If you visit the Babylon Archeological Site in Iraq today, you will not find the Ishtar Gate. To see that, you must travel to the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, Germany. The original gate was disassembled brick by brick, shipped to Europe, restored, and reassembled to grace the halls of the museum. However, you will see…
Rosemaling, the Norwegian folk art originally developed as painting flowers on wood, provides some texture for my story. Joe’s mom serves mujaddara, a Middle Eastern dish of lentils, rice, and caramelized onions, in a beautiful rosemaled platter. https://www.dailyscandinavian.com/the-story-of-norwegian-rosemaling/ Rosemaling went out of fashion in the nineteenth century, but it’s seen a resurgence with the popularity of…
In my book, my hero grew up in the Ottoman Empire, home to his Assyrian mother. But he was sent to live with his Norwegian grandparents for high school and college. His favorite after school snack was sveler. “…fluffy pillows of floury love slathered with a mixture of sugar and butter that’s been whipped till it’s…
The fish blinked her long lashes and helped you climb into a kuphar that the babbler birds wove just for you. You climbed in, and the wind blew you here. Who would have guessed that navigating the Euphrates and the Tigris would look essentially the same for 27 centuries? In Nebuchadnezzar’s day, willow roundboats covered…
My novel is set in 1917, and my heroine has a certain love-hate relationship with fashion. She loves looking feminine, but she loves digging in the dirt more. Tonneau sounded more fashionable than barrel, but a barrel by any other name. . . Who determined making your figure look like a barrel was attractive? At…