What was the most challenging part of writing the book?

One challenge was I had to stop and take a long break after researching weaponry used in Iran during the late 1970s. The heaviness of the topic was too much for me.

And a bigger challenge was that this third book actually began as a screenplay! I was taking a screenplay writing class at UCLA taught by the amazing Bill Boyle in 2009. As an exercise for class, I adapted my first novel, Harem Sister, into a screenplay. The page count grew as I tried out new, more visual/visceral methods of storytelling; some of which were unique to screenplay writing.

To my initial dismay, my screenplay Meetup group requested more current-day characters, insisting that dusty ancients wouldn’t interest modern-day moviegoers. Their feedback resulted in a 120-page script being pared down to ten good pages to move forward with, after six months of writing.

To my delight, I discovered that by adding a modern story layer to my ancient tale, and reincarnating my original characters yet again, new life was breathed into my fictional family. Those “ten good pages” traveled with me from LA to San Francisco where I was determined to reverse-engineer the screenplay into a novel.

A year of writer’s block followed, from all the editing, auditing, and striving for marketability that goes with screenwriting, as well as the truncated, haiku-like style that is required to create the technical document called the screenplay. I could only write in shorthand for a while; stretching my creative wings in other new directions with paint and canvas.

Eventually, my writing muse returned, and the roadblocks that I’d perceived as hindering that part of myself disappeared. I realized I am at heart a novelist with my love for flowing, embroidered prose, and that I was at last ready to rework what was a screenplay back into the writing style I love most. The third novel was born!

What inspired me to make the leap into the fantasy realm with this book?

Fantasy is a new genre for me starting with this third novel. A fan of Charles de Lint, Mary Renault, and Neil Gaiman, I was inspired to draw on my own magickal experiences before and after becoming an initiated Wiccan priestess and shamanic practitioner in Marin County, CA. When truth is better than fiction, why not start there? Loosely based on people, beings, and nonordinary places I’ve encountered in my 25 years of shamanic study, the second half of The Secret of the Cylinder takes a detour down the rabbit hole and brings delightful surprises where I let my magickal muse run free.

What sets The Secret of the Cylinder apart from other books in its genre? And what is its genre?

I’m a Renaissance person, and so like many things I do, this book doesn’t fit into just one box. It is romance, fantasy, historical fiction, adventure, chick-lit and drama all rolled into one! Not only appealing to feminists, pagans, and history enthusiasts, this book will intrigue mothers, daughters, grandmothers, brothers, fathers, and grandfathers alike. Anyone who might be affected by war and all its consequences. It’s very timely as its setting is a volatile Iran, in 1979, during the Muslim Revolution; when all the efforts at westernizing the country were undone by a new regime.

Meticulously researched, The Secret of the Cylinder takes the reader on a magic carpet ride through intrigue, danger, love and chaos all amidst the backdrop of a culture and country unravelling. As the Middle East currently becomes more and more under the control of non-Western, non-Christian ideology, here is a firsthand glimpse of choices by Ground Zero stakeholders—what’s motivating them, and what they’re feeling. What sets this book apart is that it suggests our strongest weapon against darkness is love. And in this case love is hard-coded onto magical clay that was obtained from a star-traveler, into an instrument of peace. Love and peace are ideas. Ideals we feel very strongly about. By giving them physical form, and having this object, the cylinder, be a sort of relay-race baton, used by people and then nations to restore balance and harmony, I am planting the idea that we have what we need to ensure the longevity of our planet and mankind. Maybe with a little divine nudge. And the divine in this book isn’t bound to any belief system except love and healing.

Why did I set my new book, The Secret of the Cylinder, in 1979 Iran?

I was 19 years old in the US in 1979; just starting to spread my wings and enjoy the freedoms of adulthood in a Western nation. My world was expanding. By contrast, 1979 in Iran was a time of diminishing human rights, especially for women. Granted, Iran was westernized because of US interference and manipulation, as is done with so many other countries. We’re enjoying the fallout of this now, with the rise of Daesh. 

