In a Bind

By Alli Sinclair

Billions of dollars, perhaps trillions, are spent every year on hair products and styling. It’s a lucrative industry and is a classic example of us humans obsessing over our noggins. This fascination isn’t new. In fact, the ancient world took this one step further—by altering their skulls.

Head binding, also known as artificial cranial deformation, dates back to 45,000 BC. The ancient Egyptians, Syrians, Maltese, Russians, Germans, and Australian Aborigines have all undertaken various forms of skull “enhancement” by binding their skull or placing cradleboards around a baby’s head to change the shape of their head.

Zip over to the Americas, and you’ll find the Mayans, Incas, and the tribes of the Chinookan and Choctaw people in North America also undertook the custom of deforming skulls as part of their culture. The Choctaw, Chehalis, and Nooksack Indians practised head flattening and on the coastal of Peru, not far from Lima, the Paracas culture had an array of altered head shapes.

Scientists have discovered at least five different shapes of elongated skulls in different cemeteries in the Paracas region. The most remarkable being a site called Chongos, not far from the quaint town of Pisco where the famous cone-shaped skulls were discovered.

Archaeologists specialising in the Mayans have discovered how altered skulls vary, depending on their geography. Skulls found in the lowlands had a slanted appearance, while skulls discovered in the highlands had an erect shape. They’ve even unearthed skulls that have a division down the middle and two distinct holes. The Mayans believed that every object has an essence, including the elements. While the mother was giving birth, the Mayans ensured the house was closed so the evil wind couldn’t harm the baby and as the baby’s soul was no yet tethered to the baby, the infants were even more vulnerable. Binding the baby’s head was akin to creating a roof over one’s head, and therefore a form of protection for the young child that would stay with it forever.

Some archaeologists believe the act of altering one’s skull was to create a “desirable” shape to make the person more aesthetically pleasing and on Tomman Island in Vanuatu, where it is still practised today, elongating the skull signifies intelligence and being closer to spirits. Whether it was for social status, such as an Incan nobleman, or for an affiliation with a tribe, the act of altering one’s skull causes great controversy in the archaeological world and certainly makes for some interesting discussions. Whatever the reasons, humans have always taken great care to alter their bodies, including their hair and head. So next time you go to the hairdresser, be careful what you ask for!

In With The Old – Mayan Agriculture

Photo by Hannes Grobe

I love history – learning about how things were invented, dynasties built and destroyed, how we’ve changed since the dawn of time. And now with two young kids in tow, my days are full of questions about the what, how, and why of things. As I’m a natural-born researcher, I love getting into the nitty-gritty with the kids as we go on fact-finding missions. This week was no different.

When we sat down to dinner last night, one of my cherubs asked about corn and how it is made. Of course, I know the basics, but this discussion about corn extended into the history of agriculture. Somehow we travelled from Australian suburbia into the land of the Mayans. And this is what we discovered:

One of the biggest challenges the Mayans faced was lack of land, poor soil conditions, and not enough water. As their population steadily increased, so did their need to develop sustainable farming methods.

Initially, the Mayans used a technique called milpa, a slash and burn practice that yields100% productivity in the first year but reduces to 60% in the second year and slightly less in subsequent years. In the spring, before the summer rain, the Mayans would cut down and burn all of the foliage in the area they’d selected to grow crops, then they would use sticks to poke holes in the soil and plant three or four seeds at a time. Maize, beans, avocados, and pumpkins were popular, as well as cacao, the basis for Mayan chocolate. (And who wouldn’t want that?) Their footprint on the land was very light. The Mayans had a rule of only using only 5% of their land for agriculture and allowing the rest to replenish. Crop rotations were a given.

As time wore on, the Mayans discovered the sediment from the bottom of swamps were an excellent source for fertilising the adjacent land. They dug irrigation trenches and created a way of watering their crops they could use year round, rather than rely solely on annual rainfall.

Uxmal - Photo by HJPD

As crop productivity grew, so did the population, and their newfound farming techniques meant they could feed those living close to the swamps easily.

They needed to find another way to supply others throughout the empire so they developed another new system. The Mirador Basin in Guatemala is a perfect example of how a small, swamp-side village grew into one of the largest Mayan cities. With more than 200 pyramids (two times more than in all of Egypt), the Mirador Basin took nearly 15 million man-days of labour to construct.

