Sovereign of Stars (38 page)

It has been popular in Egyptian fiction to portray
Hatshepsut as the usurper of Thutmose III’s rightful throne, and
Thutmose III as a wronged man biding his time until he could rescue
his kingdom from the clutches of his wicked stepmother. It’s a
dramatic tale, but has been known not to be the truth for a long
time. Hatshepsut and Thutmose III ruled jointly for about
twenty-two years, until Hatshepsut’s death from natural causes. The
pair evidently worked well together and were mutually content to
share power. Otherwise, one would have killed the other early on
and had done with it. Rather than going with the popular depiction
of Hatsheput as usurper and Thutmose as vengeful victim, I did my
best to tell a story that was nearer to historical fact – in this
respect, if in no other. I think the reality of the two Pharaohs’
peaceful co-rule provides a much richer opportunity for drama and
poignancy than the familiar myth of the quintessential wicked
stepmother.

I hope you agree.

-L. M. Ironside

Seattle, WA, 2013

NOTES ON THE LANGUAGE USED

This novel is set in historical Egypt, about
1500 years before the Common Era and roughly 1200 years before
Alexander the Great conquered the Nile. With the dawning of the
Greek period, a shift in the old Egyptian language began. Proper
nouns (and, we can assume, other parts of the language) took on a
decidedly Greek bent, which today most historians use when
referring to ancient Egyptians and their world.

This presents a bit of a tangle for a
historical novelist like myself. Culturally, we are familiar with
Greek-influenced names like Thebes, Rameses, and Isis. In fact,
even the name Egypt is not Egyptian; it has a long chain of
derivations through Greek, Latin, and French. However, the historic
people in my novel would have scratched their heads over such
foreign words for their various places, people, and gods. And
linguistically, the modern English-speaking reader will probably
have a difficult time wrapping her head and tongue around such
tricky names as Djhtms – an authentic and very common man's name
for the time and place where Sovereign of Stars is set (rather the
equivalent of a Mike or Tom or Jim).

On the balance, cultural authenticity is
important to me, and so I've reverted to ancient Egyptian versions
of various proper nouns and other words in the majority of cases. A
glossary of ancient Egyptian words used in this book, and their
more familiar Greco-English translations, follows.

In some cases, to avoid headaches and to
preserve (I hope) the flow of the narrative, I have kept modernized
versions of certain words in spite of their inauthentic nature.
Notably, I use Egypt rather than the authentic Kmet. It is a word
that instantly evokes the reader's own romantic perceptions of the
land and time, whatever those may be, and its presence in the story
can only aid my own attempts at world-building. I have opted for
the fairly Greeky, English-friendly name Thutmose in place of
Djhtms, which is simply a tongue-twister; and the word Pharaoh,
which is French in origin (the French have always been enthusiastic
Egyptologists) rather than the Egyptian pra'a, simply because
Pharaoh is such a familiar word in the mind of a contemporary
reader. Wherever possible, I have used “Pharaoh” sparingly, only to
avoid repetitiveness, and have instead opted for the simple
translation of “king.” I've also decided, after much flip-flopping,
to use the familiar Greek name Horus for the falcon-headed god,
rather than the authentic name Horu. The two are close, but in
every case reading Horu in my sentences interrupted the flow and
tripped me up. Horus flies more smoothly on his falcon wings; ditto
for Hathor, who should properly be called Hawet-Hor, but seems to
prefer her modernized name.

As always, I hope the reader appreciates
these concessions to historical accuracy and to comfort.

GLOSSARY

ankh – the breath of life; the animating
spirit that makes humans live

Ankh-Tawy – Memphis

Anupu – Anubis

deby – hippopotamus

Djeser-Djeseru – “Holiest of Holies,” the
name of Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple, known today as Dier-el
Bahri.

Hapi-Ankh – Apis, the bull god worshiped in
Ankh-Tawy (Memphis).

Heqa-Khasewet – Hyksos

Ipet-Isut – “Holy House”; the temple complex
at Karnak

Iset – Isis

Iteru – Nile

Iunet – Dendera

ka – not quite in line with the Western
concept of a “soul” or “spirit,” a ka was an individual's vital
essence, that which made him or her live.

Kush – Nubia

maat – A concept difficult for modern
Westerners to accurately define: something like righteousness,
something like divine order, something like justice. It is to a
sense of “God is in His Heaven and all is right with the world” as
the native Hawai'ian word
aloha
is to an overall feeling of
affection, pleasure, well-being, and joyful anticipation. It is
also the name of the goddess of the concept – the goddess of “what
is right.”

mawat – mother; also used to refer to
mother-figures such as nurses

Medjay – An Egyptian citizen of Nubian
descent

rekhet – people of the common class;
peasants

sepat – nome, or district

seshep – sphinx

sesheshet – sistrum; ceremonial rattle

tjati – vizier; governor of a sepat or
district

Waser – Osiris, god of the afterlife, the
underworld, and the dead. Also used as a prefix when referring to a
deceased king.

