Guest Author: Zoe Archer

This week on Excerpt Thursday we're featuring Unusual Historicals contributor and Kensington author ZOE ARCHER as she celebrates the release of the first two books in her Victorian "BLADES OF THE ROSE" series. Last month saw its launch with the Mongolia-set WARRIOR, and the series continues in October with SCOUNDREL, which takes place in Greece. Join us on Sunday when Zoe will be here to answer questions and give away goodies! Here's the blurb for SCOUNDREL:

The Blades of the Rose are sworn to protect the sources of magic in the world. But the work is dangerous--and they can't always protect their own...

READY FOR ACTION...

London Harcourt's father is bent on subjugating the world's magic to British rule. But since London is a mere female, he hasn't bothered to tell her so. He's said only that he's leading a voyage to the Greek isles. No matter, after a smothering marriage and three years of straitlaced widowhood, London jumps at the opportunity--unfortunately, right into the arms of Bennett Day.

RISKING IT ALL...

Bennett is a ladies' man, when he's not dodging lethal attacks to protect the powers of the ancients from men like London's father. Sometimes, he's a ladies' man even when he is dodging them. But the minute he sees London he knows she will require his full attention. The woman is lovely, brilliant, and the only known speaker of a dialect of ancient Greek that holds the key to calling down the wrath of the gods. Bennett will be risking his life again--but around London, what really worries him is the danger to his heart...

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October is month two of the four-month back-to-back releases of the "Blades of the Rose" series, which means that on October 5, SCOUNDREL will be hitting shelves. But my September release, WARRIOR ("Blades of the Rose" Book One), is still available!

SCOUNDREL received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and was also Pick of the Week. PW called SCOUNDREL a "delightful tale of an intelligent, competent woman sharing adventure and romance with a formidable partner...[heroine] London's personal growth paces the adventure story beautifully, and readers will cheer for both the romance and the Blades."

Who are the Blades of the Rose?

The Blades of the Rose make up a secret organization of men and women who follow the four points of the compass to find and protect the world's magic. Blades are explorers, cryptographers, trackers, inventors and adventurers, protectors of the underdog, defenders of freedom--all ever-so-slightly mad. Considering that Blades aren't allowed to use magic that isn't theirs by right or by gift, and that their foes are ruthless men bent on world subjugation, to be a Blade means you're a little bonkers. But that's one reason why I love them.

You say that the Blades travel all over the world to protect magic?

Yes! WARRIOR is set in Outer Mongolia, SCOUNDREL is set in Greece and islands in the Aegean Sea. Then REBEL takes us to the Canadian Rockies, and finally STRANGER is set in England, but not the England most historical readers ever get to see--plus a secret location that I can't reveal yet.

I'm sorry...did you say the BLADES books are historical romances?

Yes.

And there's magic?

That's right.

Plus adventure? And unusual locations?

Yep.

Um...I don't think I've ever read a romance like that before.

You probably won't! With the BLADES series, I've tried to create a brand new subgenre that combines rich historical detail, exotic locations, unique magic and a lot of action and adventure. The heroes are sexy and the heroines kick butt in a non-anachronistic way. If readers come away from these books having had a great time, then I'm happy.

Is the hero of SCOUNDREL really that much of a SCOUNDREL?

Oh, Bennett is completely, utterly, totally unrepentant about his scoundrel-ism. But he's not malicious about it. He just really, really loves women. A lot. And they love him. A lot.

So Bennett isn't capable of settling down?

He doesn't think so. Yet I have it on good authority that he's about to meet the one woman he can't live without. Too bad she happens to be the daughter of his most hated enemy...

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Readers, who is your favorite scoundrel? Leave a comment or question for the chance to win signed copies of both WARRIOR and SCOUNDREL. The winner will be chosen at random announced on Sunday. Giveaway is limited to readers in the US and Canada. Void where prohibited. We'll draw a winner at random next Sunday. Best of luck!

Excerpt Thursday: Zoe Archer

This week on Excerpt Thursday we're featuring Unusual Historicals contributor and Kensington author ZOE ARCHER as she celebrates the release of the first two books in her Victorian "BLADES OF THE ROSE" series. Last month saw its launch with the Mongolia-set WARRIOR, and the series continues in October with SCOUNDREL, which takes place in Greece. Join us on Sunday when Zoe will be here to answer questions and give away goodies! Here's the blurb for SCOUNDREL:

The Blades of the Rose are sworn to protect the sources of magic in the world. But the work is dangerous--and they can't always protect their own...

READY FOR ACTION...

