Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Why I write ancient Egyptian supranormal adventure thrillers

The tension between reality and mystery


There is a greater tension that interests me as a fiction writer beyond the tension created by danger and surprising plot points, although I am passionate about those too.

I love exploring the tension that exists between belief and doubt, accepted reality and the mystery of the unknown and unseen - and nothing evokes this tension like ancient Egypt with its dark secrets and monumental wonders.

That’s why I have made my main character Anson Hunter a renegade Egyptologist, an outsider who sits on the fault line between accepted and alternative history.

Who better to explore the tension between reality and mystery and to take the reader on a journey of the unexpected? 

You can experience my series of novels with a mysterious  supranormal angle here





Saturday, July 28, 2012

My top blogs on Egypt and adventure thriller fiction

See top blogs on right


My blogs on Egypt and Egypt adventure thriller fiction are so closely intertwined that the lines blur for me.

So much so, that in my investigative Egypt adventure series, the action is interspersed with blogs from my Egyptologist main character. (See The Smiting Texts, The Hathor Holocaust, The Ibis Apocalypse and The Anubis Intervention.)

In book number five, 'Egypt Eyes' I go a step further.

The story takes the form of a blog from my archaeologist's point of view and includes photos of Egyptian sites from the story.

As my alternative Egyptologist Anson Hunter says in the introduction:

'My blog is like an archaeological dig site. The material of today lies on the surface and what lies hidden beneath is the past. Editing has allowed me to reverse the dramatic order of this story and add the benefits of evaluated experience. It has also allowed me to begin this account with a prologue – the turning point discovery that I have been led by a young blind woman into a conspiracy about the ancient past that could affect all of humankind...'

Monday, July 23, 2012

The Smiting Power of ancient Egypt's magic - in a fiction series

Dangers from the ancient past unleashed on today

There is a magic about ancient Egyptian fiction and in this series of investigative novels, heka, or the lethal powers of ancient Egyptian magic, is at the heart of the action in modern conspiracies, secret missions of guerilla archaeology and discoveries of forbidden knowledge.

The Smiting Texts, The Hathor Holocaust, The Ibis Apocalypse, The Anubis Intervention and NEW, Egypt Eyes.


Friday, July 20, 2012

Infantilization and The Batman Columbus horror: a fiction writer's lament



Infantilization:  def. To reduce to an infantile state or condition.

Is mainstream entertainment infantilizing America and the world, and are we, the creatives, writers, movie-makers, game designers, studios, actors and admen, somewhat responsible?

Think of the popular arts… fiction thrillers, the top grossing comic-derivative movies, Comic-con…

I fear that infantilization may be a little responsible for triggering the real-life re-enactment of uncontrollable child-like anger and violence that we have just seen in the Colorado Batman slayings.

Nobody is to blame.

We all are.



Mysterious, planet-like Egyptian eyes, British Museum...




What secret had the satellite eye in the sky seen under Egypt's sands?


Dr Constance Somers, space archaeologist, once used satellite eyes in the sky to explore Egypt's hidden treasures. Now Anson Hunter was to be her eyes on the ground... but what is her dangerous secret?

"Egypt Eyes" - thriller fiction with Egyptian photos and a renegade archaeologist's blog; an adventure with a difference.



Amazon Kindle

And a different eye... a private eye story


Had the dust of Egyptology combusted in a flash of science fiction? he wondered.

