Thanks for reading Guardian of the Flame! I hope you enjoyed the story.  Read on, for some background and behind-the-scenes info about the setting and the writing of the book!

The list of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World evolved slowly, from their first mention by the Greek historian Herodotus in 450 BC, to the poet Antipater in the second century BC. The Lighthouse of Alexandria was one of these Seven Wonders, and though lost to us, its mystique endures.

The Lighthouse was built by Sostratus the Cnidian around 250 BC, and was the first lighthouse in history. At about four hundred feet, it was among the tallest man-made structures in the world for millennia, second only to Khufu’s and Khafre’s pyramids. Currently, the tallest lighthouse in the world is in Yokohama, Japan, and is only 348 feet tall. The Lighthouse of Alexandria stood well into the 1300s, until a series of earthquakes in the Middle Ages eroded its foundation. Its blocks were used to build the medieval fort which stands at the tip of the island even now.

WHAT’S FACT AND WHAT’S FICTION?

In creating the story of Guardian of the Flame, I drew on two major inspirations—one historical and the other fictional.

Of course, the characters of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra were real figures, whose interaction with each other and with their countries of Rome and Egypt is well-documented. I attempted to remain as close as possible to what we know of both of these people, and of their relationship. Their specific conversations throughout the book are part of my fiction. But they did indeed form a relationship that was both political and personal, and even had a child together, whom Cleopatra hoped would rule in both Egypt and Rome.

Caesar was assassinated in Rome in 44 BC, about four years after the final pages of Guardian of the Flame, and Cleopatra went on to form another famous alliance with Mark Antony, before the two took their own lives in 30 BC, rather than fall under the domination of Octavian (later called Caesar Augustus). If you’d like to meet Cleopatra again in the pages of my fiction, you’ll find her and Mark Antony in The Queen’s Handmaid.

Much of the history of the Roman occupation of Alexandria in the novel is based on actual historical facts, and taken from Caesar’s own writings, The Alexandrian Wars. It was great fun for me to have this primary source, the very words of one of my characters, to guide me in recreating the water blockage, the harbor fire, the burning of the Library’s scrolls, the battle involving the Thirty-Seventh Legion, and the occupation of the Lighthouse.

I also based the Proginosko mechanism on a real piece of machinery found off the coast of the Greek island Antikythera, and thus named the Antikythera Mechanism. Billed as the “world’s first computer,” this mechanism was lost at sea in the first century BC.

I based Sosigenes on a real figure by the same name, the scholar who devised the Julian calendar for Julius Caesar about two years after the end of Guardian of the Flame. This calendar drastically improved the drift of days that had been occurring up until that time, because of the lunar rather than solar basis. It remained in use worldwide until the 1500s when it was replaced by the slightly-different Gregorian calendar, which we use today.

INSPIRATION FOR THE FICTIONAL PARTS

With so much history to draw upon, I entered into the creation of actual plot and the fictional characters, and it was here that I drew inspiration from one of my favorite fictional motifs, that of Beauty and the Beast.

The story of Beauty and the Beast has often been told through literature and film, many of which are familiar in their basic elements. You’ll recognize that I switched the typical genders of the two characters, but there are many other elements tucked into the novel that were inspired by the age-old story. I hope you enjoyed my variation on this theme.

Interestingly to me, I sometimes hear that readers are uncomfortable with the “Beauty and the Beast” legend. I think perhaps this discomfort exists because they see themselves in the role of Beauty, someone being mistreated by a beast, a victim of abuse who gradually comes to accept and even love her abuser in a kind of Stockholm-Syndrome. “Run!” these people want to say to the Beauty. “You don’t need to put up with that kind of abusive treatment!” I would wholeheartedly agree. Abusive relationships are never to be tolerated.

But what I think people sometimes fail to see is that the lovely, enduring enchantment of this story comes from the fact that we are actually the Beast. WE are the selfish, unlovable, and petty creature who cannot snap himself out of his selfish pettiness to become lovable on our own. We would exist forever in a state of suspended animation, under our own curse, asking “who could ever love a Beast?” and hearing no answer in reply.

But… then along comes Beauty, and loves us where we are. While we were yet unlovable, Someone loved us to the point of sacrificial death. It is not a magic kiss that transforms our beastliness and wakes us from enchanted sleep, it is a magic death. A magic resurrection. An act so steeped in myth and beauty we can hardly believe it truly happened once upon a time.

So, I hope you loved this story, and be sure to visit my travel journal to Alexandria, to see a bit more of this amazing location!

READ THIS NEXT! 

Will she risk herself—to save her kingdom?

Seven years, she has waited.

Since her treaty marriage at a young age, the Babylonian princess Tiamat has lived the opulent, and yet oppressive, life of the palace.

And for seven years, her father, the mad king Nebuchadnezzar, has lived as a beast, hidden away to prowl his luxurious Hanging Gardens.

But when Tia’s husband dies, the powerful mage Shadir plots to expose the family’s secret and set his own man on the throne. And a nobleman’s macabre death suggests a dark force is at work in the palace.

Now Tia must enlist the help of a reluctant Jewish captive, her late husband’s brother, a man who denounces her notions of the gods, even as he challenges her heart.

But does madness run in the family?