Keeper of the Flame (40 page)
Before he would love her.
For in truth, she could not.
No, he loved her as she was,
Because he chose to.
And it was the loving
That transformed her.
The Queen’s Handmaid
So Shines the Night
Garden of Madness
City on Fire: A Novel of Pompeii
Palace of Darkness: A Novel of Petra
(Available Fall 2014)
Isle of Shadows
Pyramid of Secrets
(e-book only)
1. What do you think about the relationship between Sophia and Cleopatra? Is it healthy? Have you ever had a similar relationship in your life?
2. Unlike Sophia, Bellus is a people-pleaser, and is greatly troubled by the fact that he has disappointed his general, Julius Caesar. How does the desire to gain the approval of others affect the choices you make?
3.
Keeper of the Flame
is largely a story about the desire for power. Many of the characters are willing to go to any length to get it. How does the desire for control lead us into trouble?
4. As you read the story, did you see the “Beauty and the Beast” motif emerge? Can you identify the major points of the familiar tale, and the corresponding aspects of this novel?
5. Sophia has been under a “curse” of her own making for many years. What does it take to release her from it?
6. In what ways is your own story parallel to this one? Have you experienced the unconditional love of God, a love given before you changed to become worthy of it?
7. Why does Sophia believe that Bellus cannot love her? Have you ever struggled to believe someone could love you? That God could love you? How are you overcoming that struggle?
8. Alexandria is a city at the crossroads of many cultures. What did you most enjoy learning about the Greek, Egyptian and Roman cultures and history at this time?
9. Do you believe we were created to be in relationship? If so, how are you making relationships a priority in your own life?
10. The Lighthouse of Alexandria was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Just as Sophia was transformed, God wants to transform each one of us, and make us into a wonder, for His glory. How is he accomplishing this in your life?
The Story Behind the Story . . . and Beyond
T
he list of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World evolved slowly, from their first mention by the Greek historian Herodotus in 450 BC, to the poet Antipater in the second century BC. The Lighthouse of Alexandria was one of these Seven Wonders, and though lost to us, its mystique endures.
The Lighthouse was built by Sostratus the Cnidian around 250 BC, and was the first lighthouse in history. At about four hundred feet, it was among the tallest man-made structures in the world for millennia, second only to Khufu’s and Khafre’s pyramids. Currently, the tallest lighthouse in the world is in Yokohama, Japan, and is only 348 feet tall. The Lighthouse of Alexandria stood until a series of earthquakes in the Middle Ages eroded its foundation. Its blocks were used to build the medieval fort which stands at the tip of the island even now.
In creating the story of
Keeper of the Flame
, I drew on two major inspirations—one historical and the other fictional.
Of course, the characters of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra were real figures, whose interaction with each other and with their countries of Rome and Egypt is well-documented. I attempted to remain as close as possible to what we know of both of these people, and of their relationship. Their specific conversations throughout the book are part of my fiction. But they did indeed form a relationship that was both political and personal, and even had a child together, whom Cleopatra hoped
would rule in both Egypt and Rome. Caesar was assassinated in Rome in 44 BC, about four years after the final pages of
Keeper of the Flame
, and Cleopatra went on to form another famous alliance with Mark Antony, before the two took their own lives in 30 BC, rather than fall under the domination of Octavian (later called Caesar Augustus). If you’d like to meet Cleopatra again in the pages of my fiction, you’ll find her and Mark Antony in
The Queen’s Handmaid
.
Much of the history of the Roman occupation of Alexandria in the novel is based on actual historical facts, and taken from Caesar’s own writings,
The Alexandrian Wars
. It was great fun for me to have this primary source, the very words of one of my characters, to guide me in recreating the water blockage, the harbor fire, the burning of the Library’s scrolls, the battle involving the Thirty-Seventh Legion, and the occupation of the Lighthouse.
I also based the Proginosko mechanism on a real piece of machinery found off the coast of the Greek island Antikythera, and thus named the Antikythera Mechanism. Billed as the “world’s first computer,” this mechanism was lost at sea in the first century BC. If you’d like to read more about this fascinating find, you can discover more information on my website, TracyHigley.com.
I also based Sosigenes on a real figure by the same name, the scholar who devised the Julian calendar for Julius Caesar about two years after the end of
Keeper of the Flame
. This calendar drastically improved the drift of days that had been occurring up until that time, because of the lunar rather than solar basis. It remained in use worldwide until the 1500s when it was replaced by the slightly-different Gregorian calendar, which we use today.
The Lighthouse of Alexandria stood well into the 1300s. I have included more detailed information about the Lighthouse on my website.
With so much history to draw upon, I entered into the creation of actual plot and the fictional characters, and it was here that I drew inspiration from one of my favorite fictional motifs, that of
Beauty and the Beast
.