Back in 1979 Iran, women protested having to wear the hijab (headscarf). Today, a new generation has grown used to wearing it, and some prefer it. The contrasts intrigue me. I feel so lucky to have chosen in this lifetime to be born in the US, with all the freedoms we take for granted. Anoush takes is upon herself to try to protect those freedoms, by saving the cylinder and Inanna statue from clerics of the incoming regime, who would certainly destroy them. One because it bore the story of a woman; which would be blasphemy in a patriarchal era. The other, the statue, because it was a reminder of the power of the feminine. Then, as in some places even now, men were afraid of women and their true power.

First popup Art Show and Author Reading

Does combining an author reading with a show of one’s art sound like a good idea? I thought so. These are two of my favorite things, so this January of 2016 I threw a popup 48-hour event. The gallery of my favorite artist building in Sausalito, CA became available through an amazing bit of happenstance, friendships, and goodwill. I finally had 10 paintings I felt were strong enough to show and a book in prepublication. The timing was perfect to take the leap and organize my first art show/hybrid.

At some previous author events, I’d read in cafes, where one’s finely-crafted words are suddenly screeched out of existence with the frothing of each cappuccino. I figured I wouldn’t have a decibel dilemma reading in a gallery. Construction was underway just down the hall from the space where I’d be having this art show, but I figured it would be minimal over the weekend.

I contacted two photographers (also artist friends) who had recently traveled to Iran, the setting for my new novel, The Secret of the Cylinder. They agreed to amend my show with prints of their work, and their sales would be donated to a charity. Another draw! Another win! Collaborative co-creation!

Since I had the time, I was able to plot and plan extensively; researching YouTubes on everything from the proper packaging of artwork for shipping to the 10 best and worst things to do at author readings. Now an expert on glassine, artist tape, and which side of the bubble wrap touches the paint, I also know to read for only ten minutes and make lots of eye contact.

I created an online presence for my paintings through ArtFinder.com, which required scribing each piece’s story, price, dimensions, and all kinds of other metadata, as for a book. I created a list of Suggested Questions for the Q&A part of the program after the reading (also useable for future radio interviews). Building content became easier and easier as I reviewed my process, inspiration, and challenges that went into every painting and chapter. Duel bios, Facebook pages, new Twitter and Instagram accounts…my fourth book was going to get the finest delivery into the world I could offer.

Just like a well-written story is reworked, layered, put down, then revisited, so I also did these things for every canvas until they each became part of a cohesive offering to the world.

As always happens, no matter how well you prepare, something comes out of left field. One of the photographers dropped out the day before the show after some impressive histrionics. The other became my hero; hanging his work precisely and beautifully using his carpentry background, and offering kind words to my battered spirit. (After the fiasco, it took singing my Power Song several times, casting a circle, calling in my allies, cleaning my chakras, transforming the heavy energy many times, and downing much EmergenC and Rescue Remedy to put me into a state where I felt the show could go on without me being a quivering wreck.)

Also on the day before the show, we had a rainstorm of the biblical caliber. Something Noah would find impressive. I set up the room myself. Initially carrying one box at a time in one hand and an umbrella in the other, I eventually gave up and tossed the umbrella; going for the drowned rat artist look. Luckily, with all the physical labor, I stayed warm in the unheated building, despite being soaked to the bone. (I decided years ago that extreme precipitation is a harbinger of good luck as I met my ex-husband on a blizzarding February evening, and have been offered great jobs on downpour days.)

The day of the show, my second hero, my partner, whisked me to Costco to stock up on the much-needed wine, cheese and crackers, then helped extensively with opening day setup. With Chardonnay chilling, the Afro-Cuban All Stars playing, and the lighting set “just so”, we began greeting guests, friends, and local artists from the building as they filtered in and floated around the gallery space. The energy built; the event’s own organic momentum grew and flowed beautifully through the reading. Guests offered astute questions (we discovered a link between the Cyrus Cylinder and columns in India that also contained a sort of declaration of human rights, placed in a central location of a community space). Four hours flew. And then it was time to close the doors for the day and head off to a local restaurant to recap the high points over champagne.

On Day Two of the show, another hero helped with setup and then the fast-track breakdown (just 45 minutes because we knew where everything was, how to do it properly, and all the doors and elevators were working…plus it wasn’t raining.)

Besides some earnest hammering at the neighboring construction during the second day’s reading, the show went without mishap.

Lessons learned: You can never prepare enough. Rehearse what you’ll be reading many times, so it sounds smooth in front of an audience and you don’t fumble the alliteratives. Be kind. Always. Forgive yourself and others for being imperfect. Enjoy your party!

