

You think the traffic on Main Street is bad?
It’s nothing compared with the city traffic in Roman Alexandria. For example, in THE DEADLIEST SPORT, Miriam mentions the street...


How Your Review Helps An Author
Readers choose books based on recommendations. Leaving a sprinkle of stars and a sentence or two on Amazon is enough for a review. After...


Please pass me the sesame cakes.
Miriam serves these sesame cakes warm and topped with currants and dates after a Shabbat meal, but she also takes them with her when...


Posca, anyone?
Posca, made from cheap, watered-down sour wine or vinegar and herbs, was a popular drink among peasants and Roman soldiers. Its acidity...


Black Opal Books has just released THE DEADLIEST SPORT!
The trouble is Miriam faces her biggest problem yet! The Deadliest Sport is a locked-room murder mystery; the victim, a guest at The...


CHANGING A GIGGLE TO A GASP
Miriam and Judah arrive at the home of a visiting sage. A house slave answers their knock. Miriam gives us this account: “Looking so much...


Gladiatorial combat isn’t the only deadly sport.
In The Deadliest Sport, Miriam has reason to be afraid. “I dread attending Binyamin’s bout but not because I’m afraid he’ll lose. He told...


The Tablinium
In a Roman-style home, the tablinium is the room off the atrium where the head of the household conducts business. In Chapter One of The...


HAVE YOU PLAYED ONE OF THE OLDEST GAMES IN THE WORLD?
Knucklebones is an ancient game of toss and catch mentioned by Sophocles and alluded to in the Iliad and the Odyssey. The bones come from...


Let me share the news! Don’t miss DEMON RISING, a fascinating new book by DeAnna Browne, a colleague
History of Magic sparks A New Novel, DEMON RISING by DeAnna Browne Most fiction starts with a single idea. For my novel, DEMON RISING, it...