Prophecy (Antigone: The True Story Book 1)
An ancient princess, hidden prophecies, impossible choices...
Sixteen year old Princess Antigone, daughter of the infamous ancient Greek King Oedipus, wants to lead a normal life and fulfill her duty to the gods, her city, and her family, but fate has other plans. The Olympian gods bless her, the snakes talk to her, her parents want her to marry a foreign prince, her embroidery looks like burial shrouds for dogs, and she has fallen in love with the wrong boy.
When the mysterious and devastating prophecies surrounding her family are revealed, Antigone must choose where her allegiance lies: With the gods who have betrayed her family but who she is obliged to serve? With her plague ridden city? With her family which lay in ruins? Or even with herself?
In Prophecy, Book One of the Antigone: The True Story series, Antigone steps out of the shadows of the past to tell her own story, a story where truth of history is stranger than the fiction of myth.
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Could you please tell us a little about the inspirations behind your book?
Where can I buy this fabulous book?
Amazon
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My name is Coreena McBurnie and, ever since grade 5 when I had to do a report on Theseus and the Minotaur, I have had a soft spot for Greek mythology. When I hit university, I was drawn to the Classical Studies department (earning both a BA & MA), where I explored the archaeology and culture of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds — and also where I managed to read Homer’s Odyssey, one of my absolute favourite books, in the original Greek, something which was thrilling for me (I know, sounds crazy, but the poetry and scope of the original text is amazing). After a lifetime of “what is that?”, “why did you study that?”, and “what can you do with a degree in Classical Studies?” I have decided to write novels based in ancient myth and to bring so many of the stories I love to life for a modern audience, with my own spin, of course.
Prophecy, Book 1 in the Antigone Series, is my first published novel. Currently I am working on Book 2 in the Antigone Series, called Fate. I am also in the middle of another novel about Clytemnestra who is notorious in Greek myth for killing her husband, Agamemnon, when he returned home from the Trojan War. I love exploring the motives of strong women in ancient myth.
I live in BC, Canada with my husband, our three kids, and our cat, in a beautiful part of the country, on two rivers, surrounded by ranches, near ski hills, and only a couple of hours drive to the ocean.Useful links
Sixteen year old Princess Antigone, daughter of the infamous ancient Greek King Oedipus, wants to lead a normal life and fulfill her duty to the gods, her city, and her family, but fate has other plans. The Olympian gods bless her, the snakes talk to her, her parents want her to marry a foreign prince, her embroidery looks like burial shrouds for dogs, and she has fallen in love with the wrong boy.
When the mysterious and devastating prophecies surrounding her family are revealed, Antigone must choose where her allegiance lies: With the gods who have betrayed her family but who she is obliged to serve? With her plague ridden city? With her family which lay in ruins? Or even with herself?
In Prophecy, Book One of the Antigone: The True Story series, Antigone steps out of the shadows of the past to tell her own story, a story where truth of history is stranger than the fiction of myth.
***
Could you please tell us a little about the inspirations behind your book?
Prophecy is told from the point of view of Antigone, a character from ancient Greek myth. She is best known from the Oedipus trilogy of plays by the Greek play write, Sophocles. In the myth, Antigone is the daughter of King Oedipus, the one we know best from the term Oedipal Complex because he killed his father and married his mother.
I first read the Oedipus plays in university and was immediately taken with Antigone because she is strong, independent, and stands up for herself in a way that not many other females in Greek mythology are. Most are portrayed as either passive and faithful, such as Penelope when she weaves a burial shroud for ten years to put off her suitors while waiting for Odysseus to come home from the Trojan War, or they are portrayed as monsters like Medea, who killed her children in order to spite her husband, Jason.
Over the years, I've thought that a young adult novel about Antigone would be fun, but I never knew where to start because of some of the touchy topics in the myth, for example, she is obviously the child of incest. However, it occurred to me one day that I didn't need to apologize for the Greek myths, that people interested in mythology know that this is the history and that myths often contain such distasteful things. So, I simply started to free write about Antigone to see where the ideas went. Very quickly, Antigone developed her own voice, and even spoke to snakes and had gods visiting her.
All of my years of studying Classical Studies in university came together with this character development to create a book that, I hope, is fun, has a great heroine, and has a air of authenticity for the ancient Greek world Antigone came from.
I first read the Oedipus plays in university and was immediately taken with Antigone because she is strong, independent, and stands up for herself in a way that not many other females in Greek mythology are. Most are portrayed as either passive and faithful, such as Penelope when she weaves a burial shroud for ten years to put off her suitors while waiting for Odysseus to come home from the Trojan War, or they are portrayed as monsters like Medea, who killed her children in order to spite her husband, Jason.
Over the years, I've thought that a young adult novel about Antigone would be fun, but I never knew where to start because of some of the touchy topics in the myth, for example, she is obviously the child of incest. However, it occurred to me one day that I didn't need to apologize for the Greek myths, that people interested in mythology know that this is the history and that myths often contain such distasteful things. So, I simply started to free write about Antigone to see where the ideas went. Very quickly, Antigone developed her own voice, and even spoke to snakes and had gods visiting her.
All of my years of studying Classical Studies in university came together with this character development to create a book that, I hope, is fun, has a great heroine, and has a air of authenticity for the ancient Greek world Antigone came from.
Where can I buy this fabulous book?
Amazon
Smashwords
Createspace
B&N
About the author.
My name is Coreena McBurnie and, ever since grade 5 when I had to do a report on Theseus and the Minotaur, I have had a soft spot for Greek mythology. When I hit university, I was drawn to the Classical Studies department (earning both a BA & MA), where I explored the archaeology and culture of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds — and also where I managed to read Homer’s Odyssey, one of my absolute favourite books, in the original Greek, something which was thrilling for me (I know, sounds crazy, but the poetry and scope of the original text is amazing). After a lifetime of “what is that?”, “why did you study that?”, and “what can you do with a degree in Classical Studies?” I have decided to write novels based in ancient myth and to bring so many of the stories I love to life for a modern audience, with my own spin, of course.Prophecy, Book 1 in the Antigone Series, is my first published novel. Currently I am working on Book 2 in the Antigone Series, called Fate. I am also in the middle of another novel about Clytemnestra who is notorious in Greek myth for killing her husband, Agamemnon, when he returned home from the Trojan War. I love exploring the motives of strong women in ancient myth.
I live in BC, Canada with my husband, our three kids, and our cat, in a beautiful part of the country, on two rivers, surrounded by ranches, near ski hills, and only a couple of hours drive to the ocean.Useful links
Thanks so much for this, Mary, it looks fabulous!!
ReplyDeleteI have put this on my TBR List. I loved teaching Antigone and the other fabulous Greek plays!
ReplyDelete