Around 200 A.D., a drought hit the land. As the crops died, many Mayans perished. They fled the cities for the green forests to forage for food, recreating the lifestyle of their ancestors. Some survived and the rains arrived, but this experience taught the Mayans a valuable lesson. The needed to design new ways to ensure their people wouldn’t suffer a similar fate again.

They designed and built reservoirs in the hills above cities and ensured the irrigation channels sloped down to the population and crops below. They also built new cities such as Tikal, Copan, and Palenque closer to their water supplies. The drainage, irrigation, and reservoir systems designed by the Mayans changed the landscape forever. Instead of a footprint that washed away in the rain, the Mayan’s new agricultural methods were literally set in stone.

When the population continued to increase the civilization buckled under the pressure to feed so many mouths. Instead of the initial 5% rule for crops, they deforested more than 80% of the land, affecting the climate they lived in. The average temperature increased by 10 degrees Fahrenheit and water evaporated much faster, causing yet another water shortage – this time a man-made problem. Scientists have since discovered this was the worst drought to hit the region in 7,000 years. Yeah, that bad.

Once again, those living in cities deserted them and moved to more verdant regions. This put a larger strain on those areas and the entire civilization collapsed like a house of cards. Some Mayans relocated to cities such as Chichen Itza and Uxmal, but many perished in the forest en route. The drought eventually ended in the 9^th century but the damage to the Mayan civilization had been done. Those who did survive returned to the ways of their ancestors yet again and for 700 years they constructed towns in jungles that served them well by hiding themselves when the Spanish arrived in 1517.

Cacao - Photo by U.S. Department of Agriculture

Today, we use many of the Mayan’s farming methods. Terraced farms, reservoirs, forest gardens and managed fallows are popular ways of cultivating crops around the world, although today’s farmers have adapted most to suit modern-day needs.

So as corn juice flies across the dinner table whilst my kids crunch on tasty corn, they can thank the Mayans for finding ingenious ways to ensure this species of food didn’t disappear. Tonight I’m cooking lentils for dinner. I wonder if we’ll take that historical journey after dessert. What’s on your plate tonight?

The Symbolic World Of The Maya

As a kid, Egyptian hieroglyphics captured my imagination. I spent hours poring over books, trying to recreate the symbols and create messages only me and my friends would understand. At high school, the Mayans caught my attention for the exact same reason as the Egyptians – they had a written language that not only looked beautiful, but each symbol held a story of its own.

One of the features that distinguishes the Maya from other cultures in Mesoamerica is their development of a written language, often called Maya Hieroglyphic Writing, or Glyphs. This complex system of symbols has baffled scientists for years, and it wasn’t until the mid-twentieth century when Mayanist, Tatiani Proskouriakoff, had a major breakthrough that finally had people agreeing that the glyphs were a fully functional system based on phonetic signs.

While English is simple and comprised of only 26 letters (signs), the Maya symbols are made from various combinations of nearly 800 signs. Each one represents a full syllable, and so the system is called a syllabary, not an alphabet like we use.

Mayan writers had a vast selection when it came to choosing a symbol to represent one sound. For example, there might be five different signs that all sound the same. Sounds confusing? Yes. Fascinating? Absolutely, yes! Imagine having artistic licence to create your own writing style. No wonder the experts have had so much trouble deciphering the meaning behind each of the Mayan symbols.

Scientists believe the codices and other important texts of the Mayans were written by scribes who were usually members of the Mayan priesthood. The glyphs themselves were painted on ceramics and walls, carved in wood, and moulded in stucco or on bark-paper codices.

With all the advances in technology and the countless hours scientists have put into studying the Maya Glyphs, 90% of Mayan writing can now be read with accuracy. The glyphs are written in blocks that consist of two columns and are read from left to right, top to bottom.

In Mexico, during the era of the Spanish Conquistadors, the Bishop Diego de Landa ordered the collection and destruction of all written Maya works, including codices. His bright idea came back and bit him in the butt later when he tried to convert the Mayans from their own religion to Christianity. Because he’d destroyed most of their written works, he had to develop a new way of communicating with them. The de Landa Alphabet was invented to help with his “teachings.” Although it wasn’t a true representation of the Mayan’s written language, it became an important key for scientists years later when they started to decipher the Maya script. The biggest problem was there wasn’t a direct relation between de Landa’s Alphabet and the Mayan Glyphs. No doubt, the Mayan scientists probably invented a few choice words of their own during the process.

Unfortunately, only four Maya codices survived the destruction of the conquistadors but other text has been found on pottery found in Mayan tombs or on monuments that had been buried long before the Spanish arrived.

