Page McBrier

In my middle-grade novel, Abracadabra Tut, a cobra makes a startling appearance. Well, I suppose any snake creates shock and awe. The other day, while hiking in a California desert, a very long yellow snake with brown patterns slithered across the trail. My first thought was RATTLESNAKE, but then I quickly noticed that this snake had no rattles. I found out later that it was a harmless GOPHER SNAKE. The park ranger explained that they’re frequently mistaken for rattlers, and

In ancient times (and even today in parts of the developing world), ordinary people had to grow their own food. Imagine a family plowing and then sowing the seeds they had carefully dried and saved from last year’s harvest after the floodwaters of the Nile had receded, only to have their new crop visited by a hoard of locusts. Not only did these flying short-horned grasshoppers swarm in to gobble up the seeds, leaves, stems, and shoots but also their toxic droppings poisoned

In ancient times, most Egyptians enjoyed a good life. Thanks to the annual flooding of the Nile, enough food could be grown and harvested to guarantee no one went hungry. Pharaohs and their large extended families lived in beautiful palaces with high ceilings, tiled floors, and grand columned rooms painted with scenes from nature. Year-round warm weather allowed wealthy or well-connected Egyptians to enjoy outdoor living spaces landscaped with reflecting pools and fruit trees

Curious about the mummy’s coffin? The spooky coffin featured in our soon to be released video trailer belongs to Bill Franzen, who famously provides the town of Ridgefield, CT with a magnificent backyard Halloween display every year. I happened across the mummy while cruising through his “Egyptian section” a few Halloweens back, and he cheerfully lent it to us for the video. The design is based on the real King Tut’s coffin, or should I say “coffins.” Did you know that three

These days, every book deserves a video book trailer. Like cell phones, they’re ubiquitous. New book, new trailer. It’s part of the package. Social media has made self-promotion easy. All you need to do is be relentless. To meet the book trailer expectation, blockbusters from large publishing houses hire full-on production teams to tempt readers to buy the latest from this or that author. Other authors whose publishers don’t have the budget for a book trailer have to figure t

It’s ironic that ISIS, the anacronym for the Islamic terrorist group whose horrific murder of reporter James Foley last week created an international outpouring of outrage and sorrow, shares its name with the ancient Egyptian goddess, Isis. The two couldn’t be further apart. The goddess Isis, revered from earliest Egypt to the Greco-Roman period, was described in the Book of the Dead as "she who gives birth to heaven and earth, knows the orphan, knows the widow, seeks justice