Reading from The Secret of the Cylinder this January in Sausalito, CA!

Join me for a ROMANCE, REBELS AND A MAGIC CARPET RIDE - readings from my new novel, The Secret of the Cylinder - The Persian Love-Heist. Dates: January 30 and 31, 2016. Gallery 111, ICB Building, 480 Gate 5 Road, Sausalito, CA. Readings Saturday at 4 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.

Presented in a collaborative exhibit TREASURES OF PERSIA with images of cultural, architectural, and historical sites of modern-day Iran by Robert May and Koorosh Ostowari, from their trip to Iran in October of 2015.

And also at Gallery 111, LIFE IS BUT A DREAM - a show of my figurative oils and portraits. Gallery hours: Sat. 3 p.m.to 7:00 p.m. and Sunday 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Where did the story idea come from for my new book The Secret of the Cylinder? Why a cuneiform cylinder?

My wild, tangential mind came up with this idea at some point while I was adapting Book 1 of this trilogy into a screenplay and adding a modern-day overlay (and then reverse-engineering the screenplay into Book 3, The Secret of the Cylinder, now available on Amazon.com).

The Cyrus Cylinder (one of the most famous cuneiform-inscribed cylinders from the sixth century BC) is thought by some to be the first declaration of Human Rights. It contains Cyrus’ statecraft plan to run an empire that included a diversity of nationalities and faiths. At this point in time, the Persian Empire spanned from Greece to India. These citizen rights (like continuing to practice one’s own religion after being absorbed into the Empire) most likely were not guaranteed if people in the various satrapies didn’t pay the mandatory tribute (protection money) to Cyrus. History is always rewritten from the perspective of the conqueror, and the world is an imperfect place, but at least here was an attempt at reciprocity and caring for the 99% by the 1%.

The Cyrus Cylinder could also be thought of as a tabloid of the day; with the new, conquering king talking trash about the deposed Nabonidus, and extolling the virtues of his own, purportedly fine pedigree (he claimed he was the Babylonian God’s chosen one). By deposing Nabonidus, taking Babylon from him, and saying the Babylonian God Marduk chose Cyrus over Nabonidus to rule the Babylonians, Cyrus continued the time-honored practice of propaganda that is still being carried out today. It just never ends, does it?

Like a papyrus scroll to an Egyptian scribe, a cuneiform cylinder was the recording device in this part of the world, in this era, which also happened to be the era of my protagonist of Book 1 of the Sekhmet Series, Amat. As well as the cylinder being fashioned from a “magic clay” in The Secret of the Cylinder, so also was a figurine of Inanna, desert goddess of Mesopotamia (current-day Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey), and a goddess of love, fertility and warfare. Knowledge and worship of her would have been a secret legacy from mother to daughter even into patriarchal time. Such figurines were considered dangerous by the dawning patriarchal paradigm and they’re actually not too hard to find even to this day; buried by the hundreds in cemented-over graves that can be seen by aircraft in certain Middle Eastern countries. The feared and fierce, magickal feminine!

What better symbols (cylinder and Innana statue) to imprint with the symbols and stories of Amat, now reincarnated in this book as Anoush? In Amat’s case the heart-shaped birthmark on her collarbone was echoed on the Inanna statue, and Amat’s story was scratched onto the cylinder. And why not have both fashioned of a magic clay that confers peace upon all who touch it?  An instrument of peace.

Now if Inanna can control both love and war, if the Mesopotamians trusted a woman to handle both love and war, why can’t Americans trust Hillary Clinton to run both the military as well as the social/humanitarian aspects of a presidency? (OK, I know there are other issues at stake there…)

How can a Goddess represent both love and war? Perhaps she has the power to transform one into the other? Alchemically. Like the Peruvian shamanic process of transforming heavy energy (hucha) into light, refined energy (sami). Truly, a female body, a vessel, a chalice, if you were, would be required to contain and nourish this transubstantiation. So I created this instrument, these instruments of peace, loosely based on history, because love is ultimately more powerful than fear or war. I wanted to create a tangible reminder that these instruments are within us and within our reach. This is a message truly needed now at this point in time. We can be an instrument of peace. We have it within us.