quote:A headstrong Egyptian priestess, her brother, their sacked colony—and a rescue mission. When Itawaret’s beloved Per-Pehu falls to the tyrannical Scylax, she and her brother Bek lead a mission to save her captured people and depose Scylax. Along the way, they run into all kinds of perils, friends, and foes—and beasts sent by an angry goddess. Set in ancient Greece 3,500 years ago, this is a tale blending magical realism with history, high adventure with discovery . . . and Itawaret’s determination to save her people while learning her heart’s desires and realizing her deeper purpose.
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Allow me to share some concept art for the main characters and their world...
This is my protagonist Itaweret, a Kemetian (ancient Egyptian) High Priestess of the goddess Mut in the colony of Per-Pehu. When the warlord Scylax of Mycenae sacks the colony and enslaves its Kemetian citizens, it is Itaweret who leads the quest to liberate them.
This would be her younger brother Bek, who is the intended heir to the colony's governorship (their father Mahu is the colonial governor).
This is Philos, an Achaean (ancient Greek) shepherd boy who helps Itaweret and Bek along on their quest. He has a tame lion named Xiphos.
Scylax of Mycenae, an Achaean warlord who is the novel's main antagonist. It is he who leads the sacking of Per-Pehu, but his ultimate ambition is conquest of the known world.
And this would be Kleno, Scylax's older sister and a priestess of Athena, who helps him track down Itaweret and her companions.
Concept art for Per-Pehu, a Kemetian colony on the Greek coast.
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This would be concept art for Nebta, another character from my upcoming novel Priestess of the Lost Colony. She originally hails from the country of Wawat, located along the Nile River between the larger kingdoms of Kemet (ancient Egypt) and Kush. However, after a Kushite raid destroyed her native community, she fled northward and eventually ended up as the captain of a Phoenician trading vessel. She comes in sometime during the novel's second act.
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After several months of searching, I've finally found a publisher who is interested in my novel. If everything goes as smoothly as I hope, the book should be out and published by Spring 2021!
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Another one of my doodles of Itawaret, the ancient Egyptian priestess who is the protagonist of my upcoming novel Priestess of the Lost Colony. This time, I drew her as if she were a heroine from an animated Disney movie (her face was modeled in large part after Tiana from The Princess and the Frog).
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This would be Philos, a Greek shepherd boy who is one of the major male characters from my upcoming novel Priestess of the Lost Colony, if he were a hero in a Disney animated movie. After doing the protagonist Itawaret in this style, I basically wanted to see how another main character from the novel would look in the same style.
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This would be a drawing of Itaweret, the titular protagonist of my novel Priestess of the Lost Colony, in the distinctive ancient Egyptian art style. The texture of the background is supposed to resemble that of Egyptian papyri.
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with all of your experience in looking at Egyptian art it would be interesting to see of you could make a piece of art in the Egyptian style. It's a challenge. For instance the background here, the white is kind of a wash looking, painterly like it a little translucent over hints of other color. It varies in different places, The colors are kind of earthy, often not highly saturated. The blueish green of the plant she's holding is not uniform and crisp intense it is a bit muted . It stays inside of the line of the stalk but the leaves are not bound by an outline. The line work everywhere is not black it's reddish brown. The plants are very interesting looking. There are often a lot of interesting objects in these scenes. I like how the white dress is done on the right. It looks like they painted her naked first and then laid over this translucent white the vertical lines of white over her body are soft, without outlines. On the right figure the line of the top of her foot is thicker than the line of his shin. There's a nice variation there. Some of this is variation in the original art and mixed with some decay of the paint but it all add character.
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The below concept art is actually pretty old, but I wanted to share it anyway...
This man represents a culture known as the Pelasgians, who were said to be the aboriginal inhabitants of Greece prior to the arrival of the Achaeans (aka the Hellenes or ethnic Greeks). In Priestess of the Lost Colony, they are portrayed as a population of dark-skinned, blue-eyed hunter-gatherers who manufacture silver jewelry, paint artwork in caves, and erect megalithic tombs for their dead chieftains.
quote:Fallbrook CA— Brandon Pilcher has spent the past several years writing stories about ancient cultures, dinosaurs, mythological beasts and worlds in which women heroines and leaders carry the day.
The Fallbrook resident brings these elements together in Priestess of the Lost Colony, his thrilling debut novel set in earliest Greece in which heroism, adventure, magical realism, courage and vision unfold in a titanic clash of cultures. Published by Open Books Press, Priestess of the Lost Colony will be available through chain, independent and online booksellers beginning April 27.
Pilcher, who lives on the autism spectrum, is an accomplished illustrator and artist as well as the author of three short story collections (available on Amazon.com). His imprint is felt all over Priestess of the Lost Colony. He provided the illustrations for the cover and inside character illustrations, as well as writing the novel.
