BOOK INFORMATION
TITLE – Sons of the Sphinx
SERIES – The Quest Books
AUTHOR – Cheryl Carpinello
GENRE – YA Historical Time Travel
PUBLICATION DATE – October 10, 2014
LENGTH (Pages/# Words) – 192/36,000
PUBLISHER – Beyond Today Educator
COVER ARTIST – Bernistevens Design
BOOK SYNOPSIS
Two souls
Separated by three millennium
One with a gift that is more like a curse
One on an almost impossible quest
Destinies entwined; one seeks to find herself while the other seeks his lost queen. To succeed, the pair must right the injustices 3,000 years in the past.
Only together can they fulfill The Prophecy, but in the process they must defeat the Pharaoh Horemheb.
Dishonor and death are the fate of the defeated.
BUY & TBR LINKS
AMAZON KINDLE US – AMAZON KINDLE CA – AMAZON KINDLE UK – AMAZON PAPERBACK – BARNES & NOBLES PAPERBACK – GOODREADS – SHELFARI
CHARACTER BIOS
Rosa: Hi! I’m Rosa. I’m 15 years old and a sophomore in high school. I’m your typical teenager—well, almost. I don’t have many friends anymore, but it’s hard to blame the other kids. If I was them, I’d probably steer clear of me too, at least most of the time. No one is ever mean to me; I’ve grown up with most of them, and on my bad days, they try to ignore me. Wish I could do the same to those who talk to me. Mostly I just shake my head and carry on. It helps that I have a sarcastic sense of humor.
My daily life consists of trying to pass all my classes, getting a date for school dances, and dealing with Nana’s gift nearly every day while I try not to lose my mind.
Tut: My name is Nebkheperure Tutanhkame. I ascended the throne of Egypt upon the death of my father, Pharaoh Akhenaten. There has been much speculation in modern day on my death. My concern is finding the final resting place of my beloved queen, Ankhesenamun and making right that which was wronged centuries ago.
EXCERPT
Before us, nearly filling up the room and taller than either of us, stands the golden shrine of Tutankhamun. I remembered what else lay in that room. Inside that shrine are three more, each a bit smaller than the outside one. All tucked inside each other like those nesting dolls from my grandmother’s childhood. Inside the last shrine were the four sarcophagi of Tut, each displaying him in golden and jeweled splendor.
The last one holds the famed mask of the golden boy. And beneath that, the body of the young pharaoh who now stands here before me. Beyond my understanding, he has been given back his human form, allowed to return one last time to restore honor to his family, one last time to find his true love. And here I am, trying to help, trying to understand, trying to stay alive. Will I ever be able to go home again? Or will I become as lost as Hesena?
AUTHOR BIO
I am a retired high school English teacher. A devourer of books growing up, my profession introduced me to writings and authors from times long past. Through my studies and teaching, I fell in love with the Ancient and Medieval Worlds. Now, I hope to inspire young readers to read more through my Quest Books set in these worlds.
Interview:
When and why did you begin writing?
When did you first consider yourself a writer?Before I taught, I worked as an editor/news writer for a couple of magazines in the Satellite Communications industry. That’s where I was published for the first time, and that’s really when I began my professional writing.
Do you have a specific writing style?
How did you come up with the title?
Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life?
What books/authors have most influenced your life most?
Interview:
Where are you from?
I’m a
Colorado native and would not consider living anywhere else. We get to
experience all four seasons in Colorado and also can go from the desert to
alpine tundra without leaving the state. We are only missing the beach and the
ocean!
Tell us your latest news?
Sons of the Sphinx is going to the Vegas Valley Book
Festival in October! We will have a booth (Tales & Legends). Children’s
Literary Classics will also honor Sons of
the Sphinx as the 2014 Silver Award for PreTeen Fiction during a
presentation on Oct. 17, 2015.
When and why did you begin writing?
I don’t
remember consciously making a decision to write. An avid reader, I just
progressed to writing my own stories. I’ve written several pieces, but didn’t
tackle anything too ambitious until I retired from teaching in 2007. As a high
school English teacher, I didn’t have a lot of spare time.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?Before I taught, I worked as an editor/news writer for a couple of magazines in the Satellite Communications industry. That’s where I was published for the first time, and that’s really when I began my professional writing.