Waset – Thebes

A MESSAGE FOR THE
READER

2013 was an amazing, crazy, fantastical year
for me. In response to reader enthusiasm for The Sekhmet Bed –
enthusiasm I honestly never expected to find for a self-published
novel – I wrote and published The Crook and Flail and watched,
still rather stunned and astonished, while my books took off. Paul
and I tied the knot in a beautiful ceremony in Arches National Park
– a trip made possible by sales of my books. And I wrote and
published the book you have just finished reading, Sovereign of
Stars, and will finish The Bull of Min by the end of the year – or
will come close to finishing it, anyway. I’ve also gathered reams
of notes and made outlines for two future historical novels:
Tidewater, which will be about Pocahontas, and Revelator, a
character study of the founder of the Mormon Church, Joseph Smith,
to be told from the points of view of several people who were close
to him, and whose opinions of him varied.

To say I am excited about everything I’ve
accomplished in 2013, and excited about 2014 and the years to come,
would be a ridiculous understatement. I’m thrilled, amazed,
shocked, giddy, wild with delight, and, to use my late grandpa’s
favorite term, tickled. And I am incredibly, indescribably grateful
to the readers who have made it possible – who have made my dream
come true.

I have wanted to do nothing but write
full-time since I was eight years old. It’s been my only concrete
goal and the only way I’ve envisioned my future for nearly all my
life. As I grew up and tried the publishing waters, I learned how
infuriating and depressing the process is, going through a
corporate publisher – which, until just a couple of years ago, was
the ONLY way to achieve publication. It’s been disheartening, to
realize that the thing I’ve wanted most since childhood relied on –
there is no other word for it –
exploitation
by some company
or other.

The explosion of ebooks and the independent
literature movement has been nothing short of miraculous to many
writers just like me, who formerly stared bleakly at two terrible
options: give up on the lifelong dream forever, or allow yourself
to be taken advantage of, underpaid, and mistreated by
contracts.

Oh, Reader, if only I could tell you how
liberated and happy I feel, how hopeful and confident, how lucky I
am to be a writer living and working right now, when finally, after
decades of being sat on, the writers – the ones who actually create
the stories and characters you love – have power and control. So
many incredible and wonderful things have happened in 2013 to turn
the tide of the industry in the favor of writers, and the changes
were badly needed.

But it’s not only writers who get to enjoy
the benefits of a thriving and powerful indie literature community.
Readers may, in fact, benefit the most. I won’t bore you with
details; suffice it to say that indie authors who have earned the
support of readers are able to offer their readers more of what
they want, and have an increasingly harder time finding through any
mainstream publisher: unique content, innovation, exploration, and,
in the case of historical fiction especially, variety of setting
and subject, and authenticity of historical voice.

By supporting independent authors like me,
you are making a very real and lasting contribution to the
publishing industry as a whole. You are voting with your dollars
and with your reviews, deciding which books and authors succeed and
exactly how far their success will go. You now have as much control
and power over the world of books as authors do, and I firmly
believe that this is exactly the way it ought to be. Books are a
dialog between writer and reader. A book cannot exist without a
reader’s imagination to make it live, any more than it can exist
without a writer to create it. Neither you nor I any longer face a
future where we either take what the big guys offer us or stop
dreaming. We’re in this together, and I hope you’re as tickled by
that fact as I am.

Readers contribute to authors’ success –
especially independent authors like me – by reviewing books and
talking about the books you enjoyed. On the site where you bought
the book, on your blog, on your Facebook page or other social
networking site, at the water cooler at the office…wherever you
choose to do it, it makes a very real difference. I hope you’ll
share your thoughts on the book we’ve made together.

Thanks for buying, thanks for reading, and
thanks for sharing. Here’s to 2013, and many more good years to
come!

-L. M. Ironside

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I owe big thanks to Rebecca Lochlann and Richard
Coady, two historical novelists whose work I admire very much. I
was fortunate to receive advance critiques of this book from
Rebecca and Ric, and the book (and my writing in general) is much
better for it.

Whenever I finish an Egyptian historical novel, I
feel I ought to thank Joyce Tyldesley and Barbara Mertz. These two
Egyptologists have written the best and most readable nonfiction
works pertaining to ancient Egypt I’ve ever read. I turn to their
books constantly while researching and writing my own.

A heap of thanks to my readers, whose great
enthusiasm for the first two books in this series kept me working
away happily on this one as well as the fourth and final book in
this series. It is a very gratifying experience to receive emails
asking when the next books are expected, and to read about readers’
enjoyment and anticipation in reviews. I appreciate it so much. And
thanks, readers, for your understanding when I pushed the release
date back so I could get married.

Speaking of which, my biggest thanks of all go to my
husband, Paul Harnden. I couldn’t do any of this without his big
goofy smile for motivation. Every story I write is for him.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

L. M. Ironside joined the independent literature
movement after her first novel, The Sekhmet Bed, was thoroughly
rejected by every publisher on Planet Earth. Since then, The
Sekhmet Bed and its sequel, The Crook and Flail, have enjoyed two
years of steady presence on Top 100 lists in the largest bookstore
in the world, and Ironside has become a leading voice in the genre
of historical fiction, where she strives to recreate the drama and
humanity of the past with literary style and authentic
atmosphere.

When she is not writing, she’s painting, hiking
through the mountains of the Pacific Northwest, or canning in her
kitchen, which is much too small for canning.

Find out more on her web site:
LMIronside.com

Sovereign of Stars

L. M. Ironside

First Ebook Edition

Copyright © 2013 – Libbie M. Grant

All rights reserved.

LMIronside.com

Cover design: Running Rabbit Press

Cover art: “Cleopatra on the Terraces of Philae”

by Frederick Arthur Bridgman, 1896, public
domain.

Running Rabbit Press

Seattle, WA