Anubis Prepares for His Grand Entrance

          While at docent training yesterday with Dr. Peter Lacovara on all the new pieces in the Egyptian, Nubian and Near Eastern galleries at the Carlos Museum, I took the opportunity to start taking notes for my "Anubis Tour."
          After all, Anubis Speaks! releases in just a matter of weeks.
          Of course, I have my favorites at the museum--particularly, Anubis at the Weighing of the Heart ceremony on the side of Tanakhtnettahat's coffin--but I discovered a bunch of other depictions that I normally breezed right past, including this Ptolemaic depiction (above) and many jackal carvings on on tomb reliefs (below). 
          Can't wait to have a howling good time talking about my favorite canine-headed god!
 
     
 

When Anubis Speaks, Y'all Better Listen!

From Antoine Revoy's book, Haunted Houses.

I've got two projects in the works right now. One is a YA novel (edited by the fabulous Cheryl Klein and set to release in 2014) and the other is a midgrade creative nonfiction book called, Anubis Speaks! A Personal Tour of the Egyptian Dark Lands (edited by the fabulous Larry Rosler and due out in 2013).

Anubis Speaks! is being illustrated by the uber-talented Antoine Revoy. I cannot wait to see how he interprets Anubis's dark and snarky voice!

I often get asked what I mean by "creative nonfiction." In this case, the nonfiction part refers to all of the facts about ancient Egyptian death practices and their beliefs about the land of the dead. None are made up. The information is based on primary and secondary source research.

The "creative" part is that these facts are "explained" by Anubis, Egyptian God of Mummification, who "speaks" directly to the reader. The jackal-headed god is a bit miffed about having been ignored for thousands of years and is baffled by his own people's fascination with cats ("I'm more of a dog person," he explains).

He warns readers to "Go back to coloring rainbows and unicorns," if they don't think they can handle the frightening boat-ride journey through the twelve hours of darkness. "There will be blood. And snakes. And decapitations. And monsters who like to gobble up hearts," he gleefully cautions.

Anubis is probably my favorite god in the Egyptian pantheon (followed closely by Isis).  I've had a lot of fun writing in his voice. I can't wait to share him with the world.

Whoa Doggie! Friday Funnies--Ancient Style

So, my next kid's book is called Anubis Speaks, wherein the snarky god of mummification takes the reader through the Land of the Dead. In honor of turning in revisions, I thought I'd feature my favorite dog-man:

Ancient Fun Fact: A Real Egyptian Love Spell!

The ancient Egyptians weren't afraid to be, uhm, long-winded when it came to casting spells. Check this out--a real love spell found on a papyrus, from a man wanting a woman to fall in love with him.

It's a spell from the Greek period, around or before the time my novel's main character, Cleopatra Selene, lived in Egypt.

Also interesting: It's an appeal to the god ANUBIS, rather than the usual Isis.  Prepare yourself for a bit of, um, obsessive love (or lust, more like it). Here goes:

Anubis, god of the earth, underworld and heavens, dog dog dog, use all your strength and all your power on Tier (the woman in question), who was born by Sophia. Strip from her her pride, prudence and modesty, and bring her to me here, at my feet, languid with passion, at every hour of the day or night, dreaming of me ceaselessly, when she eats and when she drinks, when she works and even when she makes love, when she rests, when she dreams and when she is dreaming; when, tormented by you, she hastens, languisihing for me, wholeheartedly, her soul filled generosity, offering herself to me, and fulfills the duty of women towards men, serving to satisfy my lust and her own, never bored, without shame, rubbing her thigh against mine, her black down against my black down in the sweetest way! Yes, my master, bring me Tier, to whom Sophia gave birth.

Dude!

"Languid with passion!" "At every hour of the day or night..." "...languishing for me."

He's got it bad. But at least he thinks about her when he points out that it's her duty to satisfy her own lusts as well as his. 

Nevertheless, reciting the spell wasn't enough. Mr. Lovelorn also had to, at sunrise, drown a scarab beetle in the milk of a black cow, then cover it with sand and cloth and burn incense in front of it.  When it dried, he had to divide the bug in half with a bronze knife, cook it and then mash it with apple pips with either the magician's urine or sweat. Then he had to roll this fragrant mixture into a ball and plop it into wine. Oh, and one last thing--he had to make sure the woman he loved drank that wine.

Yeah. And we think match.com is weird.

Source: Magic and Mystery in Ancient Egypt, C. Jacq