Pre-Columbian North America

I am happy to announce the release of my new book ”The Young Jaguar“, the second of my pre-Aztec series that begins with ”At Road’s End“.

This time the action shifts to Mesoamerica.

Having witnessed the fall of the ancient Cliff Dwellers-Anasazi, the main characters, Tecpatl and Sakuna, are now have to deal with an entirely different situation.
It is the middle of the 14th century and the mighty Tepanecs are ruling the whole Mexican Valley.
Every city-state, every village, every settlement fears them, careful to send a tribute each month when the moon is full. The Aztecs, relatively safe upon their small isolated island, are also careful to behave. No nation dares to angry the mighty Tepanecs.

Yet, the trouble, when begin, is coming from within. The old Emperor dies, leaving peculiar instructions. The Second Son is to rule the Empire. He is the one to succeed the beautiful marble throne of Azcapotzalco. But the First Son, who have to reconcile himself with ruling a distant unimportant city-state, is not happy.

As the story unfolds, the main characters from At Road’s End, are finding themselves caught in the maelstrom, doing their best against the forces that are threatening their lives and their family along with the whole Tepanec Empire.

In the Angry Aztecs Part I we dealt with the incident of the flayed princess and the first time the Aztecs made their powerful neighbors angry.

Then, in the Angry Aztecs Part II, they had made it to their swampy little island, relatively safe under the stern gaze of the Mexican Valley masters, the Tepanecs.

So now we arrive to the end of the 14th century, when the Aztecs were somewhat better off. Not allowed to campaign on their own, they still thrived, fighting under the Tepanec leadership, relatively safe upon the swampy little island of theirs. Required to pay tribute every full moon, they contributed to riches of the powerful Azcapotzalco, the Tepanec Capital. The tribute was reported to be ‘oppressive and capricious’.

The island location has its benefits, separated from the mainland by a certain amount of water and thus safe from any military surprises. Yet, this location has its disadvantages as well. Bringing materials to the rapidly growing city was difficult. Most of the houses were reed-and-cane built and the markets were poor, while the city could not even dream of building a worthwhile temple or, gods forbid, a pyramid. Large slabs of stone and marble were impossible to bring by canoes.

But the Aztecs were not only a warlike nation. They turned out to be ambitious engineers as well. So, when Acamapichtli, a young and very vigorous ruler, was brought to lead the growing island nation, the Mexica energetic people launched into several breathtaking projects at once.

First of all, the island was enlarged artificially, with much dirt and rock. Then a causeway was built to connect it with the mainland, making it possible for the large chunks of materials to be brought into Tenochtitlan, allowing the construction of the Great Pyramid’s second stage. Houses of cane and reed were replaced by the stone ones, temples constructed, laws made.

The agriculture was a problem. The island was too small to cultivate enough crops to support the rapidly growing population. Cultivating of many chinampas, the ‘floating gardens’, had helped. Yet the Aztecs needed more land. So far they were masters of their island only. They needed a permission to campaign on their own.

Well, Acamapichtli was a great diplomat. Careful not to provoke the Tepanec overlords, Tenochtitlan paid its taxes in time and when Azcapotzalco wanted a present in a form of a floating garden of beautiful flowers, a special chinampa was made in a hurry and floated over the lake straight to the shores of the Tepanec’s Capital.

Finally, after many such gestures and negotiations, the Aztecs were allowed to campaign on their own, provided their warriors kept reinforcing the Tepanec forces with the same vigor as before. The northern settlements of the lake, such as Xochimilco were attacked immediately and their lake-shores chinampas captures and put to a great use.

Tenochtitlan was growing rapidly.

While on the writing matters and to leave the Aztecs and their Anasazi neighbors alone for a while, I would love to introduce you a very talented author, Charity Parkerson.

Charity was born in Tennessee, where she still lives with her husband and two sons. She is an award winning author of 5 books, including the International Bestseller “Wicked Sinners“.
She is a Goodreads author, Library Thing author, a member of long and short romance review, an author/member of Paranormal Romance Guild, and a member of Independent authors and writers.

