Well, Hello There! Meet My Main Character

Author Judy Ridgley tagged me in a "Meet my Main Character" blog-hop chain. So come on along and I'll tag others who might want to play.

1.  What is name of your character? Is he/she fictional or a historic person?

There are two main characters in Curses and Smoke: A Novel of Pompeii, and their voices alternate. However, today I’m just going to focus on Tages or Tag, a medical slave in a gladiatorial school because…well, just look at the pic of how I imagine him. Tag falls in love

with Lucia, the daughter of the man who owns him (and she with him), which, as you can imagine, is a bit of a problem. Both characters are fictional.

2.  When and where is the story set?

The story is set in the weeks before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Pompeii in 79 CE.

3. What should we know about him?

Tag’s ancestors came from noble Etruscan stock but his family was thrown into slavery when Rome took Pompeii during the “Social Wars” generations before. He is bitterly resentful of the Roman “occupation” of Pompeii (even at the time of the city’s destruction, the Romans still called Pompeii their “colony”).

Although in his heart he is a healer, Tag dreams of training to fight in the arena as a means to win his freedom.

4. What is the main conflict—what messes up his life?

The main conflict is that he falls in love with the daughter of the man who owns him. Any kind of relationship between them would’ve been seen as a major taboo. In addition, his father is beginning to lose his faculties and he is desperate to keep the master from noticing because he is afraid his owner would throw the aged healer out on the street once he lost his usefulness.

5.  What is his personal goal?

Tag’s personal goal is to earn his freedom. The quickest way to do that, he thinks, is to train like a gladiator. If he wins enough bouts, he could be freed—or die trying. When he and Lucia get together, his goal changes and he dreams of running away with her, even though he knows he would be crucified for touching her.

6.  What is the book’s title and when will it come out?

The title is Curses and Smoke: A Novel of Pompeii. It is published by Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic and releases May 27. 

Pre-order Curses and Smoke: A Novel of Pompeii at:

IndieBound 

Amazon

B&N

Check out other "Meet My Main Character" Posts in the coming weeks by authors

Elizabeth Dulemba

and 

Tracy Barrett

Random Sightings

Walking through the Decatur Public Library, I stopped cold when I came across this: 

At the Decatur Public Library...Mother and daughter.

There. In a case, behind a lovely Cleopatra figurine was...my book! Now, Joe Davich at the Georgia Center for the Book, had mentioned that they'd included my book in the library's princess displays, but I'd forgotten all about it. (Sorry, Joe!)

I knelt in front of the case and coo-ed, then started taking pictures, secretly hoping someone would come up to me and ask me why I was doing this.

"Because this is my book!" I imagined I would answer proudly. "I wrote this. And there it is--in a case. At the library! Amazing, innit?"

But, as so often happens, people pointedly ignored my cray-cray. Which just reminded me how important it is to have friends who "get" you. My writer friends would have squee-d loudly right along with me, shushing-librarians be damned!

Having writer friends is a must. Take, for example, what happened last week when I had lunch with my pal, Elizabeth O. Dulemba. Driving through Avondale Estates, Elizabeth cried out, "Oh my god, did you see that?"

"Huh? What?" I asked in my exceptionally witty way.

"We have to go back and check this out," she said, inspiring me to take the "mom-van" on a turn so sharp, we nearly made it on two wheels.

"Keep going, keep going!" she urged as we approached the parking lot of a church in construction.

And this is what we saw:

Out in the open, in the parking lot! As if Egypt in Atlanta wasn't just a tad...weird.

Right there, in the parking lot!  Isis. Anubis. The sphinx. All out in the open, presumably for the African church next door under construction. How awesome is that? And how awesome that my bud absolutely knew that I had to see it?

The sphinxes (sphinxii?) had tubes in their mouths. Fountains?

 The church under construction seemed somewhat small, so we were intrigued by the size of these decorations. How in the world will they fit it all in?

Elizabeth cozies up to the "big guy."

I can only imagine just how magical it will all look inside. After all, it turned a dreary, wet, ordinary day into something extraordinary--a parking lot full o' wonder.