The story of
Beauty and the Beast
has often been told through literature and film, many of which are familiar in their basic elements. You’ll recognize that I switched the typical genders of the two characters, but there are many other elements tucked into the novel that were inspired by the age-old story. I hope you enjoyed my variation on this theme. It endures, I believe, because the frightening knowledge of our own unworthiness and the longing for a love that will transform is buried deep within each human heart. I ask you to consider that this is how God loves. Not based on our beauty or our achievements, but simply because he chooses to love. And it is the loving that changes us and makes us beautiful.
Please visit me at TracyHigley.com. Experience more about the Lighthouse and the history behind
Keeper of the Flame,
and step into the sights and sounds of Alexandria by exploring my travel journals, photos, and videos of Egypt. You’ll also get access to free short stories and inside information on publishing. I hope you’ll join me at TracyHigley.com, and while you’re there, share your heart with me. I love hearing from readers!
Photo courtesy of Mary DeMuth
Tracy L. Higley started her first novel at the age of eight and has been hooked on writing ever since. She has authored nine novels, including
So Shines the Night
and
The Queen’s Handmaid
. Tracy is currently pursuing a graduate degree in Ancient History and has traveled through Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Italy, researching her novels and falling into adventures. See her travel journals and more at
TracyHigley.com
.
An Excerpt from
So Shines the Night
I
am an old man, and I have seen too much.
Too much of this world to endure any more. Too much of the next to want to linger.
And though I have nearly drowned in the glorious visions of those last days, yet I know not
when
it shall come, nor how many years I must tread this barren earth before all is made new.
There is a Story, you see. And we are still in the midst of it, ever striving to play our roles, battling on for the freedom of hearts and souls and minds yet enslaved by darkness.
But I have seen a great light. Oh yes, I have seen it. Even now it is breaking through, as it did on that grassy hillside so many cool spring mornings ago, when Moses and Elijah walked among us and my Brother shone with the glory He had been given from the beginning and will rise up to claim again at the end.
You will wonder, perhaps, at my calling Him
brother
. And yet that is what He was to me. Brother and friend, before Savior, before Lord. In those days when we wandered the land, going up and down from the Holy City, we shared our hearts, our
lives, our laughter. Oh, how we laughed, He and I! He had the irrepressible joy of one who sees beyond the brokenness, to the restoration of all.
I loved Him. And He loved me.
But I speak of beginnings and of endings, and these are words that have no meaning, for the day of His birth was both the beginning of the Kingdom and the end of tyranny, and that magnificent Day yet to come—it is the end-which-is-a-beginning, and my eyes have seen such glory in that New Jerusalem, my very heart breaks to tell of it.
And yet they come, young and old, to this tiny home in Ephesus that is to be my last dwelling outside that New City, and they beg me to tell the Story again and again.
And I do.
I tell of seals and scrolls, of a dragon and a beast and a Lamb. Of music that makes you weep to hear it and streets that blind the mortal eye. Of a Rider on a White Horse with eyes of blazing fire whose name is Faithful and True. It is a great Story, and greater still to hear the final consummation of it, for how often we forget that we are living it still.
But I have another tale to tell. A smaller story within the One True Story that began before the creation of this world and is echoed at its end, as all our stories are. It happens here, in this port city of Ephesus, but many years ago, when the darkness lay even heavier than it now does upon the people, and their souls cried out for relief from anyone who could give it.
This smaller story does not begin here in Ephesus, however. It begins a day’s sail away, on the sun-kissed shores of the Isle of Rhodes, where the light first began to break upon one woman and one man, even as they walked in darkness . . .
Rhodes, AD 57
I
n the glare of the island morning sun, the sea blazed diamond-bright and hard as crystal, erratic flashes spattering light across Daria’s swift departure from the house of her angry employer.
She carried all she owned in one oversized leather pouch, slung over her shoulder. The pouch was not heavy. A few worn tunics and robes, her precious copy of Thucydides. She clutched it to her side and put her other hand to the gold comb pinning the dark waves of her hair, her one remaining luxury.
The bitter and familiar taste of regret chased her from the whitewashed hillside estate, down into the squalid harbor district. Why had she not kept silent?
Along the docks hungry gulls shrieked over fishy finds and work-worn sailors traded shrill insults. The restless slap of the sea against the hulls of boats kept time with the anxious rhythm of her steps against the cracked gray stones of the quay.
She had run once, haunted and guilty, to a fresh start in
Rhodes. Could she do it again? Find a way to take care of herself, to survive?
“Mistress Daria!”
The voice at her back was young and demanding, the tenor of a girl accustomed to a world arranged to her liking. And yet still precious, still malleable.