With her latest book Cleopatra’s Daughter arriving to bookshelves on September 15^th, and her next project already well in the works, the creative juices certainly are flowing for author Michelle Moran.

Her earlier books, Nefertiti and The Heretic Queen, both set in the desert heat of Egypt three thousand years ago, have recently been released in paperback editions. Nefertiti is the captivating story of the beautiful Egyptian queen, and her sister Mutnodjmet. Nefertiti encourages her husband’s plans to overturn Egyptian religion, making the court a dangerous place to be. The Heretic Queen is the tale of Nefertari, niece of Nerfertiti, who becomes the wife of Ramesses the Great, the powerful pharaoh who must confront the most famous exodus in history.

Cleopatra’s Daughter represents a change in setting for Moran; the book follows the story of Selene and her two brothers, children of Antony and Cleopatra. Selene and her brothers were taken to Rome by Octavian after the defeat and suicides of Cleopatra and Antony. Longing to return to Alexandria, and hoping to be restored to the throne, Selene eventually finds peace and love in this enthralling story.

Michelle agreed to discuss Cleopatra’s Daughter, as well as her next book, and travel and research experiences. Her prompt responses and witty enthusiasm are indicative of an imaginative yet organized personality. It is little wonder that she is increasingly recognized for her skills, not just as a wordsmith or a creator of vivid characters, but for her ability to incorporate strong research into her books, using both large and small details of history and culture to bring another time to life.

I think it is fascinating that your book focuses on Selene, the daughter of Cleopatra and Antony. It’s refreshing to get an imaginative perspective about the events following the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra, especially as Selene is, sadly, not a well-known historical figure. What inspired you to choose Selene as your main character?

When I began my career, I never intended to write about ancient Rome. My previous novels were set in Egypt, and I always assumed that my books would remain in the land of desert palaces and tombs. All of that changed with a dive. It wasn’t the kind of dive you take into a swimming pool, but the kind where you squeeze yourself into a wetsuit and wonder just how tasty your rump must appear to passing sharks now that it looks like an elephant seal. My husband and I had taken a trip to Egypt, and at the suggestion of a friend, we decided to go to Alexandria to see the remains of Cleopatra’s underwater city. Let it be known that I had never gone scuba diving before, but after four days with an instructor (and countless questions like, “Will there be sharks? How about jellyfish? If there is an earthquake, what happens underwater?”) we were ready for the real thing.

We drove one morning to the Eastern Harbor in Alexandria. Dozens of other divers were already there, waiting to see what sort of magic lay beneath the waves. I wondered if the real thing could possibly live up to all of the guides and brochures selling this underwater city, lost for thousands of years until now. Then we did the dive, and it was every bit as magical as everyone had promised. We saw the blocks that once formed Marc Antony’s summer palace, came face to face with Cleopatra’s enigmatic sphinx, and floated above ten thousand ancient artifacts, including obelisks, statues, and countless amphorae. By the time we surfaced, I was Cleopatra-obsessed. I wanted to know what had happened to her city once she and Marc Antony had committed suicide. Where did all of its people go? Were they allowed to remain or were they killed by the Romans? And what about her four children?

It was this last question that surprised me the most. I had always assumed that Cleopatra’s children had all been murdered. But the Roman conqueror, Octavian, actually spared the three she bore to Marc Antony:  her six-year-old son, Ptolemy, and her ten-year-old twins, Alexander and Selene. As soon as I learned that Octavian had taken the three of them to Rome for his Triumph, I knew at once I had my next book. And when I discovered what Cleopatra’s daughter lived through while in exile – rebellion, loss, triumph, love -  I absolutely couldn’t wait to start writing. I can only hope that the novel is as exciting and intriguing as the research proved to be. It may be two thousand years in the past, but a great love story, as they say, is timeless.

One of the reasons Selene is such an interesting character is because she is caught up in between two different cultures: Egyptian and Roman. I thought that this helped to give the reader a clear idea of the differences between ancient Egypt and Rome, as it provides a bit of an outsider’s opinion. Can you comment?

I’m afraid that the reality was even more complex than you suggest! By Cleopatra’s time, Egypt (and most especially its ruling classes) had been pretty well Hellenized. The Egypt we imagine of pyramids and sphinxes was by that stage many centuries old, and Egyptian culture, where it interwove with its ethnically Greek rulers, was commemorated and even romanticised in quite a conscious way. A loose modern parallel would be the modern love and re-enactment of medieval courtly dress and customs, which packs Renaissance Faires across America each weekend. Nevertheless, Cleopatra and the Ptolemies did conceive of themselves as very different from the rest of the Classical World, and strove to celebrate their Egyptian-ness, both as a useful tool to ensure political loyalty, but also as a deeply-felt emotional attachment. Selene never abandoned hope that she would regain her lost kingdom, or at the least, be able recreate its ages-old architecture and feel.

