Jennifer Malin's Blog, page 4

Working Against Time

The concept of time travel is a surprisingly recent thing. Only a handful of old stories (and no ancient ones) feature characters who maybe slept for years or visited a strange place, then learned afterwards that while they were out, years had passed. As...



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Princess, Priestess and Pioneering Poet

Who is humanity’s earliest known author? You might guess Homer or Moses, but actually it’s Enheduanna, who lived in ancient Ur (now in Iraq) around 4,500 years ago. A priestess of the goddess Inanna — like Mara in my novella Seventh Sanctuary...



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Mall Versus the Volcano

Il Vulcano Buono, where Winnie goes shopping after learning she’ll be in Italy for two extra weeks in my book The Five-Day-Dig, is a real mall in Nola, outside of Naples. The vast circular structure is designed to look like Mount Vesuvius, the volcano...



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A Peek at Greece — in Central Italy

The ruins in my archaeological mystery/romance The Five-Day-Dig date to the same era as Pompeii, but at Paestum, Italy — an hour farther south by train (€10 or US $13.20 roundtrip) — the ancient ruins are even older, and the lizards are even...



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Mystery Achievements

The first time you visit Pompeii, it’s easy to miss the Villa of the Mysteries unless you know to look for it (and you should). One of the best preserved houses in the ancient town, it’s a little outside the city walls, beyond the Herculaneum gate. (When...



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In Service of a Great and Terrible Deity

You may be familiar with speculation that Mary Magdalene was a temple prostitute before she shook off her seven demons. In our culture, the idea of sacred prostitution seems so strange that it piqued my curiosity. After reading and ruminating about what...



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Of Pomp and Pinecones

Like Chaz in The Five-Day-Dig, I like to leave little offerings at ancient temples to show the old deities they're not forgotten. On our recent visit to Ostia outside of Rome, Hubby and I left a few coins at the temple of Cybele (one of the goddesses...



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Everything but the Rubber Duck

Hubby and I spent the last week in Italy (just yesterday morning we were in Ostia Antica!), so I had a chance to revisit some of the sites that inspired details in The Five-Day-Dig. For example, at one point in the book, the archaeological team comes...



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Let’s Meet Down at the Pub

As I mentioned in my last post, to me, learning about the everyday lives of our ancestors is the most fascinating part of studying the past. That’s why I love this example of a fast-food joint among the ruins of Pompeii. A wood fire burned in the hearth...



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Let's Meet Down at the Pub

As I mentioned in my last post, to me, learning about the everyday lives of our ancestors is the most fascinating part of studying the past. That's why I love this example of a fast-food joint among the ruins of Pompeii. A wood fire burned in the hearth...



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