Let me read you a story

Actually, a chapter from my latest novel

It’s been a while since I made a Tale-Weaving Storytime video. A dear friend pointed out that fact, so I got it together and made a new one.

I love reading out loud and listening to others do the same. That’s how many families spent their evenings in the age before television and radio. It’s fun and interactive - you can stop whenever you like to discuss the story and make snarky comments about the characters.

I’m afraid a YouTube video isn’t that interactive, but it does allow me to share a part of my writing with you in an unhurried manner (unhurried - remember that?). Here, I’m reading a chapter that showcases the two main characters - Adelphos, the Cattle Master, and his love interest, Sydaili, one of the bull leapers - without giving away any spoilers. So take a few slow breaths and enjoy this excerpt from Leap! A Love Story, then continue reading below.

I really enjoyed researching this novel. I already knew a good bit about Minoan life in general from writing The Last Priestess of Malia. But that book is set toward the end of Minoan civilization, during the harrowing Mycenaean occupation - a time very different from the era before the Thera eruption, when the joy of Minoan culture just shines.

Since Leap! is a romance with a lot of scenes of ordinary life, I got to delve deep into good stuff like Minoan food and cooking. Food is such a great way to learn about a culture and develop a sort of intimacy with it.

I already had a pretty extensive list of foods the Minoans had. We can add cinnamon to this list now as a strong possibility, since the Egyptians had it as early as 2000 BCE. They were a big trading partner with the Minoans, so it’s likely the sweet spice made it to Crete during the Bronze Age.

I also delved into Minoan crafts like weaving, spinning, and dyeing as well as perfume-making, bread-baking, beer brewing, and how a tavern might have been run in ancient Crete - all because characters in the novel did these things.

Details like these can make characters and scenes really come alive in a novel. But what’s more important to me is that they can help us, as modern people, connect with ancient cultures in a way that’s more intimate and real than typical textbook or Wikipedia fare.

And of course, knowing that people back then felt love and guilt and anger and joy helps us recognize that, despite changes in technology, there’s not that big a gap between ancient people and us.

We’re all human, after all.