How long did it take you to write Cleopatra’s Daughter?

My novels typically run on an eighteen-month schedule; the better part of a year to research and outline, and about six to eight months for writing and editing.

Please tell me about the book trailer for Cleopatra’s Daughter. Were you much involved in the making of it?

Alas, I didn’t get to participate in the filming directly, which may have been all to the good. In the burial-at-sea scene, the director paid his roommate $50 to be rolled up in a sheet and dumped into Puget Sound! As for the gladiator scenes, let me just assure viewers that those weapons are real! Brady Hall did a marvellous job of taking the vision and suggestions and telling a compelling visual story. I can’t recommend his directing talents highly enough.

I understand that you and your husband take a historically themed trip every year. Do these trips have a strong influence on your books? Do you visit all of the places you write about?

Yes, though I still have a way to go- I’ve been lucky enough to visit forty-six or so myself, but only have novels set in three of them! New ideas keep popping up in each one we visit. So the travelling has been useful as well as fun. I find the smell of a place, its feel under your feet, to be invaluable memories to draw upon while writing. And in some cases, the research I do on site can’t be done anywhere else.

Do your archaeological experiences have a strong influence on your writing?

Yes! My travels to archaeological sites around the world have been enormously influential in my writing career. In fact, my inspiration to write on the Egyptian queen Nefertiti happened while I was on an archaeological dig in Israel. During my sophomore year in college, I found myself sitting in Anthropology 101, and when the professor mentioned that she was looking for volunteers who would like to join a dig in Israel, I was one of the first students to sign up. When I got to Israel, however, all of my archaeological dreams were dashed (probably because they centered around Indiana Jones). There were no fedora wearing men, no cities carved into rock, and certainly no Ark of the Covenant. I was very disappointed. Not only would a fedora have seemed out of place, but I couldn’t even use the tiny brushes I had packed. Apparently, archaeology is more about digging big ditches with pickaxes rather than dusting off artifacts. And it had never occurred to me until then that in order to get to those artifacts, one had to dig deep into the earth. Volunteering on an archaeological dig was hot, it was sweaty, it was incredibly dirty, and when I look back on the experience through the rose-tinged glasses of time, I think, Wow, was it fantastic! Especially when our team discovered an Egyptian scarab that proved the ancient Israelites had once traded with the Egyptians. Looking at that scarab in the dirt, I began to wonder who had owned it, and what had possessed them to undertake the long journey from their homeland to the fledgling country of Israel.

On my flight back to America I stopped in Berlin, and with a newfound appreciation for Egyptology, I visited the museum where Nefertiti’s limestone bust was being housed. The graceful curve of Nefertiti’s neck, her arched brows, and the faintest hint of a smile were captivating to me. Who was this woman with her self-possessed gaze and stunning features? I wanted to know more about Nefertiti’s story, but when I began the research into her life, it proved incredibly difficult. She’d been a woman who’d inspired powerful emotions when she lived over three thousand years ago, and those who had despised her had attempted to erase her name from history. Yet even in the face of such ancient vengeance, some clues remained.

As a young girl Nefertiti had married a Pharaoh who was determined to erase the gods of Egypt and replace them with a sun-god he called Aten. It seemed that Nefertiti’s family allowed her to marry this impetuous king in the hopes that she would tame his wild ambitions. What happened instead, however, was that Nefertiti joined him in building his own capital of Amarna where they ruled together as god and goddess. But the alluring Nefertiti had a sister who seemed to keep her grounded, and in an image of her found in Amarna, the sister is standing off to one side, her arms down while everyone else is enthusiastically praising the royal couple. From this image, and a wealth of other evidence, I tried to recreate the epic life of an Egyptian queen whose husband was to become known as the Heretic King.

While hands-on experience like this certainly not a necessity, I like to begin the research for all of my novels in the country where the novel takes place. It's not only a way to get a "feel" for the period, it's also a great deal of fun!

I’ve heard that you wrote your first book at the age of twelve. That’s impressive! Did you always know you wanted to be a writer?

Perhaps it shows a great want of either range or imagination, but I’ve never really thought of being anything but!

