What could have been...

Hi all,


I've always loved history ever since I could walk I think.  It took me a while to figure this out back then, but not only does history drive imagination, it is imagination.  To look at what went before and dream something just as good or better.  I love ancient history (and modern history too but that is another post).  I got the chance to travel quite a bit over the last few years and one thing I loved above all else was to visit the ancient sites in the local area.


The world, as we know it, is replete with amazing ancient civilizations.  The Aztecs, Incas, and Mayans of South America; the Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, and Persians around the Mediterranean, and the lesser known Ancient Indian civilizations; the roll call is almost thankfully endless.  I love visiting places that just ooze history out of every nook and crevice.  I've included a few pics from some of my travels.  They can't even begin to describe the experience of actually being there though.

Giza Plateau, Cairo

Parthenon, Athens

Colosseum, Rome

These monuments and cities rose up from the pure toil of others.  There was no modern machinery to help with the heavy lifting or supercomputers to calculate engineering loads or precise star charts.  In fact, many of the blocks of stones found at these ancient sites still can not be lifted by modern machinery!


I've walked through the often shattered remains of these, still greatly awe-inspiring, sites where sometimes only a single column stands where once there were hundreds, reaching for the sky or holding up feat defying stone roof.  And one question always shadows my thoughts - what could have been... no, what must have been?  Take for example the picture below.  It shows the ruins of the Temple of Olympian Zeus, once the largest temple in Ancient Greece.  Today only 15 beautiful Corinthian columns remain where there were once 104.  At its prime, it would have been a breath-taking building.  It gave me shivers just standing next to it in present day.  Some say that only 30% of the ancient works of Egypt have been discovered.  Imagine that there are still 70% lying beneath the sand somewhere!  And what of the civilizations we don't know about...

Temple of Olympian Zeus, Athens

All of these musings have given me an idea.  Something I'll 'announce' in my next blog post.  I've always wanted to do it but have never had the set of skills


Happy travels
Mel

"VishHaya" - my first book

Hi all,

This is my very first post in this blog. I would love to use this site to showcase my books (I currently have one published, but hope to have a few more soon).  Still getting used to publishing a blog here so bear with me guys. 

My first book, titled "VishHaya," is about a girl called Amila Casey.  Amila is just like most other twelve year old girls; in a hurry to get older, or at the very least, a little taller.  She often wondered why her mother had given her a name like hers.  It was quite different from other names and everybody pronounced it differently.  Her mother had an easy to pronounce name so why didn't she?

Amila is somewhat lost having just moved halfway across the world to Cambridge, England with her mother and her twin brother, Aaron.  She does not care much for the new arrangement as she is left in a stuffy old house with an even stuffier aunty while her mother is kept very busy with her new job.  She misses her life in Australia and cannot comprehend the seemingly strange customs and quirks of the English.  The little girl spends most of the cold, dreary days wandering the streets of Cambridge in search of her two loves: chocolate and the odd dog to fawn over.


Then one day, a week before Christmas, she spots a gorgeous and seemingly stray dog in the town center and the humdrum world that she knew changes forever.  The dog leads her through a gateway into the wondrous Kingdom of VishHaya where fantastic fortresses and phantom palaces reside, magical creatures prowl the night sky and an evil prince is bent on ultimate domination.  Amila discovers that she has also changed and is forced to confront an indescribable secret that is the key to both her future and her past.

Hopefully I can use this site to discuss some of the topics in my first book and see if any of the readers (hopefully there'll be at least one or two) can provide any suggestions for future books in this and other series. 

I look forward to this.  I hope some of you do as well.


Best wishes
Mel Sabre