Everyone knows the old adage about kissing under the mistletoe, but how did that originate? Well, we can thank the Romans for that (yes, yes, another vestige of the Roman Empire!). The Romans considered mistletoe to be powerful enough to ward off evil spirits and hung it over doorways to protect their homes. They …
Living in the tropics, I’ve forgotten what it is like to experience really cold weather. The internet became my trusty go-to for information about living in cold desolate places, for my next novel, I discovered a place where people choose to live for five months at a time, in the freezing cold, without …
Chocolate eggs and rabbits on supermarket shelves announce Easter to us in a modern world. But how are rabbits and eggs related to a religious holy day mourning the death of Jesus? It’s all in the name.. The festival of Easter is named after the goddess, Eostre, the Saxon Goddess of fertility. Eostre’s sacred …
Beware the Ides of March? The Ides of March correlates to the 15th. But why is it so notable? Shakespeare coined this particular phrase, for his play, as it was the date of Julius Caesar’s assassination, but it was also the day by which ancient Romans cleared their debts. And why was that? Romans didn’t …
I came across a marvellous piece of research recently, for a short story I was writing, about the shamans of Siberia. I learned that like most shamans, they are not adverse to using psychotropic substances, in their case magic mushrooms, namely the Amanita Muscaria variety. Amanita Muscaria are the beautiful red shiny variety with white …
In Original Sinner, the story takes place over the course of one night—the first night of the festival of Samhain. There is a certain irony to this pagan celebration being integral to Eve’s quest for redemption. But I also chose it to illustrate the connection between religions. Many Christian holidays fall on pagan ones and …
I always wondered why God placed a tree with luscious fruit in the Garden if it wasn’t to be eaten. The standard answer is that it was a test, but why was a test necessary and what was it testing? Some texts say there were two trees in the Garden of Eden; the Tree of …
In my novel, Original Sinner, Eve recounts her experiences during the Siege of Caffa and the outbreak of plague. It was certainly thought-provoking to research those times whilst in lockdown because of our pandemic. I read accounts of people who had experienced the confusion and horror of the plague, and their reactions were similar to …
Why apples? Why is the apple such a popular fruit in myths and legends? Until recent times, the word ‘apple’ was used generically for any exotic fruit of roughly that size and shape. Indeed, when tomatoes first arrived in Europe they were called “love apples” and “cucumber” in Old English translates as “earth apple”. …
In the beginning… One of the wonderful aspects of writing a story like Original Sinner is the research. It gave me so much pleasure to gather all the colourful threads, sort them, and weave a new story. I see the story of Adam and Eve as a myth. A sacred allegory of the struggle …