Showcase - The Death Pit
Read about the book and other updates
My dear subscribers,
September 1st is here. How time flies! Happy long weekend to my U.S. readers. So, what's on the menu today?
The main content today is a book showcase: The Death Pit. I'll cover what it's about, how I came to write it, and why you should pick it up if you haven't already. Then, I'll share a few updates about what's next and my profile on BookBub (finally).
The Death Pit
"A wonderfully written book about an age rarely covered in other books…" --An awesome reader
The Death Pit (intriguing name, huh?) is my fifth book in the Whispers of Atlantis anthology. It’s a standalone story set in a period quite distinct from the others. It’s also the “oldest” in my anthology--not in publication order, but in the timeline of events it covers. Additionally, it’s set in a world distinct from my other books, which tend to focus on Egypt, Rome, and Persia/India. This time, the focus is on a subject rarely tackled in the world of ancient historical fiction. Enough with the tease, you say?
The story is set in the final years of Sumerian King Ibbi-Sin (a real historical figure) around 2000 BCE in ancient Mesopotamia. This culture is fascinating, and you'd be surprised by how much written evidence still exists from an era nearly 4,000 years old! The Sumerians are an amazing civilization, but at the time of The Death Pit, things aren't going well for them. They are threatened by a new swarm of nomadic invaders, whom they call the "Martu" (or the Amorites of the later Bible), and a new king in far-off Elam (modern-day Iran) is casting his baleful eye upon them. Worse yet, the Euphrates River—a lifeblood for the city-state of Ur, where the king reigns—is drying up. In this setting, our protagonist, Nemur (which means “Leopard” in Sumerian), a royal scribe who knows little about fighting but a lot about writing, returns to find his home empty and his wife missing. What begins as a harrowing episode is about to unfold in ways he could never imagine.
It’s a story of intrigue, suspense, murder mystery, and political machinations all wrapped in one. As with my other books, I promise a fast pace. You'll also learn a lot about that fascinating ancient world. But why did I write it? Well, I was reading a fascinating article about Leonard Woolley’s 1920s excavations in the Sumerian city of Ur (modern Iraq), where he found a spectacular funeral pit (in the Royal Cemetery of Ur) with seventy or eighty bodies, possibly sacrificed to accompany a dead royal. That set me off on a research rabbit hole on ancient Mesopotamia, which eventually gave me the idea for the novel. It has an average rating of ~4.5/5 on Amazon and Goodreads, so if you haven't laid your hands on it, wait no more!
(available as eBook, paperback, and on Kindle Unlimited)
I’m finally on BookBub
My first book came out in late 2019 (The Atlantis Papyrus), and so far, I've never paid attention to setting up a good profile on BookBub, the largest book-sharing site/newsletter for book lovers. So, I finally did it. Check it out here, and if you’re a BookBub person, please follow me. I hope to get more involved in the BookBub universe going forward.
And the rest
I'm now working on the plot for the next book in the Dark Shadows series, and it promises to be an exciting quest. Modern tech, ancient mysteries—it’s all in there. I’ll share more as I get closer to the release, hopefully by Christmas. Following that will be the next book in Whispers of Atlantis, picking up where Crimson Aten left off. More on that later this year.
Have a wonderful Sunday and a great week ahead!
Jay
https://jaypenner.com