These days, Mayan writing is taught in public schools and universities in the Mayan speaking regions in Mexico and is supported and promoted by the Mexican government. It’s encouraging to see that we have finally realised how precious our history, and culture, is and how important it is to preserve it not only for now, but for future generations. Mistakes are only worthwhile if we learn from them.

Alli’s Summer Beach Reads

Technically, I’m in the middle of winter here in Oz, and while the beaches are nice to visit, they’re a tad chilly to lay around in one’s togs* reading a book. But as majority rules on this blog, I’m going with my recommended beach reads (even though I’m secretly sitting on my sofa huddled under a pile of blankets).

Since I was a kid, the Egyptians, Romans, Incas, and Mayans have fascinated me, so when I came across fictional stories set in these time periods, I was hooked. So much so, I now write historical mysteries meshed with contemporary tales. I appreciate the amount of research it takes to write an ancient historical, and I am in awe of the skill some authors have in weaving those details without jolting the reader out of the story. Here are some of my favorite authors who put their own spin on ancient history:

Michelle Moran: I first discovered Michelle’s books when I picked up a copy of Nefertiti. What I love about Michelle’s writing is her ability to place the reader right in the moment, even though it takes place thousands of years ago. When I read Nefertiti, I truly believed I was standing beside Mutnodjmet, witnessing Egypt fall apart as her big sister Nefertiti fell under the spell of the deluded King Amunhotep. In The Heretic Queen, I felt the rejection Nefertari experienced when her once famous royal family was stricken from the history books. And in Cleopatra’s Daughter, my heart broke for ten-year-old Selene, daughter of Cleopatra, who saw her beloved Alexandria taken over by the Romans, and she and her twin brother were shipped to Rome to become slaves. And in Michelle’s latest book, Madame Tussaud, (not quite ancient, but still a historical) gives the reader an insight into the tumultuous life of the world’s most famous wax sculptor. For more about Michelle Moran’s books and some interesting links to her characters and what inspires her, click here.

Gary Corby: Not only is Gary Corby one of the most affable people on the planet, he writes a mean detective series set in ancient Greece. Gary’s knowledge of Grecian history is astounding. His passion for the time period is obvious, and his blog (here) is always a great source of informative entertainment. Gary’s first book, The Pericles Commission, starts off with “A dead man fell from the sky, landing at my feet with a thud”. The corpse is Ephialtes, a politician who had brought democracy to Greece only a few days earlier. When the politician, Pericles, learns of Ephialtes death, he commissions Nico to find the killer, and so starts the journey of this lovable, everyday guy who is drawn into the world of Grecian politics. Nico’s young brother is Socrates, who is quite the precocious chap, making this book even more endearing. Gary’s attention to detail is amazing, and the cast of characters is just wonderful. I’m very much looking forward to the new adventures of Nico in The Ionia Sanction, coming out in November this year. For those wanting to read more about Gary, please check out his Off The Beaten Track Post he wrote for us earlier this year. Blog post here.

Christina Phillips: Christina Phillips flawlessly combines ancient history with hot and steamy romance and boy, can she create conflict between the hero and heroine! Christina’s first novel, Forbidden, is the story of Carys, a Druid princess, and Maximus, a very hot Roman centurion. When Maximus discovers Carys’s heritage, it adds a spectacular twist that makes it impossible to put this book down. Christina’s second novel, Captive, is about a Druid priestess trained in the art of sensuality, but she takes a vow of celibacy to spite her goddess when the Romans invade. The problem is, she falls for her captor, putting her vows and sanity to the test. Oooh la la! Over 18’s only please! There are more books of Christina’s on the way and I can’t wait to get my hands on them! Christina did a post for our Off The Beaten Track earlier this year. Blog post here.

Jessica Andersen: Jessica has a wonderful ability to write extremely well in many genres. My personal favorite, though, is The Final Prophecy series. Although it isn’t set in ancient times, the stories are heavily influenced by Mayan mythology. According to the Mayans, the world will end in December 2012, and Jessica has used this theory in The Final Prophecy series. The Nightkeepers are modern magic weavers and they fight against evil demons and gods, doing their best to keep the world in one piece. But even the greatest warrior can’t fight 24/7, and there are welcome romantic distractions along the way. To increase their powers, the Nightkeepers need to pair up, and most times those matches are not made in heaven. Hearts are broken, evil sometimes wins, and Mayan myths are woven seamlessly into a fabulous, page-turning series. Jessica only has a few more books planned for the series, and I will be one of many who will shed more than one tear when the series finally ends. Here’s an interview I did with Jessica earlier this year. Interview here.

