The Lady of the Lions

Front Cover
Richard Abbott, 2013 - Fiction

 This short story takes place about 150 years before the start of the full length novel In a Milk and Honeyed Land. The setting of Kephrath itself in the Canaanite hill country will be familiar from the novel, but of course none of the characters overlap. A small glossary at the end will help readers who are not familiar with the novel to orient themselves in this world.

Belita-Labiy found it difficult to concentrate, though, with the news rippling around the hill country. So far the raids had not been too close, but from all that she had heard, these groups of men were swift to move, and swift to strike, wherever they pleased. Who could say which town they might visit next?So she knew that her dancing, while apparently as fluent and potent as ever, lacked the whole-hearted commitment that she preferred. It could not be helped, but the distraction nagged at her. So all the while that she danced like Taliy in the earliest garden, and later as her body thrilled and her voice cried out in lovemaking, part of her soul was anxiously flitting around the uplands, trying to guess what would happen next.
 

Selected pages

Common terms and phrases

Amarna Letters arms back inside battle Belita Belita-Labiy your maid-servant beside bluff book of Joshua Bronze Age Canaan Canaanite towns chief Abiezer cistern closed dance door ebook format Egypt Egyptian and Hebrew epub face fight four towns Gedjet Gibeon Giybon glossary governor groups hand Hebrew bible high place hill country Honeyed Land Hurrian Iron Age ISBN Israelites Jarrar Kelizzi looked Kelizzi nodded Kiriath Jearim knife lady laughed letter Levant lives lord the king Matteh Publications message from Belita-Labiy Meyim migration Milk and Honeyed Mitsriy officer Mitsriy soldiers morning moved night online retailers Ozen priest of Kephrath raiders raids region RICHARD ABBOTT ridge seer and priest seven times twice soft-cover stairs stood style sure swift sword Taliy talked three towns tonight town gate track turned village voice wait Woodlands www.kephrath.com for purchasing Yavneh Yishmar

About the author (2013)

 Richard Abbott lives in London, England and works professionally in IT quality assurance.

His first book, In a Milk and Honeyed Land, explores events in the Egyptian province of Canaan at the end of the Bronze Age, around 1200BC. It follows the life, loves, and struggles of a priest in the small hill town of Kephrath.

A follow-up novel entitled Scenes from a Life begins in Egypt. It follows the journey of a scribe as he travels to discover his origins. down the Nile from Luxor and finally out into Canaan.

A third book, The Flame Before Us, is set in the middle of calamity. New settlers are arriving from the north, sacking cities and disrupting the established ways of life as they come. This story follows several different groups each trying to adjust to the new situation.

Author readings from both In a Milk and Honeyed Land and Scenes from a Life are available online as YouTube videos.

The short story The Man in the Cistern is set in the same location but around ten years later.

The short story The Lady of the Lions is set in the same location but around one hundred and fifty years earlier.

Triumphal Accounts in Hebrew and Egyptian is the ebook version of his PhD thesis which, for those who want the technical details, supplies academic underpinning for some of the ideas and plot themes followed up in fiction.

See the website http://www.kephrath.com for more details and background information.

When not writing words or computer code, he enjoys spending time with family, walking, and wildlife, ideally combining all three pursuits in the English Lake District.

Bibliographic information

TitleThe Lady of the Lions
AuthorRichard Abbott
PublisherRichard Abbott, 2013
ISBN0954553551, 9780954553555
Subjects › 

Fiction / Historical
  
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