knowing that the Pharaoh had many wives and concubines, I thought that they’d all be placed together in a protective, enclosed structure.

“The women's wing was poorly named. It was not so much a wing as a dormitory. A large common area lay before me, with a pool in the middle. From this common area, several corridors branched off. Like everywhere else in the palace, the common area and corridors remained uncovered, but I could see that the corridors' rooms had roofs.”

To find out more about this city, check out these websites:

http://amarnaproject.com/

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/700792/Tell-el-Amarna

http://www.world-archaeology.com/great-discoveries/tell-el-amarna/

As well as, of course, your local library!

Guest Post: A Peak Inside the World of Disciple by L. Blankenship

Today we've got another stop on the Disciple: Part II blog tour. L. Blankenship is popping by to give us some insight into the world she built for the world of the Disciple series. She's here to discuss medicine in her fantasy world. Without further ado, I'll leave it to L. Blankenship to show you guys the ropes of medicinal world building! Be sure to check out her book on Amazon (for the Kindle or paperback), Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and Kobo.

Primitive First Aid

Let's say you're building a fantasy world with a pre-industrial level of technology. Let's say you don't want to rely on healing magic to patch your characters up when they get into trouble. This post aims to help get your brain burbling about what your characters will need.

What do people in your fantasy world know about medicine? What misconceptions are they carrying around? That's up to you. There are, however a number of things which it's quite reasonable for even primitive people to know about when it comes to treating injuries.

Cleanliness and health

General cleanliness is one of the easiest ways to improve one's health -- and one of the most variable aspects of a pre-industrial world. Is being clean considered important, in that culture? Do most people have access to soap and water? How long does it take to heat water, or must they settle for cold baths? Are they healthy enough to not catch a fever from taking cold baths?

Do most people get enough to eat? Is it fairly nutritionally balanced? Where can they get vitamins when fruit and veggies are out of season?

First aid kit

What's reasonable to put in a pre-industrial first aid kit?

Clean bandages, whether rags, hemmed fabric, or custom-woven. Two or three inches wide and maybe two feet long.

Curved needles and suturing thread. The thread can be any number of things: catgut (made from sheep intestines, actually) has been used since antiquity as a naturally absorbing (though it may also be scar-producing) suture. Silk was also popular, where it was available. Wool can be used, too. Those stitches will need to be removed later, though.

Scissors/shears. Primitive scissors tend to look more like shears.

Scalpel. The smallest, finest blade that blacksmiths can manage.

Tweezers. How fine-nosed they are will depend on the smiths.

Person should know how to set a bone, pop a joint back in, lance an abscess, and stitch wounds.

Also include a wound-cleaning method (see next point)

Simple ways to clean a wound

Whether your people even realize a wound needs cleaning is an entirely different argument. But assuming you've worked that out, bear in mind that none of these are as effective as modern topical antibiotic creams, rubbing alcohol or iodine, but they will increase the survivability of a wound. Which of these is most appropriate for your characters to have at hand depends on technology, environment, and cost.

Soap and water

Vinegar

Distilled alcohol

Witch hazel

Not Helpful

Should we pour boiling wine on the wound? Let's look at this logically: modern table wine is up to 14% alcohol, so it's 86% water. Alcohol boils at a lower temperature than water does, so by the time wine starts to boil the alcohol content has already dropped. So then you pour this boiling liquid onto an open wound and add a burn to your list of problems. You've now definitely killed the tissue around your wound, making it more hospitable to invading bacteria -- and giving your body more healing to do. Great idea.

Which does not mean that people won't do this, of course. There's a long history of medical practices that did at least as much harm as good, out there. But the writer should know the truth, as much as possible.

There's magical healing in my novel Disciple, but when the magic runs out they fall back on primitive medical techniques to keep their patients alive. Kate is a physician, so she is right in the thick of the stitching and bone-setting, but all the gore she sees is because she's there to help.

Back cover of Disciple, Part II

The prince first kissed Kate Carpenter for fear of missing the chance if they didn’t survive the journey home through the monster-prowled mountains.

Now that kiss seems like a fever dream. It’s back to work for her, back to the fellow physicians jealous of her talents and the sneers of an infirmary director who wants her shipped off to some tiny village. Kate means to be on the front lines to save lives. She’s worked too hard to overcome her past to let them deny her the chance to serve her homeland when the enemy’s army reaches their kingdom.

The grand jousting tournament is a chance to prove she can manage combat wounded, and at the royal Solstice banquet Kate means to prove she isn’t an ignorant peasant girl anymore.

But the prince’s kiss still haunts her. Their paths keep crossing, and the easy familiarity they earned on the journey home is a welcome escape from their duties. It’s a small slip from chatting to kisses.

This is no time to be distracted by romance -- a vast and powerful empire is coming to slaughter anyone standing between them and the kingdom’s magical fount.

Kate ought to break both their hearts, for duty’s sake.

Disciple, Part II on sale now

along with Disciple, Part I

at all major online retailers

More information, updates, and extras at Disciple of the Fount

Sample of Part I • Sample of Part II

Disciple, Part III coming in late 2013

Disciple is complete in six parts and will make a lovely doorstop

when all 400k words have been published.

Goodreads links:

Disciple, Part I • Disciple, Part II

The Green-Eyed Monster Tour: A Destination Guide

Martin Smith and John Becker: bestselling authors with ordinary names and extraordinary minds.

Their words have power — to heal, to kill, to change the lives of their “characters” in shocking and unexpected ways. Famous for their uncanny similarity in both physical manner and literary voice, their childhood rivalry spins out of control into adulhood.

The death of one at the hands of the other brings to light their troubling past — and a mysterious presence, watching on from the shadows — an authorial entity with roots beyond our time or dimension; an entity with far-reaching designs.

The pen is truly mightier than the deadliest sword.

I am really excited about this blog post today. One of the best parts of writing is not only creating the characters, but creating the world in which their stories are told. Mike Robinson has done a phenominal job of this with The Green-Eyed Monster! The detail and thought put into creating the fictional town his story is set in just amazes me and inspires me to do better with my own world-building. So get ready to get inspired and travel to Twilight Falls with me!