Jenny_Jackson
Psycho Bitch
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2006
- Posts
- 10,872
I am in the process of writing a long, historic novel. There will be something like 20 chapters of 2500 to 3000 words each. The first 4 chapters are done.
Does anyone want to take on this kind of long term project?
A sample from Chapter one...
Valley of the Kings - 1922 AD
Howard Carter wiped at the sweat that ran down his face with a rumpled handkerchief. Sweat had already stained his white shirt under the arm pits and down his back. The heat in the newly discovered tomb was oppressive. Soon he would have to shut the dig down for the year and wait until late fall when the temperature would become bearable. Still, the work fascinated him. There would be years of work here clearing the tomb, restoring and cataloguing the artifacts.
Carter’s benefactor, Lord Carnarvon, had remarked at the first sight, “Such treasures the world has never seen. We are rich beyond our wildest dreams.” But this was wrong. The value of the gold, precious and semiprecious stones was nothing compared to the historic value of a nearly undisturbed Egyptian tomb. This treasure belonged to the world. Besides, the contract with the Egyptian Government specifically stated the treasure belonged to the Cairo Museum with the exception of a few, small articles that had begrudgingly been allowed Lord Carnarvon and Carter.
It was bothersome that robbers had broken into the tomb on, at least, two occasions, but it seemed as if all the important things were still there. And so many things Carter’s mind was scarcely able to imagine. The dig had not even cleared the anti-room yet and already there were more undamaged artifacts than had been found in all the expeditions that had come before put together. Carter had yet to open the room he called the Annex or even the actual burial chamber guarded by two six foot tall Ka statues. Those two rooms were still sealed. What might he find there?
For the third time Carter shook his head to clear it and turned his attention to the double cartouche box he had just plucked from its place in the jumbled anti-room. His fingers traced the pictographs within the right cartouche while holding the box up to the bare electric light bulb that hung from the ceiling just above his left shoulder. “Amen…Sema…Ahnk,” he thought as he tried to make out the symbols. The light reflected off the gold and lapis that covered the box making it difficult to make out the symbols.
“Yes, that would be Ahnkensenaamen, Howard,” came the voice of Calendar, his archivist who was standing behind him. “It’s the same name William Petri found on the broken vessel hidden in the crevice at the funerary.”
“Yes. So it is,” replied Carter. “But who was she? Must have been one of the royal family and Neb’s wife.” Carter often shortened the Pharaoh’s throne name, Nebkeparure, even when looking at his common name, Tutankhamun. “And look at the first symbol. It’s Amen not Amun. This must be a part of the heresy that Budge wrote about.” Sir E.A. Wallis Budge was, of course, the famous Egyptologist and head of the Egyptian exhibit at the Cairo Museum.
Does anyone want to take on this kind of long term project?
A sample from Chapter one...
Valley of the Kings - 1922 AD
Howard Carter wiped at the sweat that ran down his face with a rumpled handkerchief. Sweat had already stained his white shirt under the arm pits and down his back. The heat in the newly discovered tomb was oppressive. Soon he would have to shut the dig down for the year and wait until late fall when the temperature would become bearable. Still, the work fascinated him. There would be years of work here clearing the tomb, restoring and cataloguing the artifacts.
Carter’s benefactor, Lord Carnarvon, had remarked at the first sight, “Such treasures the world has never seen. We are rich beyond our wildest dreams.” But this was wrong. The value of the gold, precious and semiprecious stones was nothing compared to the historic value of a nearly undisturbed Egyptian tomb. This treasure belonged to the world. Besides, the contract with the Egyptian Government specifically stated the treasure belonged to the Cairo Museum with the exception of a few, small articles that had begrudgingly been allowed Lord Carnarvon and Carter.
It was bothersome that robbers had broken into the tomb on, at least, two occasions, but it seemed as if all the important things were still there. And so many things Carter’s mind was scarcely able to imagine. The dig had not even cleared the anti-room yet and already there were more undamaged artifacts than had been found in all the expeditions that had come before put together. Carter had yet to open the room he called the Annex or even the actual burial chamber guarded by two six foot tall Ka statues. Those two rooms were still sealed. What might he find there?
For the third time Carter shook his head to clear it and turned his attention to the double cartouche box he had just plucked from its place in the jumbled anti-room. His fingers traced the pictographs within the right cartouche while holding the box up to the bare electric light bulb that hung from the ceiling just above his left shoulder. “Amen…Sema…Ahnk,” he thought as he tried to make out the symbols. The light reflected off the gold and lapis that covered the box making it difficult to make out the symbols.
“Yes, that would be Ahnkensenaamen, Howard,” came the voice of Calendar, his archivist who was standing behind him. “It’s the same name William Petri found on the broken vessel hidden in the crevice at the funerary.”
“Yes. So it is,” replied Carter. “But who was she? Must have been one of the royal family and Neb’s wife.” Carter often shortened the Pharaoh’s throne name, Nebkeparure, even when looking at his common name, Tutankhamun. “And look at the first symbol. It’s Amen not Amun. This must be a part of the heresy that Budge wrote about.” Sir E.A. Wallis Budge was, of course, the famous Egyptologist and head of the Egyptian exhibit at the Cairo Museum.
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