Were you always drawn to historical fiction as a genre?

Actually, yes. And books like The Red Tent, The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn and Katherine have been some of my favourites.

What do you think it is about historical fiction that captivates many readers?

Probably the feeling we get from believing in characters that actually existed, and are made to live again. We feel as though we know their most intimate thoughts, even across the gulf of centuries.

Can you please tell me about your next project? I understand it will be about Madame Tussaud.

Masks of the Revolution is about Madame Tussaud, who joined the gilded but troubled court of Marie Antoinette, and survived the French Revolution only by creating death masks of the beheaded aristocracy. She acted as a sort of coroner/obituary columnist, during a time before photography, when the reign of Terror needed proof of its grisly trophies. I’m very excited about this novel, since Marie (the first name of Madame Tussaud) met absolutely everyone, from Jefferson to Voltaire to Napoleon’s Empress Josephine. She outlived most members of her generation, yet preserved them for all the world, both through her art and her genius for inventive story-telling!

What is your writing routine?

Because of the many peripheral commitments that come with being an author, it can be difficult to find a regular pattern. I envy those steady types who are able to tick along in with a write-before-dawn-every-day-except-Christmas schedule! But when I finally shut out the distractions, unplug my email and duct tape over the mail box, the finished novel can actually take form rather quickly. After all the months spent working on research and outlines, I’ll have a fairly detailed plan of where I want the story to go, and then it’s a matter of making it happen. In my case this tends to mean long periods of digression and interruption, followed by great concentrated bursts of speed when the right mood strikes. I find the cleansing effects of fasting and great sleep to be very helpful preparation.

I read that you were a teacher for six years before turning to writing full time. Do you ever miss teaching? What is it like to be a full-time writer?

Paradoxically, full-time writing has turned out to be even more frantically busy than full-time teaching-and-writing was. I suppose that our plans always expand to fill the available time! I’m so fortunate in that I feel I was truly made to do this: I love the writing process, the human contact with writers and readers, the mobility, and most of all, I love the stories.

Nefertiti has been published in over a dozen languages. Do you have a copy of it in each language?

Yes! It turns out that most foreign rights contracts specify that a handful of copies be shipped to the author. They arrive on my doorstep in dusty, odd looking boxes, crates and even zip-tied Poste de France mailbags! I have a shelf set aside for the amazing array of covers, titles, and variations on my last name.

You appeared on the Fuse TV series, 10 Great Reasons, comparing historical figures with modern pop culture stars. What was that like?

Well, being filmed next to a comedian and an adult film starlet definitely ranks among the more unusual of my literary experiences! The pop culture/history nexus was rather fun to explore, though given the frenetic pace, the hour of Q-and-A was condensed to about two minutes worth of clips, scattered throughout a ten-episode season.

How does it feel to be considered something of an authority on Egyptian history?

Well, I definitely wouldn’t consider myself an authority. I have simply had the privilege to stand on the shoulders of giants – those giants, of course, being the scholars and Egyptologists who have dedicated their lives to researching and writing about the past.

If you could meet any historical figure, which one would you choose? Or, which period in history would you choose to visit?

I’m a sucker for the Victorians.

What are some of your favourite books?

I loved C.W. Gortner’s The Last Queen, as well as Signora da Vince by Robin Maxwell.

What advice do you have for aspiring writers?

Learn as much as you can about the business of writing. Because we writers feel an emotional connection to our stories, we tend to feel that publishing is also emotional. If I’m nice, they’ll publish me. If I send them chocolate with my query letter, they’ll see what a good person I am. But publishing isn’t personal and most of the time it’s not emotional either. It’s about numbers and sales and - at the end of the day - money. So learn everything there is to know about the business before you send off your material, especially once your material is accepted for publication. That’s when business savvy matters most, and knowing important publishing terms like galleys, remainders and co-op is extremely important when trying to figure out how you can best help your book along in the publication process. Learn everything, but above all, keep writing!

Michelle Moran’s website ( http://michellemoran.com/ ) is a very good resource for fans and new readers alike. Complete with author information, book excerpts, contests, and resources for fellow writers, there is something to interest everyone.

I’m sure that Cleopatra’s Daughter will enjoy much acclaim; a vivid tale filled with some of history’s most well known figures, the book blends intrigue and love into an utterly compelling story that is difficult to put down. Cancel your plans when you pick up a copy on September 15^th – you will want to keep reading Cleopatra’s Daughter until you reach the end.

Written by :

Meghan

 

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