Priestess of the Lost Colony is the story of Itaweret, a young High Priestess of Mut whose father Mahu governs Per-Pehu, an ancient Egyptian colony established on the coast of Greece in the story’s alternate timeline. When her city is sacked, her parents killed and her fellow citizens enslaved by the evil Mycaenean king Scylax, she and her brother Bek embark on a quest to find and rescue them, guided by the goddess Mut. The journey takes them through perilous territories, at which adventure, conflict, confrontations with mythical beasts and both new friends and enemies await. After seeking help from the King of Troy, Itaweret and Bek lead their allies to a climactic showdown with Scylax. At stake? A new beginning for Per-Pehu — and perhaps a new reign in a new land for Itaweret.
“Itaweret’s mission is to liberate what remains of her people after Scylax and his Mycenaeans drag them home in chains,” Pilcher explained. “I believe that, of all her attributes, it is her diplomatic ability that benefits her the most, since she can persuade almost all kinds of people into aiding her cause. However, she is also capable of defending herself in combat when necessary.
Much of Pilcher’s work concerns itself with women heroines in ancient Africa, and women heroines in general. The character of Itaweret reflects the courage, leadership and warrior skill typical of his characters.
In the novel, Pilcher explored the cultural and human impact of tyrannies, in the form of Scylax. An ancient history buff, he looked at the cyclical nature of the rise and fall of civilizations and cultures, noting the common presence of tyrannical leaders that ultimately lead to a people’s downfall.
“What characters like Scylax have in common are a tendency to view women as objects to possess and dominate, as well as a complete lack of respect for their subjects’ freedom of speech—especially when those subjects criticize how they are running things,” Pilcher said. “There is a scene in the book where one of Scylax’s citizens calls out his behavior, and he has her punished with extreme cruelty to make an example of her. It’s rather like how tyrants in the real world claim this or that is the enemy of the people, by which they mean themselves.”
Priestess of the Lost Colony is filled with surprises and twists, as well as creatures summoned from Greek mythology — but for different purposes. While the book is historical adventure mixed with magical realism, it reads in many places like a colorful thriller — a nod to the writing style Pilcher has developed through his short story work.
“Without spoiling anything for those who haven’t read the book yet, the biggest surprises happened towards the end, since my outline became less detailed at that point,” Pilcher said of his writing process. “Those surprises relate to how our heroes are going to solve their main problem once all seems lost and all their previous efforts failed. When you reach that point in conflict, a little ingenuity—and maybe some guidance and wisdom from sources you trust—can come in handy.”
Priestess of the Lost Colony is currently available for pre-order on Amazon.com, where Pilcher already has an author’s presence, and BN.com. The book will be available April 27 as a trade paperback, and an e-book on Kindle and all readers.
quote:As National Autism Month continues, author-illustrator Brandon Pilcher marks the one-year anniversary of Priestess of the Lost Colony, his historical magical realism novel that has received rave reviews from readers nationwide while also inspiring the autism community.
Pilcher wrote Priestess of the Lost Colony, his first novel after several published short story collections, and created the principal cover illustration with book cover designer Alexa Black. His use of magical realism, with women as leaders and heroines, to bring a little-known aspect of ancient Egyptian culture and history to life introduced a larger audience to his writing prowess. It also presented his distinctive style of using fiction to connect dynamics of the time with modern-day events — in this case, a 3,500-year leap...
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This Juneteenth, I would like to announce that my debut novel Priestess of the Lost Colony is available at a 75% discount on Amazon.com! Get your copy either in digital or paperback format today!
I used the automated voices on a website called MicMonster to create the spoken lines of dialogue in this video. Unfortunately, the voices on that site with Greek accents tended to mispronounce certain words, so I had to pick voices with ordinary American accents for the Greek characters' lines.
UPDATE: OK, I figured out how to get the Greek accents to work and so redid the video. Link has been updated.
quote: This book is absolute perfection, and I am not exaggerating. Themes in it can teach you stuff even though it's class as a kids show. I was amazed how it incorporates very dark and mature themes such as war, genocide, racism, slavery, evil expansionism, manipulation and spite, psychopathy (Scylax) etc. into a story of its magnitude and using it so maturely, realistically, and implicitly. It also used very relatable themes in it too, like love, family, misguidance, uncertainty, spirituality, courage, the divide between good and evil, inner conflict, self-confidence, guilt, regret, for example. The story makes the characters go through all these aspects and learn (along the journey) to navigate through these with one another. It's empowering and great to read.
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This would be concept art for Nebta, another character from my upcoming novel Priestess of the Lost Colony. She originally hails from the country of Wawat, located along the Nile River between the larger kingdoms of Kemet (ancient Egypt) and Kush. However, after a Kushite raid destroyed her native community, she fled northward and eventually ended up as the captain of a Phoenician trading vessel. She comes in sometime during the novel's second act.
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