Charity had kindly agreed to answer some of my questions.

Z: Please, tell me 3 things that helped you as a writer?

C: 1.) My mother is a writer so I knew what I was getting myself into.

     2.) My husband makes writing very easy on me by doing way more than his fair share in our household.

    3.) A love of reading

Z: Please tell me 3 things that readers would love in your books

C: 1.) The sexy men

     2.) The strong women

    3.) The honest portrayal of real-life

Z: Please, tell me 3 things that inspired you.

 C: 1.) A driving need to give the people living in my head a happily ever after

      2.) A supportive family

     3.) Two good friends that always wanted more

Z: What’s the opening paragraph of your favorite novel of yours?

C: “Wicked Sinners”-

     He was the wickedest of all Sinners, or so the story is told.  He brought the darkness smothering out the light, except with her, she      changed everything, she was the light.

Chapter 1 

“What will happen when I die, daddy?”

“You will make a mad dash for the light, and I will be waiting for you on the other side,” I answered my daughter’s question, so blithely sure in my knowledge that she would outlive me.  Oh, how the Gods live to make fools of men.

-Excerpt from the journal of Alain Moreau

Z: Charity, you’re having a dinner party and you have to invite one writer, one musician, one monarch, one villain and one contemporary politician. Who do you invite and why?

C: Writer: Shakespeare

     Musician: Eminem 

     Monarch: Napoleon

     Villain: A Zombie

     Contemporary Politician: Rick Santorum

I am beyond curious to know who would survive the Zombie

Z:  Please, describe your perfect weekend

C:  A perfect weekend for me would be, one at home with husband and kids, completely free of work, so that we can do several family outings if we so choose.

Z:  In a perfectly arranged world, which author would you like to be, who would you most like to meet in history and which place would you like to visit most?

C:  I wouldn’t mind being J.K. Rowling simply because her characters are loved all across the world.  I would love for mine to be so well known. 

This is not way back in history, but I would have loved to have met Marilyn Monroe.

I really would love to visit Scotland.

Z:  Where can we find you on the web?

http://www.charityparkerson.com

http://www.punkandsissypublications.weebly.com

http://www.facebook.com/authorCharityParkerson

https://twitter.com/#!/CharityParkerso

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_tc_2_0?rh=i%3Astripbooks%2Ck%3ACharity+Parkerson&keywords=Charity+Parkerson&ie=UTF8&qid=1329144575&sr=8-2-ent&field-contributor_id=B004C4I35E

http://charity-thesinners.blogspot.com

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4506281.Charity_Parkerson

http://www.librarything.com/author/parkersoncharity

http://www.paranormalromanceguild.com/ourauthors.htm

http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/board/member.php?u=8017

http://www.efictionmag.com/members/charityparkerson/

http://community.danosongs.com/profile/CharityParkerson

http://www.youtube.com/my_videos?feature=mhee

The winner of the cover poll art at Shannon Mayer’s contest is Guy Harrison, author of Agents of Change.

Guy Harrison is a Phoenix area-based author raised in Philadelphia. Once an aspiring sportscaster, Harrison has worked in public relations in higher education for the past six years. Agents of Change is his debut novel. He currently lives in Chandler, Arizona with his wife Lindsay and their two cats.

An amiable corporate manager by day and a fledgling matchmaker whenever he can get around to it, Calvin Newsome’s new dream job falls into his lap when he’s recruited by a secret worldwide organization whose agents use uncanny abilities to empower and influence everyday downtrodden individuals. Disaster strikes, however, when an elaborate scheme leaves Calvin as a prime murder suspect…and his new employer is presumably to blame.

With the authorities on his heels and his life left in ruin, Calvin uses his new powers to blend in until a journey for freedom becomes a quest for peace. As the agency’s rival organization threatens the security of all of earth’s inhabitants, Calvin teams up with unlikely allies and battles startling enemies hellbent on unleashing their power in a twisted version of justice, innocent lives be damned. 

