If you've already read or if you intend to read THE RIDDLE OF THE SANDS, you'll know that the Nile River and the Nile Valley play an important part in the book. When I was deciding which story would be the second in the Fathom's Fives series, it struck me that I needed to go for a plot that was the epitomy of classic adventure, something dripping with ancient mythology and full of treasures and traps. Since most of the first book is set in Italy, the two most obvious choices remaining (for me at least) were either Greece or Egypt. I know a lot about Ancient Greece, I've studied it for years. Ancient Egypt on the other hand was a stranger to me. So, of course, I chose the more daunting task and decided to throw myself in the deep end, setting the majority of the book in Cairo and the Nile Valley.
As I was doing my research, one of the scenes I really wanted to capture was the sight of feluccas gliding down the Nile with the desert dunes, as well as the sound of the sails catching the wind, like the puff of a parachute. I'm hoping I got the image right on paper, but in case you need any further visualization, here are two images I kept on my desktop while I was writing!
The images of the feluccas are stunning. Enough to make to long to visit Egypt more than ever. The quality of the light, the apparent purity of the air... *sigh*
ReplyDeleteAs for the part with Eden in Brasil, I do hope you get the chance to use it someday! Brasil is a big enough country to justify the characters going there more than once, I'm sure. And I think showing a country through the eyes of one of the characters native of said country is probably the best way to make the reader feel what the "real" experience is like, because the character's account will have a more personal feel to it. :)