Can any adventure romance today ‘Out-Haggard’ Rider Haggard?

The Egyptologist Detective 1 - 2. The first two Murder Mystery cases in the Daniel Cane series with all the twists of Egypt's River Nile

They say if a writer isn’t writing, they’re dreaming of writing.

A golden dream of writing.

It’s tempting to get metaphysical about writing. At a particularly point in my writing life, after I had written a few successful children’s books, I despaired of producing something more. Then I had a golden dream of writing. I saw a fountain pen poised above our garden pond and from its golden nib issued a fountain of glowing, golden fish that splashed endlessly into the pond beneath. Dreams can be as mysterious as ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, but this one was as pointed as a pen. And, as dreams often do, it included visual puns, a flowing fountain pen, a fountain of living fish and most pointedly of all, a pond, a play on my name. Pond (Roy Lester).

The dream realm is akin to magic as the ancient Egyptians, and biblical writers, understood. (Think of Joseph interpreting the dreams of pharaoh.) The renegade Egyptologist hero Anson Hunter explains it in my novel ‘The Ibis Apocalypse’: “So, you believe in magic?” she said. “Can a certain sequence of words and actions, such as imitation, the replication of a name, image or mythical event produce an event in the real world?” Anson Hunter said. “I believe there is an unseen connectedness between things and by tuning in to this network of likenesses you can attract like outcomes. The trick is to find that invisible skein and draw on it, hence the Egyptians’ use of puns, analogy, mimesis, acrostics, dualities and the like. These links are things beyond logic, like the dream realm where parallel sounds, symbols and stories, while seeming bizarre, hold an inner, often unseen connection with our lives. Glyphs were never just a writing system," Anson said. "They were divine words. It’s for this reason that the scribes were fearful that certain words could have a malignant power and become uncontrollable forces in the tomb and so they would cut off the head of a lion in a glyph, or truncate a serpent or show spears stuck in the back of a crocodile to render it harmless. The hieroglyphs in the Stela of Thoth were the most potent of all. When spoken they were not just sounds, but glyphs graven on the air, real things and entities, image-meanings that took shape and activated a world of unseen forces and alternate reality. Heka, or Egyptian magic.

(From 'The Ibis Apocalypse' in the Egypt archaeological thriller series.)

The dream of a pond, a fountain pen and an endless flow of golden fish turned out to be prophetic.

"OPEN UP" NEW ANCIENT EGYPT SECRETS. 20 "compelling" 5-star* fiction titles - mystery, archaeology, mythology, adventure, scifi and time travel

*Titles that have earned 5-star ratings on Amazon and/or Goodreads.

****THE SMITING TEXTS ***** HUNTING HATHOR ***** HATHOR’S HOLOCAUST ***** THE IBIS APOCALYPSE ***** EGYPT EYES ***** THE GOD DIG ***** ARTEFACT ***** THE SON OF GOD EGYPT TOMB *****The ANSON HUNTER Archaeology Adventure Series 1-3 ***** ONE DAY I’LL TELL YOU SOMETHING ***** THE EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY MURDERS 3 titles in one edition ***** THE EGYPTIAN CROCODILE QUEEN ***** THE SARCOPHAGUS ***** THE RA VIRUS(Text messages from eternity) ***** Ancient VISITORS The Egypt Enigma ***** EGYPT EXTRACTION *****EGYPT TRAP ***** THE CLEOPATRA LOST TOMB MURDERS ***** MURDER ON THE NILE MYSTERY CRUISE *****MURDER IN NUBIA. Some of the ROY LESTER POND titles on Amazon

“Should I choose a career in Egyptology or police work?” the young woman asked Daniel Cane, the Egyptologist detective

Excerpt from "The Golden Coffin Case Murders in the 'Egyptologist Detective' series.

"I’m intrigued to see how an archaeologist goes about digging for clues," the young female detective said at the scene of the murder. "I’ve heard it said that Egyptologists and detectives are in sister professions.” She, a sister? Not too many men would choose a sister relationship with this girl. She was a little too attractive for that... “You don’t remember me, do you?” she said in a more conversational tone. The Egyptologist directed a hard stare at the young police detective. “I think I would.” “No, I don’t mean that we ever met. I wrote you an email many years ago after reading one of your pieces about Egyptology. I was at a crossroads. You see, I loved ancient Egypt, but I was also drawn to the idea of police work. I put you on the spot by asking you whether I should choose Egyptology or police work as a career.” “How ironic,” Daniel, the Egyptologist detective, said. “I find myself wondering about the selfsame choice. I think I’m remembering your email now and I hope I didn’t dash your dreams.” “You advised a career in the police service. A place I could do some good in the world, you told me, but you also urged me to continue my study of ancient Egypt so that I would enjoy a rich interior life.” “I hope I was right,” he said. “I took your advice. And oddly enough with this antiquites murder case, the two careers are now intersecting.” “I know the feeling. Are you happy?” “Yes, but often I wonder.” “The chance of finding regular a job in Egyptology is remote and the chance of earning a survivable income, even less so. But I hope I told you to follow your heart in the end, regardless of my advice or anybody’s else’s.” “Yes, you did,” she said. “That’s a relief.” Begin the series on Amazon Kindle and in paperback