So, in The Angry Aztecs Part I, we left the Tepanecs immersed in the dilemma.

What would they do with their new neighbors known as Mexica-people-from-Aztlan or the Aztecs. The despised would-be-aristocrats got themselves into a trouble all right, pissing off their previous patrons of Culhuacan. To flay a princess, of all things! Azcapotzalco’s Tepanecs shook their heads. Clearly the troublesome newcomers had no finesse. No finesse at all.

But those Aztecs were great warriors; there was no argument about that. So the Tepanec rulers saw their chance. First they had launched series of raids against their neighbors in trouble, to make those understand which nation around Texcoco Lake was the most powerful to be reckoned with. Just in case it wasn’t yet clear.

Then, after thoroughly humbling the most warlike of their neighbors, they promptly took them under Azcapotzalco’s protection, against the wrath of Culhuacan.

The small Aztec nation was safe for now, but there was a price to pay. The Aztecs were to supply their new patrons with an unlimited amount of warriors whenever demanded. And the Tepanecs didn’t make them wait. While the Aztecs were busy founding their new capital upon the muddy island of the great Lake, the demands began trickling in. The Azcapotzalco’s ruler had decided to turn on their historical rival – Culhuacan.

Reinforced by a horde of the warlike new allies, Azcapotzalco’s warriors had pounced on its sister-city, in less than ten summers succeeding in taking over all of their trading routes and dependable towns and villages. The surrounding districts and settlements, which had paid a tribute to Culhuacan up to these days, began sending their yearly payments to Azcapotzalco instead.

The Tepanecs’ empire was expanding.

An excerpt from the upcoming sequel for ‘At Road’s End’:

 “… The heavyset man nodded and almost visibly relaxed. He was getting old, thought Tecpatl. Of an old this formidable man would not be readable under any circumstances.

The urge to escape the Palace welled. He thought of the spaciousness of his own gardens, of the feast that was sure to contain every delicious snack he had had ever indicated as his favorite, of the ardent, exuberant welcome-home which was sure to await him. He could see her, dressed in the best of her clothes, bathed and groomed, waiting for him, exalted and impatient. Still beautiful, still desirable, still in love with him, still unruly and not fitting, just like fifteen summers ago, when he had met her for the first time.           

“You are sure the new Emperor will give you all the commands you desire.” The older man made it a statement.

Tecpatl forced his mind to concentrate. “I hope he will trust me as had his father before him.”

“How long will it take to make Culhuacan crumble?”

“Not very long. Their warriors grew soft. They are not worthy enemy anymore.” Relieved to steer from the dangerous ground of politics, he added: “I’ll be happy to finish them off and re-open the war against the Mayans.”

“Not the Aztecs?”

“Oh, the Aztecs make good warriors. But they are barbarians. They are few and unimportant. Culhuacan is the worthy enemy. They are our equals, our peers.”

The face of the elder man remained still but something in the depths of the narrow eyes changed. “You do wise staying away from the palace affairs. You are a warrior and you better keep it that way…”

I’m delighted to feature another great author, Wenona Husley.

For a limited time Blood Awakening will be FREE on Amazon.  This is the novelette that stared the Blood Burden (Nicole Keenan) series that everyone is talking about so grab it before this free offer is gone.

What are people saying about Blood Awakening?

“An awesome beginning to the series!” -Imaloud

“A Surefire winner by an author to watch!!” -Hotmaja54

“So, do I recommend this story? Darn right, I do!!” -JenniferS

Overview:

Evil starts the clock ticking, leaving Nicole’s life changed forever….

Hidden powers, ancient grudges, romance and action that will leave you begging for more….