From the Blog of renegade Egyptologist Anson Hunter in "Egypt Eyes archaeology thriller
Egypt Eyes - Egypt fiction on Kindle

 
I flinched as I shone my flashlight beam in the darkness.
Ahead I saw an alien, pyramid-shaped entrance bordered by swarms of eyes, dozens, hundreds… thousands.
This is just wrong for ancient Egypt.
It’s as if the dust of archaeology and aeons of ancient history have suddenly combusted in a flash of science fiction.
“Tell me what you see,” the blind female Egyptologist beside me said.
I searched for the right words.
Virgil Powell, the UFOlogist, spoke before I could form an answer.
“What he sees are countless alien eyes bordering a triangular doorway. He also sees the evidence that he dreads staring back at him, and his silence says that this discovery does violence to everything he knows and believes.”
Ancient aliens? Just the mention of that is a career killer for anyone in Egyptology, even a renegade outsider like me, and it’s probably a religion killer, too. Especially my religion, such as it is. I can recall wrestling with my faith just about every day of my working life in my chosen occupation as I go about rubbing shoulders with pagan deities and immersing myself in the religious practices of the ancient past. I haven’t made it easy for myself to cling to the few, old-fashioned ideas about Christianity that I value and this sort of collision doesn’t help.
It’s a wrecking ball.




Sunday, July 15, 2012

See my ancient Egypt in a novel - new Egypt Eyes


                            

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 See my range of investigative Egypt adventures at Amazon

Friday, July 13, 2012

A POPULAR BOOK POSTER Egyptian archaeology fiction - Egypt Eyes

What danger from Egypt's ancient past had the eye in the sky seen?


Excerpt from alternative Egyptologist Anson Hunter's blog:

A now legally blind young space archaeologist was the focal point of some murky conspiracy in Egypt and I was starting to care about her.
Does she have any idea how many secret eyes are watching her? I picture one of the satellites that provide space archaeology with its infra-red imagery as it rides in space in sun-synchronous orbit above Egypt. It is staring down on Constance, sending down explorative pulses, trying to probe beneath her surface to read her secrets.
Me and a blind girl?
Why not?
Love is blind and I quite like the unconventionality of it.
I’ve spent my life looking for the unseen mysteries of ancient Egypt and she has spent hers searching beyond the visible light spectrum through her satellite archaeology.
Maybe we belong together. 
It could be a very agreeable, symbiotic arrangement.
This union between alternative and mainstream Egyptology could help bridge the growing alienation of the two sides...




Thursday, July 12, 2012

Chapter 1 of 'Egypt Eyes' adventure fiction


Egypt Eyes. Copyright © Roy Lester Pond 2012



‘Egypt Eyes’ –  “Be my eyes in Egypt,” she says to him. The celebrated young Egyptologist and space archaeologist Dr Constance Somers had once explored ancient Egypt from space. But now she is legally blind. She hires controversial, alternative Egyptologist Anson Hunter to be her guide on a Nile cruise. ‘Show me the hidden Egypt of your imagination,’ she says. But does she have a darker purpose, planning to use his unique skills to help her penetrate a secret and dangerous site that she found?
And why are agents of the US National Reconnaissance Office, a secret Intelligence agency in charge of satellites and overhead security, suddenly taking an interest in the work of the space archaeologist? Has she made a discovery in her satellite archaeology that has global security ramifications?
Anson must face unexpected enemies at every turn and use his skills to survive the dangers of a lost underground sanctuary as he tries to unlock its shattering secret.
‘Egypt Eyes’ is groundbreaking adventure and mystery fiction with an Egyptologist’s blogs and photos.

ABOUT THE BLOG OF ANSON HUNTER, Alternative Egyptologist

My blog is like an archaeological dig site. The material of today lies on the surface and what lies hidden beneath is the past. Editing has allowed me to reverse the dramatic order of this story and add the benefits of evaluated experience. It has also allowed me to begin this account with a prologue – the turning point discovery that I have been led by a young blind woman into a conspiracy about the ancient past that could affect all of humankind.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9
Prologue: Walking into trouble


