Notes
I got Scorpion King on DVD and watched it, not really knowing what to expect. The Rock? Who was he?--other than one of those ridiculous professional wrestlers. And the trailers made it look like nothing more than a ninety-minute episode of Hercules or Xena. But I sat down and watched it anyway, and... Wow. Just, wow. Who is that Rock guy? A damn fine specimen of the male species, if you ask me.
And then I watched The Mummy Returns, wanting nothing more than to get a little more of the Rock. Instead, I got "The Valley of the Dead." How on earth could that hero-fellow from Scorpion King have turned into the madman of the Mummy Returns prologue? The question instantly captivated me, and I went straight from watching Brendan Fraser killing off the Scorpion King monster, to the computer to write chapter one of Valley.
The actual plot didn't coalesce until somewhere around chapter five. I needed a name for the boy, since the credits had just called Tutu Sweeney's character "Street Urchin." Looking up a list of first dynasty kings gave me the name Menes, and plopped a ready-made ending into my lap. That was the first occurrence of synchronicity, but not the last. Another quirky convenience was the location of Esna and Edfu, "twin cities" in Egypt that suited my purposes perfectly; "Sodom" even had a temple to Horus, who would involve himself again later in the story.
Enter Pinky, my plot goddess. She helped me work out the knots in the tangled web I'd woven, and she beta read several chapters that came out godawful at first. Thanks, Pinky. Any leftover confusion (or godawfulness, for that matter) is entirely my fault.
And then I met ArtemisAristoboule, who has actually gone on archaeological digs and actually has an extensive library concerning Egyptology. Without her, I would have still been doing research. Artemis is a one-woman encyclopedia. Thanks, Artemis. I'm sure there are mistakes galore in the historical details of Valley, but they're all mine.
Melissa pointed out the need for a name for Mathayus' necropolis. Thanks, Mel. Fate provided me with the name of Naqada, which is an actual necropolis and has connections with both the historical King Scorpion and the god Set. After I found that, things kept eerily falling into place--Narmer, Djer, Set's deceptions, and even the Narmer Palette mentioned in the final chapter. The framework seemed to have been there all along, just waiting for someone to fit the characters in. I mentioned eeriness, didn't I?
Then again, Egypt has always been connected to the mysterious and magical.
There's a few easter eggs in Valley, for those interested in such things. I got the name Anakronos from "anachronism," which Scorpion King is full of. (Gunpowder, crossbows, and chainmail, anyone?) Drove Artemis nuts, but I didn't mind. The name of the Ethiopian envoy, Selasser, comes from Haile Selassie, a historical Ethiopian king. The name of Wekil, the ill-fated red guard, comes from Arabic and means "lieutenant," I think. And as far as I can figure, Ahawetsebwet means, basically, "Star Wars." Couldn't resist making that one up.
The golden bracelet with the jackal-headed scorpion is, of course, the bracelet from Mummy Returns that guides the re-resurrected Imhotep to the Scorpion King's lair. Why's it show the way there? Because it was made to show Menes the way home to his father, no matter where he was. All together, now: "Awwwwwwwww..." The camel "humphing" at Mathayus in chapter fourteen is a reference to Rudyard Kipling's "How the Camel Got His Hump." (By humphing, that's how!)
Philos makes a wink-wink, nudge-nudge reference to the "real" oracle Cassandra, whom Greek legend describes as perpetually disbelieved and ignored. Aesop's fable about the fox and the scorpion is in there too, and is written into part of the plot. Balthazar's death had to happen for plot purposes, but (in another of those weird/handy coincidences) links up with Osiris' death: both were married to women named Isis, and both were killed by brothers (Set was Osiris' brother, and Mathayus, Balthazar's brother-in-arms). Set's involvement woven into the plot sweetened the whole deal.
And finally, the title of chapter twenty, "I Stand Alone," is the title of the song written for the movie by Godsmack.
Bibliography
Books
Egyptian Magic, by E.A. Wallis Budge
The Dwellers on the Nile, by E.A. Wallis Budge
Osiris, by E.A. Wallis Budge
Gods and Myths of Ancient Egypt, by Mary Bennet
Pharaohs and Kings, by David M. Rohl
Fascinating Hieroglyphics, by Christian Jacq
The Atlas of Early Man, by Jacquetta Hawkes
Websites
http://www.kenseamedia.com/august/month.htm
http://www.touregypt.net/
http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/anubis.htm
http://www.uic.edu/classes/osci/osci590/13_2%20Birth%20Control%20in%20Antiquity.htm
http://www.hp.uab.edu/image_archive/ta/tad.html
http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/weapons/
http://www.jimloy.com/egypt/egypt.htm