What inspired you to write your first
book?
Guinevere: On the Eve of Legend was inspired by all my freshman Honors
English classes. My students knew all about King Arthur and the Knights of the
Round Table, but all they knew about Guinevere was that she married Arthur,
cheated on him with Sir Lancelot, and brought about the downfall of Camelot.
I
believed Guinevere to be a stronger person than that. So I wrote about a young
girl of 12—with the emphasis on young—who is betrothed to an older man. In Guinevere: On the Eve of Legend, Arthur
is only about 4 years older than her. Essentially Guinevere is depicted as a
girl who believes she knows love only to find out later that she was wrong.
Do you have a specific writing style?
I write
for reluctant readers in upper elementary through high school ages. My books
are shorter than those written for kids who read a lot. My Arthurian Legend
stories—ages 8-12—are around 28,000 words, while my Ancient World
tales—excluding Tutankhamen Speaks—are/will
be around 35,000 words. I keep the chapters short and fast-paced and break up
the copy with white space, graphics, & illustrations.
How did you come up with the title?
For
whatever reasons, my brain works backward when it comes to titles. I always
have the titles before I begin writing. In Sons
of the Sphinx, I wanted to give more background and substance for the
drastic move by the Pharaoh Akhenaten, Tut’s father, to abandon the old gods
for the one god Amun. I drew on historical references that spoke of a
connection between Tut’s great grandfather and the Sphinx. There is a stele—an
ancient message board—that sits between the front paws of the Sphinx, which
tells of the time when the Sphinx spoke to Tut’s great grandfather in a dream.
The Sphinx called the young man ‘son’.
Is there a message in your novel that
you want readers to grasp?
Sons of the Sphinx is a coming of age story and carries the
message to readers that regardless of who you are, it is okay to be yourself
and to be comfortable with who you are. The main character Rosa is 15 years old
and cursed—in her words—with a gift from her grandmother: she can hear dead people.
This gift sets her apart from the
kids she’s grown up with, and as a high school student, the one characteristic
you do not want to have is one that makes you different.
How much of the book is realistic?
Rosa is
a depiction of a normal teenager. She worries about grades, friends, and
whether she will have a date for the dance.
Also, she desperately wants to belong and not just tolerated.
The
historical background of the book is based on first-hand and second-hand research,
although I have added some twists of mine own to the historical facts.
Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life?
To a
certain degree, Rosa’s character is based on my own experience in high school.
An avid horse lover and owner, I spent my spare time riding and competing in
horse shows, drill teams, and rodeos. It was hard to be accepted by others in
my classes because I didn’t share much in common with them.
What books/authors have most influenced your life most?
For my
writing: Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With
a Thousand Faces is a big influence. I build my characters using his Hero’s
Journey as my guide. Also the great storytellers like Tolkien, Dickens, Dostoevsky, Shakespeare, Homer, and a host of others.
They have so many levels to their writings that appeal to a wide variety of
readers. That is what I hope to accomplish with my stories.
On a personal level:
I read a lot of autobiographies/biographies of people who have refused to give
up even under tremendous circumstances. A few are Queen Noor’s Leap of Faith, Immaculee Ilibagiza’s Left to Tell, and Jamling Tenzing
Norgay’s Touching My Father’s Soul.
If you had to choose, which writer would
you consider a mentor?
Boy, it
is so hard to choose just one, but I think I’d choose Homer. The complexity in The Iliad and The Odyssey is so amazing. I love using Homeric (Epic) similes in
my writing.
What would you like my readers to know?
I enjoy visiting the places where my stories are
set. I would like to invite your readers to visit my blog Carpinello’s Writing
Pages (http://carpinelloswritingpages.blogspot.com) to view my trip to the land
of King Arthur in 2014. The entries are Oct-Nov 2014.
AUTHOR FOLLOW LINKS
GIVEAWAY PRIZES
A $50 Amazon/PayPal GC
Thanks so much for being part of the tour - Tonya @ My Family's Heart
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