Question: What is the RIGHT CONTENT for a Writer (or a Reader)? Answer: Your Heart’s Content.

There's no picking how authors (and readers) pick their heartland subject. Writers must always be allowed their subject, it is said. With me it’s ancient Egyptian archaeological mystery thrillers. Why? How do authors pick their heartland writing subject? There seems to be no way to pick it. 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, Jock of the Bushveld, 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. I suppose we each find our metaphor, our prism through which we focus the human condition. I see archaeology as a metaphor. It even applies to 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.