London Harcourt's father is bent on subjugating the world's magic to British rule. But since London is a mere female, he hasn't bothered to tell her so. He's said only that he's leading a voyage to the Greek isles. No matter, after a smothering marriage and three years of straitlaced widowhood, London jumps at the opportunity--unfortunately, right into the arms of Bennett Day.

RISKING IT ALL...

Bennett is a ladies' man, when he's not dodging lethal attacks to protect the powers of the ancients from men like London's father. Sometimes, he's a ladies' man even when he is dodging them. But the minute he sees London he knows she will require his full attention. The woman is lovely, brilliant, and the only known speaker of a dialect of ancient Greek that holds the key to calling down the wrath of the gods. Bennett will be risking his life again--but around London, what really worries him is the danger to his heart...

***

Publishers Weekly selected SCOUNDREL as a Pick of the Week!

"Archer follows 2010's WARRIOR with another delightful tale of an intelligent, competent woman sharing adventure and romance with a formidable partner... London's personal growth paces the adventure story beautifully, and readers will cheer for both the romance and the Blades." ~ Publishers Weekly

***

"How did you know I was from England?" she asked. "The vendor was speaking English to everyone."

"Your posture. English ladies have a particular way of holding themselves, as though a disapproving governess was glaring at them."

"Different than, say, a French or Greek lady?"

"There's bundles more self-imposed Anglican morality in an Englishwoman's stance. I am," he added, with a slow, suggestive smile, "an avid connoisseur of the language of the body."

"Of that, I have no doubt," she said, dry.

His chuckle was low and velvet and very, very carnal. If he was unleashed on polite British society, virgin debutantes and genteel matrons would turn into Bacchae, tearing at their clothes and ripping apart anyone foolish enough to stand between themselves and the object of their desire. She felt much the same uncharacteristic urge.

London busied herself with pretending to admire a gold silk scarf at a booth. As she did this, she sent a cautious glance towards the beautiful English stranger. With a small, internal start, she realized that his stance only appeared to be negligent and easy. He was, in fact, vigilant, ready as if poised for movement. And his eyes, though glittering with a secret amusement, were never at rest. He watched the marketplace, keen as a blade. He was looking for someone.

But who? She dare not ask such an impertinent question, and didn't know if she wanted the answer. There was something, the edge of a darkness, in him, or, at the least, a potential for danger. She wondered if he was armed. Travelers to Greece were advised to bring at least a revolver if they planned on leaving Athens. But this man's strong body would be weapon enough.

"Is it within the rules to ask what brings you to Greece?" London asked.

"Never said there were any rules." A small dimple appeared in the corner of his mouth. London wanted to touch it. Or, better yet, feel it with her lips.

"If there were," she said, "you don't play by them."

He gave an unapologetic shrug. "Following rules means there's no fun or pleasure in life."

She was certain he had both in abundance. "And decorum? Responsibility?"

"Decorum stifles. Women, especially."

London picked up the scarf and draped it around her shoulders, as a lady might at the ballet. "That sounds like a libertine's well-practiced speech to lure women into dalliance."

"There's always truth in seduction. That's why it works." He stepped closer and loosened the scarf from her shoulders, then he gently wrapped it around her waist like a sash. She felt it like an embrace. His deft, long fingers tied the fabric into a decorative knot. "Much better. More Greek," he murmured in approval.

London's pulse sped at his nearness, yet she did not step away. "But what of responsibility?"

He gazed at her levelly, and in his clear aquatic eyes, she saw a steadiness of purpose that she had not anticipated. "I take my responsibilities seriously."

"They must be the only things you take seriously," she answered.

No mistaking the way he looked at her, how his gaze flicked down to her mouth and held there for more than a moment. "Try me, little troublemaker."

She felt herself standing above the sea, the warm water beckoning her to plunge into its wet, welcoming depths, frolic in its waves. She wanted to jump. She was afraid of the height. "Sir, you are more dangerous than Barbary pirate," she said, after a breathless pause.

Again, he laughed, something he seemed to do readily. A bedroom laugh. Teasing. Intimate. And such a laugh made her body respond without thought. Her skin felt sensitive and a molten heat gathered in her core. Oh, it had been a long time since a man touched her, and not a single, half-hearted caress from Lawrence affected her as one laugh from this stranger did. She recalled how, moments earlier, his fingers had brushed her hand, and the strange, intense response even that minor contact had engendered.

"Know many Barbary pirates?" he asked, one eyebrow raised.

"I do, now."

It was then that she realized something. All this time, he had been speaking to her as his equal. Granted, he was a devil of a flirt, but he did not seem to consider her female sex a liability. He talked truthfully, openly, without the polite phrases or evasions so common to the speech of every other man she knew. And when she answered him, it was as if she'd unlatched a little door inside herself and could meet him on the level ground, confident in herself.

