WRITING INSIDE A “NICHE” GENRE Egypt Archaeology Thrillers - An Insider’s Report.

"NICHE" Reader Appeal? or "MASS APPEAL"?

What is about ancient Egypt’s peculiar appeal for the modern age? USA Egyptologist and book writer Kara Cooney quipped on social media: “It’s all about the gold, folks.” She made a point about the popularity of Egyptian exhibitions, and I agree. On a certain level, all that shining bullion certainly is a lure for anyone. And yet… it’s also about a something more than the gold, as I am sure the Egyptologist in the quote would admit. What really compels us, on a deeper, less conscious level, to draw physically close to ancient Egyptian treasures at an exhibition — or to visit the Great Pyramid at Giza, for that matter?

What compels us to journey to be in their presence, to visit Egyptian museums, travel to Egypt itself, to read books about it — and to join the queues of visitors around a city block for say a blockbuster Tutankhamun Egyptian exhibition? Press enter or click to view image in full size

The splendour of ancient Egypt does more than ‘choke us with gold’, though the preposterous display of ancient power and riches is a big part of its appeal. I believe it’s a hunger for mystery, for proximity to this mysterious ancient past, to feel proximity between us now, and Egypt then. These artefacts overwhelm our senses, and yet they also engage us with a deeply personal , yet universal issue — the ‘reality of the first great mystery’ — death and the afterlife. A thrall comes over us when we, in our modern age, stand in the presence of the Egyptians’ magnificent obsession with eternity and their monumental rejection of death. As Carl Jung asserted: “The unconscious psyche believes in life after death.” That is why I prefer to concentrate on writing my series of modern, archaeological thrillers that explore this frisson of characters today brushing against the ancient past, rather than setting my fiction purely in the past as costume dramas.

We want to feel ourselves in Egypt’s presence personally — as moderns. It’s the next best thing to being there, since reading is the most personal connections we can make. Ancient Egypt is certainly consuming for the public, and in a book by Michael Rice and Sally MacDonald, called ‘Consuming Egypt’, a research study on consumer attitudes to ancient Egypt reveals many fascinating insights. Most intriguing for me, as I have long suspected, they don’t think of ancient Egypt as a place or a time, but more of a bubble in time, a self-contained concept that is endlessly satisfying to them.

In this bubble float pyramids, Cleopatra, Tutankhamun and of course golden treasures. Consumers, particularly younger ones, believe that tombs were built with tomb traps inside purely as some kind of ‘dare’ to intruders to try to find the pharaoh’s hidden treasure. Rather like a computer game.

Is ancient Egypt a Niche Appeal for readers? Perhaps. But potentially it’s as massive as the Great Pyramid.

Ancient history's greatest stake-in-the-ground statement against the tyranny of death, B.C.

The GREAT PYRAMID

Ancient Egyptian culture did not serve as a mere distraction to the pitiless cruelty of death. Instead it came to grips with death in an attempt to overcome its tyranny... the pyramids, the glowing underworlds of the tombs, the Pyramid Texts, the Coffin Texts and the various 'Books of the Dead' were the results of government-funded research into the ‘first mystery’- death and the afterlife.

Age makes historians of us all.

THE PAST sometimes gets a bad rap, especially the ancient past. “Don’t imagine an hour of the past is more important because it’s dead” (Beryl Markham). AND YET...

...the truth is that a past hour can become far richer later when it becomes ‘evaluated experience’. Like the difference between consuming and digesting.

"TOMB TRAVELLERS TRILOGY'. COMPLETE SERIES: 3 Scary Egypt Adventures in 1 MEGA Kindle edition by ROY POND

) Format: Kindle Edition 3 Scary Egypt Adventures with the Tomb Travellers Team - in one MEGA Kindle edition TOMB TRAVELLERS: Phillip and his friends must rescue a loved one trapped in Egypt's underworld Kindle Edition The award-winning children's adventure fantasy novel (a "Children's Book of The Year", Australian Christian Literature Society.) First published in paperback in UK and Australia. 15-year old Phillip is hooked on the past, like his late Uncle William, an Egyptologist, whose copy of "The Book of the Dead" - a passport to the Egyptian afterlife - is buried with him. Is that where he's gone? Into the Egyptian underworld? Can Phillip venture there and rescue him? What role does does a mysterious, mummified ibis bird play - a gift from his late uncle? Phillip, his pharaoh hound Dogstar, and his friends Julia and Coomber, go on an enthralling adventure beyond the gateways and guardians of Egypt's underworld. PYRAMID VOYAGERS. Rescue mission to the tombs and treasures of Egypt’s past. Pyramid Voyages blurb. The rich heritage of ancient Egypt, its tombs, treasures, pyramids and papyrus scrolls is mysteriously vanishing. Can it be rescued before it all disappears? Tomb travellers Philip, Julia, Barry and Willard Chase, the archaeologist, take up this fresh challenge. They must take a nightmarish voyage down the Nile in a 4,500-year old sun boat, confronting the creatures of Egypt's dangerous underworld. Maybe they have taken on too much after all. PHARAOH SEEKERS: Hide-and-shriek inside a scary, living museum The Tomb Travellers are locked overnight inside a nightmarish Egyptian museum of endless basements and animated inhabitants. The past comes between them as they fight each other in deadly games of elimination. They must climb to the upper level of the museum by dawn or be locked inside for eternity. Who will survive? Phillip, Julia, Barry Coomber? Or can they break the curse of the ibis bird and join forces? on Amazon kindle now