I’m always on the lookout for ancient historicals, be it a mystery, romance, epic or a combination. If you have any recommendations, I’d love to hear about them. And how about your summer? What are your reading plans?

*Swimmers

Warding Off The Winter Gloomies

This week’s post is rather apropos for me. For the past two weeks I’ve been feeling like death warmed up (yeah, cue the violins). I have one of those horrible winter bugs that can only be kicked with rest and healthy food. For those of you in the middle of summer, I’m sure it’s hard to imagine gray skies and rainy days, but believe me, it’s very real for those of us in the southern hemisphere right now. Rather than wallow in misery, I choose to be proactive. The Mayans, Aztecs, and Incas seemed to have it all worked out in the healthy food stakes, so here’s what I’m having for dinner tonight:

Purple Corn: It’s still grown in Peru and was once a staple of the Incas. Purple corn is now popular in other countries, including Australia (yep, I’ve spied it at the markets). Since Inca times, the Andean people have made chicha morada, a tasty drink that is known to be extremely high in anthocyanin, a molecule found in flowers, leaves, stems, fruits, and veggies. There have been many studies about how fruits and vegetables containing anthocyanin affect the human body, including the potential health effects in fighting cancer, neurological disease, inflammation, diabetes, and bacterial infections. 

Purple corn is high in antioxidants, thus making it a healthy, and very cool colored addition to any meal. Just imagine the smile on a kid’s face if you dished up some purple corn bread!

Adding purple to the plate is a nice way to start a meal, but what about some gold?

Quinoa is rich in protein, is fluffy, creamy and has a slight crunch even when cooked. Some say it has a nutty flavour. Once considered the ‘gold of the Incas’, Quinoa is related to leafy green vegetables such as spinach and Swiss chard, although most people think of Quinoa as a grain.

The tiny Quinoa grains supply a complete protein, meaning it has all the nine essential amino acids. It’s the perfect choice for vegans concerned about adequate protein intake. Quinoa also contains the amino acid lysine, which helps in tissue growth and repair. Magnesium, iron, copper, and phosphorus are included in Quinoa, and many people swear eating this grain on a regular basis helps with migraine headaches, diabetes, menopause, and hardening of the arteries.

Photo by Shizhao

Just to add one more ingredient to my healthy dinner, I’m going for the Chia seed. Originally from Mexico, this seed is high in Omega-3 acids and contains fibre, calcium, iron, and magnesium. They’re easy to store, you can snack on them without having to go to great lengths to prepare them, and they’re easy to digest. The best thing about the Chia seed is once it’s ground, it can be mixed in with flour to make bread, cakes, and biscuits. Mmmm... blueberry muffins, anyone? The versatility of the Chia seed goes on. Once soaked, the seeds can be used in puddings and porridge, and to make the Mexican drink, chia fresca.

Originally used by the Mayans, the chilli seed has been found to help with cold and flu symptoms. Guess what’s being sprinkled on my dinner tonight?

So while I’m lolling about on the sofa, trying not to feel too wretched, I’ll look to the Mexicans once again, who know how to use their food to heal. I might just make a nice cinnamon tea to help with the nausea, and if I felt well enough to get drunk and have a hangover, then I’d make a nice, strong spearmint tea with nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon to help with that headache. 

And for those enjoying sunny days and in need of a refreshing drink, why not try this recipe for Chicha Morada?

1 gallon (3.5 liters) of water

1 15 ounce package of dried purple corn (maiz morado)

2 cinnamon sticks

1 tbsp whole cloves

The juice of 5 large lemons

1 ½ cups of brown sugar

½ cup fresh pineapple, cubed (small)

½ apple cubed (small)

Add the corn, cinnamon sticks, and cloves to the water and bring to boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 45 minutes. Remove from the stove and strain the contents of the pot to remove the corn and spices. Stir in the lemon juice and sugar, and refrigerate until cold. Just before you’re ready to serve, add the chopped pineapple and apple before pouring into glasses filled with ice. Yummo!

Bean There, Done That

As a writer, I take research very seriously. I’ve invested years sampling this particular invention so I can present today’s post with good authority—chocolate.