COLOSSUS Egypt Fiction reads - Amazon Kindle and paperback

EMBARK on a cruise into Egypt mystery - with Daniel Cane in the 'Egyptologist Detective' Murder Series.

5-stars "Perfect for a cruise on the Nile"

What is the ULTIMATE CONTENT for writers and readers? Your HEART'S CONTENT.

Writers must always be allowed their subject, it’s said. With me it’s chiefly ancient Egyptian archaeological mystery thrillers. Why? How do authors pick their heartland writing subject? There’s no picking how authors (and readers) pick their heartland subject. When I look at fellow authors, I find one is a qualified veterinarian. A veritable zoo of famous animal books spring to mind. White Fang, Black Beauty, National Velvet, Maybe even Jaws or Moby Dick, but no, this author writes science-based techno thrillers. Another is an authority on building structures and what makes them collapse. Great, I think, I can see a thriller where an iconic Capitol building falls down trapping the president/congress. Who did it? Can special knowledge mount a rescue? Forget it. This author has his imaginative head firmly into Sword & Sorcery sagas. Why not? And me? I grew up in Zimbabwe at the edge of a game reserve and have been a Creative Director (Think ‘Mad Men’) for international advertising agencies. So naturally, I write ancient Egyptian thrillers about a witty and renegade British archaeologist named Anson Hunter and about dangers to the world from the ancient past. I am an amateur Egyptologist and I have been devouring the subject since I was about twelve years of age. The right content is your heart’s content. We each find our metaphor, our prism through which we focus the human condition. I see archaeology as a metaphor. It even applies to book characters. People are like archaeological sites, stratigraphical layers of history, their secrets waiting to be unearthed, layer by layer. Then there is the lure of buried and often forbidden treasures. Much like life. We are all in search of for some ‘divine radiance’ that will illuminate our lives. Visit my heartland subject of ancient Egypt in the following adventure thrillers.

ULTIMATE "BOOK BINGE" MYSTERY FICTION READING. Ancient Egypt archaeology, mythology, fantasy and fact.

Ancient Egyptian tomb booby trap - a rushing humanoid block rumbles down a passage... 'The Ibis Apocalypse' archaeology mystery thriller(series)

Imagine this missile hurtling down a ramp of a tomb passage in darkness...  (opening scene The Ibis Apocalypse)

EXCERPT. 5-star mystery adventure novel (Amazon Kindle & paperback)

"One Day I'll Tell You Something." A young boy remembers ancient Egypt, a young mother discovers adventure on a journey to Egypt with an archaeologist. New Edition. EXCERPT “He was around six when I took him on his first visit to the museum. He gawked at a withered mummy in a painted wooden mummy case. There was a sky light illuminating the Egyptian gallery and the light streaming down seemed to fall on him like a revelation. I saw tears squeeze out of his eyes.” “These are my people,’ he yelled out, making heads in the museum turn. “Sh-sh, Cooper. You’ll scare the visitors,” I said. “Do you smell that?”’ he said. I sniffed. A sweet smell hung in the air. “What is it?” “It’s them.” It was probably just the scent of a floor polish or the cleaner they use on the glass cases. But my Cooper thought differently. To him it was the memory of secret balms used in mummification. He looked in wonder at grains of dust that floated in the light from the ceiling as if mummy dust had seeped out of the mummy cases, the air-borne atoms of long dead Egyptians. He breathed it in, filling his chest. It freaked me a bit, I can tell you. But he was enraptured. I couldn’t drag him out of the place, but then he developed a tummy ache. He gets a lot of those. I’ve taken him to the doctor, but they can’t find anything. I think Cooper just gets too excited.” “And this behaviour of Cooper’s - does it continue?” the researcher encouraged me to go on. “Disturbingly, yes. A recent example. I won one of those automatic bread makers in a magazine competition, and he woke up in the morning with the yeasty warm smell of baking bread filling the air. It was still dark in the house. The aroma of baking bread seemed to electrify him. “That’s Kemet,” he said, running into my room. “That’s the smell of Kemet in the early morning, when it’s still dark.” “To Cooper it was the smell of ancient Egypt at dawn, of mud ovens and baking bread. He breathed it in so deeply he went dizzy. “When he was seven, he looked at a map of excavation sites in a book about Egypt and he began pointing at places between the marks on the map. “There are other tombs here and here..."