Now go grab your copy on Amazon

Charity Parkerson, one of my most favorite bestselling authors of Contemporary and Paranormal Romance, whose book “A Secure Heart” had made it into the bestsellers of Contemporary Romance and whose paranormal ‘Sinners Series’ was voted as one of the top ten “Best books by an Indie author in 2011″, will treat us with a freebie

On Feb. 1th and 2th her ‘Wicked Sinners‘, the second installment in ‘Sinners Series’, will be free on Amazon. Well, I wouldn’t miss this chance

Adriana Claymore moved to Martinique to start a new life, but when she stumbles upon an ancient book, she finds herself drawn into a centuries old battle between brothers.

”Sorcier” Julien Dubois has been on the hunt for his twin, Jacques, ever since the day that Jacques stole a book of spells from him and allowed their younger brother to die.

Adriana is about to change the game, but when she gives her heart and soul to one of the brothers, she must face a difficult question. Did she lose herself to evil?

Here is a snippet:

A line of blood appeared across Jacques’ throat, and a drop ran down the side of his neck. He was immortal, but the wound didn’t heal, and Jacques gasped loudly against the pain. He scrambled and fought to escape the blade, but it continued to press against him. “Do you think to harm her? I will see you dead first.”
“I did not recognize her, as belonging to you,” Jacques gasped out, through clenched teeth.
“Please, Julien,” Adriana whispered.
Jacques slid to the floor landing in a heap, and Julien focused on her for the first time. She realized then, that not all his anger was directed at Jacques.
“You may leave us,” Julien’s words were for Jacques, but his eyes never left hers. With a snap of Julien’s fingers, Jacques disappeared.
“You left me,” he said calmly, but she could feel that he was anything but. “Why would you do that?”
“Because I am so very stupid,” Adriana cried. “I thought that if I gave you everything that I possessed. If I gave you the pages, you were searching for all these years. If I gave you my heart you would walk away from all that anger and hatred,” pausing she swallowed past her tears. “I guess that sounds vain doesn’t it? How could I ever be enough for someone like you?”
His voice came out sounding deadly, and she almost took a step away, as the power crackled around him, making the hair stand up on her arms. “What do you mean someone like me?”
Even knowing all the things that he had done over the years, she had never feared him before that moment.
“You are this powerful man, who has lived thousands of years, and has been worshiped by people all around the world, but look at me. I’m just this small town girl, who has never done a thing, and is loved by no one.”
The room filled with a bright glow, and she was surrounded by an intense heat. The room was on fire, but not a single flame burned her skin and no smoke filled the room. Adriana turned in a slow circle looking at the flames in awe. They were real, but they weren’t, and it was unlike anything she had ever seen. It was his fury come to life. She met his eyes once more.
His voice shook with the power of it and his eyes glowed with the same flames. “You are loved by me.” He

took a step towards her, and she had nowhere to go with the fire raging at her back. Grabbing the front of

her shirt, he towed her against his body. “You are loved by me,” he repeated.

Around the eleventh century, the modern-day Southwest canyons were alive with architectural wonders, cliff cities and sprawling fields belonging to the Ancient Cliff Dwellers, more known to us as Anasazi.

Those ancients built their multi-storey great houses of hundreds of spacious, well-conditioned rooms with such skill, the ruins of those complexes survive to the present day.

They irrigated their fields with an intricate system of canals and reservoirs, collecting the sparse rainwater carefully and effectively, succeeding in supporting extremely large communities. They connected all of their cultural centers and the rest of the farming settlements with a network of well-planned and well-kept roads, so the trade with the south and the northwest flourished, with all manner of goods available to these sophisticated desert dwellers.

But there was one thing the fascinating ancients had not managed to achieve.They hadn’t been featured in historical fiction. There were some great mystery thrillers dealing with Anasazi, but never a downright HF.

So, I decided to rectify this matter. Months of research resulted in At Road’s End. Packed with action, love, lust, fighting and cultural misunderstandings, as all the happenings in one of the glorious cities of Anasazi presented from the foreigner’s point of view, this novel deals with the Cliff Dwellers and their impact on our modern Southwest.

A group of traders from the distant Central American lands crosses into Arizona’s desert, accompanied by the arrogant warrior who doesn’t want to spend his time on such a dismal expedition. Well, little did he know about troubles and adventures that were laying in wait for him among the Cliff Dwellers, definite to change his life.