Three thousand years ago, the people of Central and South America, and in particular, Mexico, cultivated theobroma cacao, the original cacao bean, and used it in religious ceremonies and for medicinal purposes. They found the bean could combat fatigue, not unlike the effects of coffee. For intestinal and stomach problems, a chocolate drink was mixed with the bark of the silk cotton tree. If fever and fainting were the problem, then patients consumed eight to ten cacao beans mixed with dried maize kernels.

Archaeologists in Puerto Escondido, Honduras, discovered the cacao had been cultivated as far back as 1100 to 1400 B.C. when they found a white pulp from the cacao bean in a vessel and, later, discovered the ancient Hondurans used cacao pulp as a sugar fermented to create a type of alcoholic drink. 

The Aztecs didn’t use chocolate in cooking, even though many people think they did. According to food historians, the Aztecs prepared their chocolate drink by grinding roasted cacao beans and mixing them with water and adding chili, maize, or honey. Sometimes they added flowers, and consumed the drink cool, not hot. Coriander, sage, and vanilla (extracted from the pods of orchids) were also favorite additional flavorings.

The Mayans of the Yucután drank their chocolate hot, a precursor to today’s popular drink. In 1556 A.D., a conquistador published only as the Anonymous Conqueror documented how Mayans prepared the drink. They mixed the powder with water and transferred the liquid from one basin to another so the foam rose to the top of the vessel. They stirred the drink with gold, silver, or wooden spoons and kept their mouths open wide to let as much foam as possible pass between their lips. The conquistador witnessed people drinking this concoction in the morning then walking for miles for the remainder of the day, not stopping for more food. (Probably trying to burn off those calories, methinks.)

Conquistador Francisco Hernandez sampled a variety of chocolate drinks on his travels—green cacao pods, honeyed chocolate, flowered chocolate, and a bright red chocolate made from the huitztexcolli flower. And according to accounts by the Spanish officers who dined with Montezuma in 1520 at Tenochtitlan, the king enjoyed drinking chocolate from cups made of pure gold.

After the Spanish conquistadors made their mark in the Americas, they imported chocolate to Europe. Only the wealthy could afford it, and to keep up with demand, the Spanish fleets enslaved the Mesoamericans (people of Aztec and Mayan descent) to get them to produce more cacao. Eventually, the Spanish grew their own beans and used African slaves as labor.

By 1657, a Frenchman opened London’s first chocolate house. And in 1689, Dr. Hans Sloane discovered a drink made from chocolate in Jamaica. The bitter taste didn’t appeal to him, though, so he mixed it with milk. He sold the powdered chocolate in tins to the Cadbury brothers in 1897 and, in my humble opinion, the world changed for the better. The Dutch van Houten family created what is known as “dutched chocolate”—a method that squeezes out cocoa butter, enabling the chocolate to be set hard in molds. Yes, history’s very first chocolate bars! But it wasn’t until the Industrial Revolution that these little bars of joy saw mass production and became available to the general populace.

In 1899, Jean Tobler opened up a chocolate factor in Berne, Switzerland, changing the course of chocolate once again. He invented the modern Toblerone by combining almonds and a unique blend of cocoa. My mouth thanks you, Mr. Tobler, but my waistline doesn’t!

A Mr. Rudolfe Lindt thought adding cocoa butter back into the cocoa mass of crushed and ground beans might be a good idea. He did this, lengthened the kneading process, and a velvety smooth and very shiny type of chocolate was born. Mr. Lindt, you are to blame for those extra hours I should be pounding the pavement!

So next time you wander into Starbucks for a hot chocolate or a mochaccino, perhaps pause and give thanks to the clever Mesoamericans for discovering a little thing that has brought joy to many over the centuries.

Mayan Doomsday With Jessica Andersen

Today's guest is Jessica Andersen, bestselling RITA and RT nominated author of more than twenty Harlequin Intrigues and the Nightkeeper Novels, a hot paranormal series that sexes up the 2012 doomsday. For more information about the books and Jessica, please visit www.JessicaAndersen.com.

You have a doctorate and have done some interesting work in genetic changes responsible for certain types of glaucoma. What made you swap your lab coat for a pair of tracksuit pants (the generic uniform of a writer)?

Well, I write in pretty much the same clothes I wore to the lab (jeans and a comfy shirt), but I get your drift. I’d say it was a case of finding my passion, really. I was around all these people who would willingly stay late at the lab or come in on weekends, and who wanted to go out to lunch and talk about their experiments because they thought science was just that cool. So when I realized I didn’t want to continue down that road for the rest of my life I asked myself what I’ve always loved, and what I would want to talk about at meals, at night and on the weekends … and the answer was “stories with happily ever after endings.” So I set out to see if I could learn to write them, and maybe make a living at it.