"I think you are the dangerous one," he said, "but you don't know it yet."

Again, their eyes caught and held. No, she was not imagining it. Something hot and knowing in their shared look. And that other thing, that tie that bound them in ways she did not understand.

Women Did It Better: Bible Hunting

By Michelle Styles

How accurate is the modern Bible was question that occupied the 19th century mind--not just in its claims about the Garden of Eden, the Great Flood and such, but how accurate is the translation? In particular are the words of the New Testament the same as the words that the early Christians read? And how could you prove it? Even the Codex Vaticancus, which only the Pope and a few cardinals were allowed to read, was rumoured to have certain stories missing. For those of the Jewish faith, was the Wisdom of Ben Sira (Ecclesiasticus to Christians) and one of the fourteen books included in the Greek Old Testament originally written in Hebrew or not?

These were questions that troubled Biblical scholars through out the nineteenth century, and the answers would be provided by two intrepid Scottish sisters, Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Smith Gibson. They succeeded where men before them failed.

Looking behind St Catherine's
The sisters inherited their wealth from their father and became great travellers. Agnes wrote one of the first guidebooks to Cyprus. At a time when women didn't attend university, they learnt fourteen languages between them. Among other things, it made it easier to communicate to their dragoman and servants in Arabic. (An early voyage down the Nile had seen them cheated). They married late in life, Margaret to a scholar and Agnes to the librarian of Parker Library in Cambridge, Samuel Savage "Satan" Lewis. The Parker Library founded by Matthew Parker (the original nosy Parker) houses three quarters of all known Anglo Saxon manuscripts and it is here Agnes learnt about old manuscripts.

Inside St Catherine's
In January 1892, the sisters set out for St Catherine's in the Sinai armed with photographic equipment, portable water filters and variety of medicines. For the trip, Agnes had learnt Syriac, one of the early languages of the New Testament. They already knew Arabic and Modern Greek and so could converse easily with the monks and the Bedouin. They had managed to procure permission to visit one of the most remote monasteries in the world, and the place most likely to hold an ancient version of the Bible.

Their mission was complicated by the fact that in 1857, Constantin von Tischendorf had borrowed (stolen according to the monks) the Codex Sinaiticus and published it to great acclaim. After Von Tischendorf's discovery, as far as they were able bible hunters scoured the monastery for more manuscripts. The sisters were convinced that something else was there, if one could get access to the library.

The sisters, with their knowledge of the Orthodox Greek ways, gained the trust of the librarian of St Catherine's. There in a dark closet, they discovered the Sinaiticus Palimpsest. A monk at some point had cleaned a copy of the New Testament in Syriac and written a Martyrology of Female Saints (basically porn for monks) over it. Agnes with her background was able to recognise it for what it was, photographed it and went back to Cambridge. There, she interested three Biblical scholars in it, persuaded them to join another expedition and the work was eventually translated. It proved to be one of the most complete and earliest manuscripts of the Four Gospels. Today, the most important book in the library at St Catherine's is the Sinaiticus Palimpsest and it still resides in the wooden box that the sisters had made for it.

Later, the two sisters returned to Cairo and bought some manuscripts pages in Hebrew. They had their friend Schetcher look at them. He immediately recognised the pages for what they were--an early Hebrew version of the Ben Sira. He also had a good idea where the manuscripts came from and travelled to Cairo. There he discovered a genizah or dead letter drop for Jewish people that contained over 800 years of manuscripts and other documents as according to Jewish law one did not destroy anything containing the Four Letters of the Holy Name. It proved to be the richest source of medieval Jewish materials in existence.

Later still Agnes purchased two Syriac palimpsests. They proved to be the only non Biblical documents of any length to survive in Palestinian Syriac, a dialect that was wiped out through the spread of Islam. So the women's contribution to our knowledge of the ancient world was immense. You can read more about them and their exploits in Sisters In Sinai by Janet Soskice.

Palimpsests are still being recovered today in odd forgotten corners of the world, and who knows what others works might be uncovered, particularly as modern techniques are so much better.

Michelle Styles writes historical romances for Harlequin Historical. She recently visited St Catherine's on a book research expedition. It is a fascinating place, made all the more fascinating by the exploits of the Smith sisters. Her next UK release is THE VIKING'S CAPTIVE PRINCESS (Dec 10), and in the US A QUESTION OF IMPROPRIETY (Dec 10). There will a free online read starting on 15 November on e-Harlequin to celebrate the publication of A QUESTION OF IMPROPRIETY.