NEW. Now ALL 3 "TOMB TRAVELLERS " adventures in the award winning series AVAILABLE ON AMAZON KINDLE

TOMB TRAVELLERS: Phillip and his friends must rescue a loved one trapped in Egypt's underworld Kindle Edition The award-winning children's adventure fantasy novel (a "Children's Book of The Year", Australian Christian Literature Society.) First published in paperback in UK and Australia. 15-year old Phillip is hooked on the past, like his late Uncle William, an Egyptologist, whose copy of "The Book of the Dead" - a passport to the Egyptian afterlife - is buried with him. Is that where he's gone? Into the Egyptian underworld? Can Phillip venture there and rescue him? What role does does a mysterious, mummified ibis bird play - a gift from his late uncle? Phillip, his pharaoh hound Dogstar, and his friends Julia and Coomber, go on an enthralling adventure beyond the gateways and guardians of Egypt's underworld.

PYRAMID VOYAGERS. Rescue mission to the tombs and treasures of Egypt’s past. Pyramid Voyages blurb. The rich heritage of ancient Egypt, its tombs, treasures, pyramids and papyrus scrolls is mysteriously vanishing. Can it be rescued before it all disappears? Tomb travellers Philip, Julia, Barry and Willard Chase, the archaeologist, take up this fresh challenge. They must take a nightmarish voyage down the Nile in a 4,500-year old sun boat, confronting the creatures of Egypt's dangerous underworld. Maybe they have taken on too much after all.

PHARAOH SEEKERS: Hide-and-shriek inside a scary, living museum The Tomb Travellers are locked overnight inside a nightmarish Egyptian museum of endless basements and animated inhabitants. The past comes between them as they fight each other in deadly games of elimination. They must climb to the upper level of the museum by dawn or be locked inside for eternity. Who will survive? Phillip, Julia, Barry Coomber? Or can they break the curse of the ibis bird and join forces?

"The RELIGIOUS-CONSPIRACY Thriller MORE EXPLOSIVE than any DAN BROWN" Read it now on Amazon.

THE APOCALYPSE TRIGGER?

A *****5-star read in the Anson Hunter archaeological thriller series on Amazon

SATISFY your 'Ache for the Ancient' - mystery fiction of Egypt "compellingly brought to life"

CHRISTMAS OFFERINGS - Unwrap "compelling" mystery and adventure... Amazon paperback and Kindle.

THE ROY LESTER POND COMPLETE MYSTERY ADVENTURE RANGE THIS CHRISTMAS: AMAZON PAPERBACK AND KINDLE

NEW.NOW available in a Kindle edition: "PYRAMID VOYAGERS" 2nd title in award-winning Tomb Travellers children's trilogy....by ROY POND

The rich heritage of ancient Egypt, its tombs, treasures, pyramids and papyrus scrolls is mysteriously vanishing. Can it be rescued before it all disappears? Tomb travellers Philip, Julia, Barry and Willard Chase the archaeologist, take up this fresh challenge. They must take a nightmarish voyage down the Nile in a 4,500 year old sun boat, confronting the creatures of Egypt's dangerous underworld. Maybe they have taken on too much after all.

ALSO in Kindle. Tomb Travellers. The 'Children's Book of the Year' adventure that started it all!

ANCIENT EGYPT'S Mystery + MODERN MURDER Mystery = MORE MYSTERY TO RELISH IN YOUR READING THIS CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY SEASON

NEW. Relaunched Young Readers new Kindle edition. "PADDLE-GHOSTS" - a coming-of-age adventure on a mysterious river of time

An adventure on the River Murray - a school readers' favourite MYSTERY ADVENTURE IN AUSTRALIA returns.

Paddle Ghosts. "Insert coin in box to turn paddle wheels," the sign said. The old paddle wheeler PS Return was a static museum, marooned in a wet dock on the banks of the river. When Matt dropped his coin into the box, he started more than the engine. The paddle wheeler takes Matt and his new friends, Jamie and Emma Jane, on a bewildering ride. Can they survive the locks of time? And what about the Lockmasters and other snags?

Welcome to author's Blog 'Mystery, Egypt, FICTION&Fact - two thirds of a million visits!

Some truths have waited too long to be disturbed...

Step into a world of lost tombs, secret rituals, and forbidden artefacts. Every dig uncovers a deeper mystery — and every revelation comes with a deadly price... Your journey into Ancient Egypt’s deepest mysteries begins now.

The pleasure of ruins... the thrill of archaeology mystery adventure in Egypt

"Blending meticulously researched Egyptology with cinematic suspense, Roy Lester Pond crafts stories where every discovery has consequences, and every relic holds a truth powerful enough to reshape the world."