Introducing Bitter for Sweet

“The girl fled across the desert.

The sand and wind erased all sound but the rasp of air in her throat. She ran and did not stop. A Moabite followed.

The girl’s throat burned and her legs burned and still she ran. Where the desert was hard, she ran faster. Where the ground grew soft, she stumbled, recovered, and then ran again. Whatever the ground, the man did not stop his pursuit….

She ran, and all she could hear was the desert wind in her throat and the slap of her feet when the ground turned to stone. Her heart also turned to stone, and still she ran.”

Thus begins my latest novel.

This tale tells the story of Herod the Great’s mother, Cypros –a first century BCE Nabataean (Arabic) woman with 21st-century ideas about race, class, and gender disparity. In a patriarchal world, she bent Nabataea, Israel, and Rome to her will.

Her contemporary, Cleopatra, accomplished domestic Egyptian goals. Cypros, by contrast, used her relentless will and sharp mind to change the history of the western world, alter the course of Judaism, and inadvertently set the stage for the birth of Christianity and later Islam. She was a remarkable woman. Her story is riveting. The price she paid for power resonates today.

I hope you pick up a copy of this latest release. As I signed off on a pre-publication review copy of the book, “May Cypros capture your attention, and Pninah your heart.” You’ll have to pick up a copy to find out who Pninah is!