Disasters: Santorini

By Lindsay Townsend

In 1613 BC, give or take a couple of decades (scholars lock horns over the dates), the circular Aegean island of Thera (now Santorini) was almost obliterated from the earth. With the force of many Krakatoas, the volcano which lay beneath it blew its top in an explosion which threw most of the island into the sky and scattered it over and beyond the sea. The lava thrown out of the volcano with such force fell back already aerated, as a thick layer of light pumice which lies over the remains of the island to this day and can be seen in the curved cliffs like a thick pastry crust on a pie bitten by a giant. The town of Aktoriri, once a Minoan settlement, lies excavated from the ash, a Theran Pompeii.

The collapse of the sea floor beneath Thera produced a tsunami that swept across the Aegean. The north coast of Crete was devastated, with coastal towns like Palaikastro completely inundated, the palace at Amnisos damaged and pumice falling on Mallia. Molten lava thrown out of the crater flowed out across the sea, cooled and sank, leaving over five hundred square miles of the sea floor around Santorini covered in a thick layer of volcanic rock.

The Mediterranean is in constant geological turmoil. Think of Etna and Vesuvius, the earthquakes which are slowly unzipping the crust of northern Turkey towards Istanbul. There are seething thermal vents on the seafloor a few miles from Santorini now, and the Aegean itself will disappear one day, crushed between Africa and Europe in the relentless dance of tectonic plates. This was the largest volcanic eruption in human history until Tambora exploded in Indonesia in 1815, and its after-effects are still not yet understood.

As for the date of 1613 BC: two olive branches, the remnants of a walled olive-grove alive on Thera when the eruption blasted away the land next to it, were found intact under the pumice by archaeologists and radiocarbon-dated. Olive trees are survivors.

Two of Lindsay Townsend's books, BRONZE LIGHTNING and BLUE GOLD, are set in the Bronze Age Mediterranean and ancient Egypt. Her latest medieval, A KNIGHT'S ENCHANTMENT, will be published in June.

Fashion: Clothing of Ancient Greece

By Jennifer Mueller

In my story "The Mountaintop," set in ancient Greece, there were so many things to research, but as far as clothing goes, the Greeks made it an easy time.

The Ancient Greeks were not fussy about their clothing. Ancient Greek clothing was typically homemade, and the same piece of homespun fabric could be used as a type of garment or blanket. The garments were made for function, and they were made simply. For every member of the family, except for infants who often wore nothing at all, an outfit usually consisted of a square or rectangular piece of fabric, pins for fastening, and sometimes shoes and/or hats. The style and type of the garment depended on who wore it, and the job or function required of the person. There were several types of garments, all derived from a basic tunic. The tunic was worn by both men and women, varying in length according to gender. And with Greek summers being brutally hot, the less fabric and complicating seams to deal with, the better.

From Greek vase paintings and sculptures, we can tell that the fabrics were intensely colored and usually decorated with intricate designs. The colors used during this period were brightly-hued, such as green, indigo, yellow, violet, dark red, dark purple. The white ideal comes from paint that had once covered the marble statues wearing off by the time they were found.

Clothing for women and men consisted of two main garments--a tunic (either a peplos or chiton) and a cloak (himation).

The peplos was a large rectangle of heavy fabric, usually wool, folded over along the upper edge so that the over fold would reach to the waist. It was placed around the body and fastened at the shoulders with a pin or brooch. There were armholes were on each side, and the open side of the garment was either left that way, or pinned or sewn to form a seam.

The chiton was made of a much lighter material, normally linen. It was a very long, very wide rectangle of fabric sewn up at the sides, pinned or sewn at the shoulders, and usually girded around the waist. Often the chiton was wide enough to allow for sleeves that were fastened along the upper arms with pins or buttons. Both the peplos and chiton were floor-length garments, usually long enough to be pulled over the belt, creating a pouch known as a kolpos.

Under either garment, a woman might have worn a soft band known as a strophion, around the mid-section of the body. Men in ancient Greece customarily wore a chiton similar to the one worn by women, but knee-length or shorter. An exomis (a short chiton fastened on the left shoulder) was worn for exercise, horse riding, or hard labor.

The himation worn by both women and men was essentially a rectangular piece of heavy fabric, either woolen or linen. It was draped diagonally over one shoulder or symmetrically over both shoulders, like a stole.

A few other pieces still based on the general shape were also used at times. Women sometimes wore an epiblema (shawl) over the peplos or chiton. Young men often wore a chlamys (short cloak) for riding. Greek babies wore cloth diapers when it was hot and when it cold, they were wrapped up in blankets. Most of the time children wore only cloth (resembling shorts) wrapped around their middles.

A simple dress for a not so simple culture.