Sanctuary, Temple of Philae


What happened in the Temple of Isis today?
I stepped straight out of the dimly lit sanctuary and into a meaty hand that clamped around my mouth. The hand muffled my gasp as I was yanked aside.
I am rangy, yet I was dragged along like a piece of furniture, the hot salty palm preventing me from making a sound. My surprise removal ended in a darker side chamber.
As a controversial alternative Egyptologist, who also occasionally takes small tour groups around Egypt, I am always walking into trouble, but this was physical.
I had been the last out of the sanctuary, the footsteps of my small group fading in the distance, when I walked into my abduction.
“You’re okay,” the human gag said, taking his hand away. “Don’t
make a noise. We need to talk, privately.”
It was a swarthy, good-looking young man I had seen walking around outside the temple. He’d got here pretty fast, then I saw another arrive and now there were two of them blocking my way out of the chamber. In fact two of him. Twins.
“That’s a good trick being in two places at once,” I said.
“We find it useful,” the new arrival said.
Identical twins? No, not quite. The second one was a faintly milder version. It’s a curious thing about twins, even so-called identical ones. One of them always looks more defined than the other, as if the printer cartridge is running low on ink for the second iteration.
“What, collectively, do you want from me?”
“Your help,” they said together.
“I’m afraid you’re going to have to hijack another guide. I’ve already been hired to show someone else around.”
A flicker of a smile touched the face of the milder-looking of the two.
“Yes, we know you’re an alternative Egyptologist who has been hired by Dr Constance Somers, a satellite archaeologist who is now blind. But what do you know…”
“…about her? Tell us why she would hire you,” the dark-print twin said, not so much ending his brother’s sentence as shutting it down.
“What do you know about me that you think I’d want to tell you?”
“We know quite a bit more about you than you think…”
“You’ve consulted with US Intelligence in the past,” hard-edged twin said.
This is no secret. I’ve blogged about it.
“Who are you?”
Twin Lite said softly: “Let’s say US surveillance.”
“What sort of surveillance?”
“That doesn’t matter. The fact is, Dr Somers may have stumbled on something that could have far reaching repercussions and implications…”
Dr Constance Somers is celebrated for her work in satellite archaeology before she went blind. Am I now her eye on the ground, where once she had a satellite eye in the sky?
Who are these two on her trail?  
Having worked with Intelligence organizations in the past, I have heard of the National Reconnaissance Office or NRO. It was once a classified agency of the US Department of Defence and its existence was flatly denied until recent times. NRO designs, builds and works with the Air Force, operating the US reconnaissance intelligence satellites. Nothing on the planet is beyond the NRO’s prying eyes in the sky, or beyond. Conspiracy theorists on the Internet accuse the organisation of covering-up their monitoring of unidentified objects.
“So she stumbled across something she shouldn’t?” I said.
“We can’t specify the nature of our investigation. But we’re asking you to keep us in the picture if you learn anything or anyone approaches her. The very fact that she hired you to accompany her would suggest to us that she is acting unusually…”
“…and we know of your past history of unorthodox investigation,” the other one finished his sentence.
“Why don’t you talk to her?”
“She’s uncooperative.”
“She’s keeping a secret?”
“We believe so.”
“If it’s such a secret how did you get onto it?”
“That’s not really important right now…”
“…what matters now is that you say nothing to anyone and just keep your ears open. Others may try to reach her. Dr Somers has attracted the interest of groups that want to discover what she knows.”
So they want me to be their ears and she wants me to be her eyes.
I had the feeling that the walls of the chamber were closing in.
“Why should I help you? She’s asked me to be a guide and so I think my loyalty should be to her.”
“Maybe it will change your mind if we tell you something. One of our investigators was tracking her and then disappeared. Dr Somers found something hidden beneath Saqqara, and he followed her down there, but only she came out. She is playing on your well-known interest in dangers from the ancient past. We think she plans to take you, without warning you, into an environment with unknown but lethal hazards. We don’t want you vanishing too...”
“So you’d better have this,” the harder one said.
“What’s that?”
“A tracking device so that we can come if you vanish too.”
He handed me a small object about half the size of a flash-drive stick.
I was puzzled enough right then to accept it and to slip it into a pocket.
“Don’t say anything to her. Just keep an ear to the ground. We’ll get back to you down the track.”