Interview with Michelle Moran

Michelle Moran born in the San Fernando Valley, CA. She took an interest in writing from an early age, purchasing Writer's Market and submitting her stories and novellas to publishers from the time she was twelve. When she was accepted into Pomona College she took as many classes as possible in British Literature, particularly Milton, Chaucer, and the Bard. Not surprisingly, she majored in English Literature while she was there. Following a summer in Israel where she worked as a volunteer archaeologist, she earned an MA from the Claremont Graduate University.

Michelle has traveled around the world, from Zimbabwe to India, and her experiences at archaeological sites were what inspired her to write historical fiction. After teaching English at a public high-school for six years, Michelle Moran is currently a full-time writer living in California with her husband. She is represented by Anna Ghosh of Scovil Chichak Galen Literary Agency.

It's good to have you with us today, Michelle. Please tell us about The Heretic Queen, your sequel to Nefertiti.

The sequel takes place after a gap of some twenty years. Prince Tutankhamun lies buried, and the winds of change are blowing through Thebes. A devastating palace fire has killed the 18th dynasty’s royal family—all with the exception of Nefertari, niece of the reviled former queen, Nefertiti. The girl’s deceased family has been branded as heretical, and no one in Egypt will speak their names. A relic of a previous reign, Nefertari is pushed aside, an unimportant princess left to run wild in the palace. But all of this changes when she is taken under the wing of pharaoh’s aunt, and brought to the Temple of Hathor where she is educated in a manner befitting a future queen.

Soon Nefertari catches the eye of the crown prince, and despite her family’s history, they fall in love and wish to marry. Yet all of Egypt opposes this union between the rising star of a new dynasty and the fading star of an old, heretical one. While political adversity sets the country on edge, Nefertari becomes the wife of Ramesses the Great. Destined to be the most powerful pharaoh in Egypt, he is also the man who must confront the most famous exodus in history.



How did you find that Egyptian history treats the story of Moses and the exodus as opposed to the Biblical account? How does this play into the story that you are telling?

A composite character based upon the Biblical Moses does appear in the novel, but with the exception of the book of Exodus, there is no historical evidence of his actual existence. Even though the Ramesses II featured in The Heretic Queen is believed to be the Biblical Ramesses, Pharaonic records of the time are silent on the matter. (No evidence of the seven plagues, for example, survives in Egyptian history.) In the novel I explore some of the Assyrian myths that may have prefigured the story of the baby in the bulrushes, or the giving of the laws at Mount Sinai, and so forth. These legends would have been quite familiar to Egyptians 3,000 years ago, and it made sense to place the story of Ahmoses in the context of this evolving oral tradition. In the novel, Ahmoses-as-political-leader plays a prominent part. But as for his contacts with the supernatural, I leave that to the personal faith of the reader. (In any event, the forty years of wandering in the desert occur after the timeframe of the book.)

What kind of resources do you use in your research? And consequently, which do you find most useful?

My primary resource is books. I begin by purchasing what feels like every book ever written on the subject I'm interested in. Sometimes that means our mail carrier will be delivering sixty books to my house in one week. It takes me several months to go through them, and when I feel like I have a pretty strong outline of my subject's life, I make a storyboard and begin to look for holes. Whatever holes I find, I try to patch with an event that wouldn't seem too far-fetched. If I run into trouble with a setting or a scene, I have friends in the archaeological world who can advise me on whether or not something I want to include is realistic.

I also do a lot of online research, although that is secondary. I use google to find photos of museum collections, scholarly articles on, say, Egyptian glass, or photos of temples I may not have had the opportunity to visit while I was in Egypt. I am also amazed at the number of gracious scholars who are willing to answer questions if you simply email them.



You have chosen to set your first two books in ancient Egypt. Are there any other places and time periods that you find fascinating and would consider as settings for future stories?

Absolutely! My third novel, Cleopatra’s Daughter, will be set in Rome. It will follow the incredible life of Cleopatra's surviving children with Marc Antony -- twins, named Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene, and a younger son named Ptolemy. All three were taken to Rome and paraded through the streets, then sent off to be raised by Octavia (the wife whom Marc Antony left for Cleopatra). Raised in one of the most fascinating courts of all time, Cleopatra's children would have met Ovid, Seneca, Vitruvius (who inspired the Vitruvian man), Agrippa (who built the Pantheon), Herod, his sister Salome, the poets Virgil, Horace, Maecenas and so many others!

Cleopatra’s Daughter will be in stores September 15, 2009 (sigh.. an entire year from now). Then, I think I’ll be staying in Rome for a while. At least for the next two books.

Do you feel that your historical fiction is character driven? Or is it driven by the events in their lives that form the plot?

Readers, please come back tomorrow for the answer to this and more questions. Please leave a comment for a chance
to win The Heretic Queen, being released today!