 J. C. Andrijeski, the author of bestselling ‘Rook Series’ says:

 “… I love the way this book was written, from the point of view of an “outsider” to that culture, a Native American from far south of the cliff dweller’s region (prior to the Aztecs, from a rival tribe to the Mayans). The cultural clash is handled really well through a love story between one of the Anasazi women and a man from the warrior caste from the lands around Lake Texcoco…”

Sonia Rumzi, the author of ‘Caring for Eleanor’ and ‘Nightfall of her Life’ says:

“… In her own way, with grace and charm Zoe Saadia manages to tell an old story with different twists. Lilting in her tale, she describes ancient sites and with great imagination, its people. A historical novel is hard to write at best but Saadia does it with ease…”

For those of you who enjoyed the Angry Aztecs post, I would like to recommend my new novel ‘At Road’s End’

He was a young Tepanec warrior, thrust into the North American Southwest, right in time to watch the glorious Anasazi beginning to collapse.

But was he fascinated with such a rare opportunity? Of course, not. Aztecs or not, the arrogant Central Americans did not live for idle observations. They were doers and back home the war with the rising-to-power Aztecs was brewing. Why should he care for the strange, outlandish desert dwellers? Even if some of their women were smart, brave and extremely attractive.

And yet…

At Road’s End presents another cultural clash in Ancient Americas. Much action, bravery, love and lust, while the impressive foundations of the Ancient Cliff Dwellers societies were coming down tumbling all around.

The evolution of weaponry is a fascinating progress to follow. Our computer games are straining to invent all kinds of new weapons, to dispense with boredom and make the games more attractive to us. But the reality overpasses the imagination.

How the most popular ancient weapons had developed?

Were they dictating the way the battles were fought? Or were they just adjusting?

Take a sword for example.

We are all aware of the benefits of the Roman short gladius. Not as heavy as Celtic long bladed sword, it allowed the legionaries to hold on in long battles without getting tired. They were not even required to raise it high, but would simply trust their gladius toward the loins or the lower belly of the opponent. Well, maybe they did get tired a little as the battle progressed and the time ran by and the sun would near the horizon. A good Roman general, while planning a battle, would take into an account the angles of a rising or a setting sun, so it won’t blind his legionaries.

 Gladuis was an efficient weapon, mostly fitting the organized battle formation

But would a samurai like to be a part of the Roman square? The values in ancient Japan were different and so was the evolvement of their sword. Wonderful affair of razor-sharp, long steel, the samurai’s long sword, katana, fitted perfectly their favored hand-to-hand combat. Even when fighting as organized forces, each samurai would always seek out a duel with a worthy opponent.

The knights of the Middle Age Europe were also fond of duels, so the blades of the  famous knights’ swords were long and wide, sometimes double-edged, designed for a honorable hand-to-hand. 

While yataghan, a Turkish sabre, was curved and single-edged, made of harder steel at its cutting edge, with a very particular two-winged handle

But how about a sword that was not made of steel?

Not every continent had an access to all kinds of metals. In Central America they did wonders with cooper, silver and gold, but none of those metals were hard enough and could rival the cutting qualities of the good old obsidian. So thus the average Aztec sword, mahuahuitl, would be a long affair, more of a wooden club, adorned with plenty of obsidian spikes around the cutting edge.

The warriors of the region were very fond of a hand-to-hand, or in other words, they would never agree to fight in an organized formation. Besting your enemy and, if you are lucky, taking him a captive, was a matter of extreme importance and could not be interfered by one’s peers.

In North America the obsidian was less obtainable and cooper they were working with was even softer than gold. So the flint would have to do. Around the Great Lakes a club with a sharp flint edge was undeniably popular . Those warriors were also adhered individualist.

In a future post I’ll refer to other warriors’ equipment.

In a meanwhile, would you like to see the dramatic differences between a male and a female warrior outfit?