The Mayans are at the centre of your Nightkeeper Final Prophecy series. What inspired you to write about the Mayans, and specifically, the Mayan doomsday prophecy?

When I was a kid, my parents used to take me down to Southern Mexico just about every spring. This was back when Cancun was just being developed as a tourist destination, so the ruins weren’t nearly as regulated and restricted as they are now. Getting to climb on, in and around them made a huge impression on me, as did the stories our hired guides would tell. So when I was looking for a new story idea and came across a reference to the Mayan Long Count calendar ending on 12/21/2012, I was like “wow, cool!” So I started researching the calendar and the so-called doomsday, and the more I read about it, the more I wanted to write a contemporary urban fantasy series about the people destined to save mankind when the doomsday arrives.

Your books are full of rich details, including settings and mythology. How do you go about your research?

I use internet searches, books and interviews, and research my stories extensively. But this is a place where I’ll give credit to my science background, not so much in teaching me how to do research, but in teaching me when to stop. When I edit a scientific journal article (which I still do as a freelancer), one of my jobs is to make sure that the authors give the reader enough information to understand the experiments they’re talking about in the paper, but only that much information. There just isn’t room in the average journal article to go off on tangents that might be cool but aren’t central to the study in question. Similarly, one of my big challenges as a writer is to give the reader enough information that the cool factor of the Mayan mythology comes across, but the story doesn’t get bogged down. When that happens, I remind myself: “It’s about the romance, stupid!” (Snickers.)

You have a wonderful knack for weaving romance, suspense, adventure and magic into one. The multi-layered stories span across the entire series. How do you keep track of everything so all the questions will be answered by the end of the series? Or are you planning on keeping us dangling?

Aw, thanks for the compliment! I do try, as I love to read multilayered stories and can’t find nearly enough of them on the shelves. However, it can get complicated! For the most part, the story threads are in my head, largely because they come from characters who have come alive for me. I do plan to answer all of the questions by the end of the series, but probably shouldn’t make any guarantees. The stories are evolving as I write them, so it’s entirely possible that there are threads here and there that I won’t come back to, mostly because the world took me in a different direction. But I think that’s realistic, too, as there are parts of my life that I’ve thought would go one way, but then took a left-hand turn and wound up someplace else entirely!

The relationships of the Nightkeepers are complicated, to say the least. You write from the point of view of so many characters with different backgrounds and talents. How do you get into their heads and make each one unique?

Hm. I guess I don’t really have a problem with it because they’re all so different, you know? When I was writing the first book (Nightkeepers) and it came time to introduce most of the characters, I really made an effort to give each of them a distinct voice and backstory, including lots of details that just kind of came to me without any real plan. That gave me a jumping off point for the later books, which was helpful even if it meant that sometimes I had to account for earlier details that might not seem to jibe with who that character turned out to be. But I think that, too, is realistic, because people aren’t one-dimensional, and sometimes have parts that don’t seem to go together on the surface, but go into making the inner person.

What has been your most memorable research moment in writing the Final Prophecy series?

Actually, it was a memorable post-research moment. I was at a booksigning and a couple of ladies came up to me and introduced themselves as being students of an author I had cited as a major research source on Mayan antiquities and culture. They said that although they didn’t usually read Mayan-set stories because the inaccuracies were so annoying, someone had recommended Nightkeepers to them and they had picked it up and loved it, and passed it around to their coworkers. That was a nice, nice moment for me J.

Quick question (no deliberating!)—who is your favorite Nightkeeper and why?

Lucius. I love me a sexy nerd.

How many books will there be by the time the series is finished? And the inevitable question--what will you do next?

There will be nine books and one novella in the finished series, with the novella in stores soon (Feb ’11) as part of an anthology with the awesome Gena Showalter, Shannon K. Butcher and Deidre Knight. As for what’s next … that’s classified!

The countdown is on to end time. Picture yourself on 21 December, 2012. What will you be doing?

I’m feeling a party. You coming? If yes, what (or who) are you bringing? LOL!

(Alli’s note: I’ll bring along chocolate, wine and Lucius for you and Strike, the Nightkeeper King for me. Deal?)

Jessica, thank you so much for hanging with us at Novel Adventurers and we look forward to the next instalment of the Nightkeepers.