NEW edition. ONE DAY I’LL TELL YOU SOMETHING A child obsessed with the ancient past, a young mother who discovers adventure…“ I remember Egypt,” Cooper said gravely. “Long, long ago.” Her little boy was gorgeous, she thought, but his imagined past life could be a bit hard to take. Especially at 8.30 in the morning, when she was busy having a this-life crisis, running late for work and her eight-year old was about to miss his school bus. Then young single-mother Catherine meets a past life researcher and also a mysterious Egyptologist Simon Priestly and she and Cooper are off to Egypt on an extraordinary quest to follow a young boy’s dreams… or are they actual memories of the ancient past? What will they find and what will Catherine find as she warms to the impressive British Egyptologist as they uncover a shattering secret from Egypt’s past? Disturbing and intriguing adventure fiction with a twist of the unknown.

2 great ancient Egypt time travel archaeology adventure novels in one. Paperback, Kindle and Audible Audiobook.

TIME-TORN IN EGYPT Two Great Egypt Mystery Adventures in One Kindle Edition by Roy Lester Pond (Author) See all formats and editions TIME-TORN archaeologists in Egypt...

1. "SECRET MESSAGES FROM ETERNITY". Nefertiti, Akhenaten, the revenge of RA... 'a fast and furious pace’ “Roy Lester Pond joins my favourite Egypt authors like Christian Jacq.” “A furious pace keeps the reader engrossed.”- Goodreads Who is sending 'text messages from eternity' to the team of archaeologists at an ancient Egyptian tomb dig? Archaeologist Giulietta finds an impossible scrawled message turns up in a newly found Egyptian tomb. Who sent it? Is her partner, missing archaeology team member Lucas Burrows, trapped in the ancient past during an age of terror? What mysterious disaster has hit the population of Egypt in the reign of Pharaoh Amenhotep III and his young co-regent Akhenaten? Why is it seen as a judgement by the angry sun god Ra? Lucas, a physician and World Health Organisation expert on pandemics, must find its source and the antidote in time to save the ancient past and the future. Especially when his lover, the lustrous Italian-born Egyptologist Giulietta, is exposed to the deadly contagion. An enthralling and thought-provoking novel.

2. "THE SARCOPHAGUS The Egypt Tomb Machine." Adventure, mystery, across the boundaries of time... the Mummy King's Realm. An archaeologist armed with a bow shoots an arrow into adventure... Ryder discovers a mysterious empty sarcophagus in a tomb. Then his Egyptologist partner Janet goes missing. He vows to go after her, even if it means journeying across the boundaries of reason and existence. Ahead of Ryder and his dog lies a pre-dynastic realm of myth: the mysterious Mistress of the Bow and Ruler of Arrows, the evil Lord Set, legions of animal-headed creatures, the venerable bird-man, the child Horus. And key to it all is the quest for the magical amulets of power. A life-and-death struggle is on at the edge of time. And the universe watches - and waits.

VIDEO: PASSAGES to EGYPT MYSTERY READS on AMAZON (Kindle and paperback)

"VIDEO BOOK TRAILER" - A young ancient Egyptian Princess is Lost without her Scroll of the Dead. Amazon Kindle and paperback.

"One terrific story!" Amazon

THE PRINCESS Who LOST Her SCROLL of The Dead : Plus 'Museum Ghosts' - The night ancient Egypt came alive Kindle Edition by Roy Pond (Author) Format: Kindle Edition Two Egypt Fantasy Adventure Titles in One. With educational ancient Egyptian images. 1. The Princess Who Lost Her Scroll of The Dead. Her magical guide to the scary maze of gateways and passwords has been swapped for a blank scroll by a greedy royal scribe... How can Nefera find her way through the dangerous gateways and guardians of the Egyptian underworld without her magical spells - her passport to the world beyond? And who is the boy tomb robber Ipy, sharing her journey? Is he alive, or dead? Can he help save her?

PLUS 2. MUSEUM GHOSTS. The night ancient Egypt came alive. What happens when the museum keeper's daughter secretly takes an Egyptian doll named Tiye from its glass case? Karoy and his companions - a squad of Egyptian wooden soldiers created to protect a tomb owner - arise to rescue Tiye from the dangerous outside world...