Author: ejurus

  • March Madness in Bookland

    March Madness in Bookland

    ‘But I don’t want to go among mad people,’ said Alice. ‘Oh, you can’t help that,’ said the cat. ‘We’re all mad here.’ Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll Do you also feel as if we’ve all tumbled down a rabbit-hole into a strange world where nothing makes sense? When I…

  • Irish travel: inspired by books

    Irish travel: inspired by books

    When I turned the final page of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, I wanted to crawl back inside. While the books are overly-descriptive for some people, I found the details of Middle Earth so fascinating that I couldn’t get enough of them. I wanted to visit Middle Earth, follow…

  • Being a bold woman today

    Being a bold woman today

    “And I may say, once for all, carefully weighing my words, that in no part of the world have I seen stones cut with such mathematical precision and admirable skill as in Peru, and in no part of Peru are there any to surpass those which are scattered over the…

  • Characters from books to screen: good, bad, misguided

    Characters from books to screen: good, bad, misguided

    About 30 minutes into the first Lord of the Rings movie, I was ticked off, and spent the next three hours fuming. Now, for that movie my problem wasn’t with the casting – except for the ridiculous choice of actress to play Lady Arwen – but with the many, many…

  • When life mirrors my books!

    When life mirrors my books!

    My hubby, along with a number of people I know, isn’t a particular fan of vegetables. He’ll eat them under sufferance because he knows they’re good for him, and because I won’t let him eat just meat, potatoes and gravy all the time. So I can only imagine his reaction…

  • The Lost Ark, a real-life treasure hunt

    The Lost Ark, a real-life treasure hunt

    If you were going to bring back the early adventure epics to the big screen, what better story than a roguish professor and archeologist searching for the greatest lost treasure in history? The Ark of the Covenant was the most important artifact of biblical times – the repository of God’s…

  • Fantasy jobs: Treasure hunter for the British Museum

    Fantasy jobs: Treasure hunter for the British Museum

    In 1998 I, my hubby and my in-laws got to pretend we were Indiana Jones for a few hours. Hubby & I had driven down to Florida to join his parents for a week at a family condo in Clearwater, and in the news before we left I saw a…

  • The End of a Train Era

    The End of a Train Era

    In Egypt, there were miles of sand, which refused to remain pleasantly flat. It made the tracks undulate so much that it gave our train a pronounced sway – so much so that at times it felt like the car holding our cabin was going to tip right over. There…

  • Curses! It’s a Mummy!

    Curses! It’s a Mummy!

    Death will come on swift wings to whomsoever opens this chest.“It’s the curse! It’s the curse! Beware of the curse!” Beni.“Stupid, superstitious bastard.” Daniels.The Mummy, 1999 “CARNARVON’S DEATH SPREADS THEORIES ABOUT VENGEANCE; In Egypt, England, France and Here, Occultists Advance Stories of Angered Gods.LONDON, April 5.—Genuine regret is expressed here…

  • Inspired by Ancient Mythology

    Inspired by Ancient Mythology

    Along with the eerie literature and movies that were big influences for me as a child and early story-teller (Edgar Allan Poe, The Twilight Zone, etc.), I also grew up on what I loosely call ‘sword-and-sandal’ movies. Officially, the term ‘sword-and-sandal’ refers to a popular genre of Italian knock-off movies…