The first cut of this novel is complete.  I'm working on the second cut.

I think you will be delighted with this novel.  It really hits a lot of fun points.  There is a huge twist at the end that should come as a fantastic surprise, but you'll say was evident all the way along.  There is still room for another book.  The whole issue of Lumier'e and Aleksandr is not resolved yet.  There are a lot of positively fine loose ends that need to be gathered up.  I know you will like the new Kathrin character--James too.

Sveta found the tablet in the British Museum, and Kathrin's sister came to live in Rosewood. Christmas time at Hastings. I have enough material that I may make another book. I'm up to chapter 16 and I have not fully resolved the setup.

You might ask yourself about Kathrin. Why would she know what to do about Sveta and Klava? Why was she so successful at getting them to come back with her? What does her father know?
How do you raise twin goddesses? Especially when one could turn out to be evil. This is the premise of Sisters. What happens when you put them in school? What kind of problems and excitement might they cause? One of my favorite chapters, so far, is the big fight. No magic allowed, but Sveta sure tries. What else can Klava do when her sister starts to blow her cover.
 

Sisters is moving along. The sisters are Lumie're and Aleksandr's children, Sveta and Klava. Their parents had an accident in China, across the border from Burma, and never returned to camp. Their children have been living in the wild ever since. Kathrin and James meet the children because a village in Burma has adopted them as their goddesses, the goddess of light and the goddess of darkness. Now the questions are: how are James and Kathrin going to get close enough to verify they are Lumie're and Aleksandr's children? How will they encourage them to leave Burma? How will they get them out of Burma? And the most difficult question, why did Lumie're and Aleksandr bring their children with them on such a dangerous mission, and why didn't "the organization" know their children were missing?
 

One of my readers just finished with The Goddess of Darkness, The Shadow of Darkness, and The Shadow of Light. I know a book is a keeper when this particular reader doesn't put the book down--she didn't. She read the books straight through one by one. She gave me some notes, and I will incorporate them. Since I had such a great response, I decided to explore writing another book and an idea fell into place. You can see the working title--Sisters as number 18 below.
 

The purpose of each of the Aegypt novels is to allow you, the reader, to live the life and times portrayed in the novel.  This requires intensive research and study.  Many of the points are ancillary, and may be unnoticed by the reader, but to me they are critical.  Here is how carefully I have detailed these works: in The Goddess of Darkness, I needed the name of the Greek ambassador to England in 1940.  I couldn't find this information anywhere--I wrote to the Greek embassy in London England, and in about two weeks, I had the answer.  This was an unnecessary detail, but this represents how detailed the historical research was for these books. 

The Question: 

The Aegypt novels are moving in a beautiful and controlled direction.  Their purpose is to let the reader live during a period and place in history.  Specifically, they march through time, hitting the high points where evil has touched the world.  Children is a setup novel.  It is a transition between The Shadow of Light and the next big point in time.  Below, I outline the question that originally drove Aegypt.  There is much more here. 

The primary question I asked when I wrote Children was:  what happens when I introduce two real immature goddesses into the world of Western Civilization and specifically--British society.  One may be evil and one may be good.  What is their mother, any mother to do.  I especially wanted to depict the school adventures of these girls.

When the world was young, people believed in all kinds of gods and goddesses.  In the novel The Goddess of Light, I expand the question I asked in Aegypt, what would happen if modern people came face to face with a real goddess.  Leora, the goddess of light, interacts with the modern world--sometimes that world is more cruel to those who have a power beyond our expectations.  Also, I added to my original question and ask a new one about prejudice.  Explicitly, the question in The Goddess of Light is what is the reaction of the goddess of darkness against her sister, Leora.

The Characters: 

These characters are generally new to Aegypt.  We met Kathrin in The Shadow of Light.  Her character and purpose flows from this inauspicious beginning.  The girls, Sveta and Klava come from the last bit of The Shadow of Light.  You could have guessed at what might happen to their parents.  Lumie're is absolutely rogue.  You thought motherhood would change her, how could that be.  The real surprise is Kathrin.  This is her novel, but the following will likely be hers too.

The Theme: 

The children of Lumie're and Aleksandr are found alive after many years.  One may be the goddess of darkness and bring great evil into the world.  What happens when they are introduced into the civilized world.  There is much more to this novel's theme that I won't reveal.  I will tell you, it is a theme of place, that is, taking one's appropriate place in the world.  

Teaser: