This week the big news in the U.S. has been about torture, as conducted by the C.I.A. after 9/11. I’ve spent some time with the comments section in my hometown newspaper: the majority of readers are outraged, while some defend the practice. Some even seem naïve enough to be shocked. However, most ruling elites, ours […]
Archive | Middle East
Elijah and Olive Oil
By Martha Shelley on December 7, 2014 in Elijah, Israel, Middle East, Researching a Historical Novel, The Throne in the Heart of the Sea
People have asked me how I went about researching a historical novel. Here’s one example. Developing Elijah was a major challenge, both in my first and second novels. He appears in the Bible quite suddenly, a full-blown champion of justice, complete with miracles. All we know about his past is that he was from a […]
Blood Sacrifice in Israel
Thirty years ago I visited Israel for the first time, partly to do research for my novels about Jezebel. In Jerusalem I passed a store window with small but colorful posters—artistic imaginings—of the ancient Temple, supposedly built by Solomon. The storefront was the information center of a religious group that wanted to tear down the […]