N.L. Holmes: Historical Fiction Writing - The Empire at Twilight series & The Lord Hani Mysteries - 346

N.L. Holmes: Writing Historical Fiction - The Empire at Twilight series & The Lord Hani Mysteries. This is episode 346 of Teaching Learning Leading K12, an audio podcast.

N.L. Holmes is a prolific novelist embarking on another significant career phase. Prior to taking up the power of writing and using this pen name, she was an accomplished archaeologist and teacher for 25 years. Early in her career she served as a nun for two decades. In between she was an artist and antiques dealer. Yes, she has lived an interesting life and the sum of her experiences informs and inspires her writings today.

Holmes, who earned her doctorate in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology Studies from Bryn Mawr College despite an offer to attend Princeton, has excavated in Greece and Israel, and taught ancient history and humanities at Stockton University in N.J. and University of South Florida for many years. She also did archaeological artwork for excavations from Lebanon.

With seven published novels, Holmes is the creator of The Lord Hani Mysteries. The inspiration for her Bronze Age novels came with an assignment she gave to her students one day: Here are the only documents we have telling us about royal divorce in Ugarit in the 13th century. How much can we say about what happened? She notes: “It quickly became apparent that almost anything we might come up with was as much fiction as historiography!”

She also penned The Empire At Twilight series, historical fiction set in the 13th century C.B. during the Hittite Empire.

Born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, she attended The University of Texas in the honors program but dropped out midway to enter into the antiques business. Two years later, she entered the Discalced Carmelite convent in Texas. She left the convent 20 years later and returned to school to get her B.A. in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology.

Holmes resides with her husband, three cats, and a dog. They split their time between Tampa, Florida and northern France, where she gardens, weaves, and plays the violin. They have an adult son.

Awesome conversation!

Lots to learn.

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Connect & Learn More:

https://www.nlholmes.com/

nlholmesbooks@gmail.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/n-l-holmes/

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Length - 34:11