11-30-2008, 11:17 AM
Hi, I'm Jeremy Elkington. Brand-spanking new here. I'm glad I found this site as I have been interested in ancient Rome since I was about 8 years old - started with looking at the pictures of Romans in Asterix comics. My interest really kicked in a gear with the first novel of Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series, getting the first one in the year it came out, which was my first year of high school. Since then I've loved reading about the last century of the Republic and especially Caesar, Sulla etc. and particularly the Roman army and the appearance of the soldiers, which appealed to my interest in art/drawing. Spent much of my high school days drawings Roman soldiers and head busts of important Roman figures.
For the last three years I have been working on a novel set in the last century of the Roman Republic. The primary focus is on the careers of the towering men of that day - Caesar, Lucullus, Antony, Pompey, Crassus, Sulla etc. I guess the main focus is on Caesar but I am incorporating a lot of details on the campaigns, battles, tactics and the arms and armour of those days, aiming for complete authenticity and to bring the dangerous excitement of such to life. I really hope it all works out and aim to submit the final draft (its currently about 600 pages) to publishers in mid to late 2009.
Aside from that, I am currently a secondary school teacher and also an artist, which allows me to focus on my other love which is the Middle Eastern desert landscapes and Arabic ornament/patterns, at times incorporated with other ancient cultural art elements and surrealistic/abstract forms (oils on canvas). In the future I hope to produce a series of paintings based on Roman soldiers.
I hope to write more novels in the future and have in mind a trilogy based the idea that Caesar was not assissinated and went on to conquer Parthia, Dacia, Arabia, Germany and all of India. It would end with Caesar asking a special question at the Siwa Oasis - just like Alexander.
Still thinking about what signature to go with. I'll try not to take to long.
Cheers
Jezz
(Jeremy Elkington)
For the last three years I have been working on a novel set in the last century of the Roman Republic. The primary focus is on the careers of the towering men of that day - Caesar, Lucullus, Antony, Pompey, Crassus, Sulla etc. I guess the main focus is on Caesar but I am incorporating a lot of details on the campaigns, battles, tactics and the arms and armour of those days, aiming for complete authenticity and to bring the dangerous excitement of such to life. I really hope it all works out and aim to submit the final draft (its currently about 600 pages) to publishers in mid to late 2009.
Aside from that, I am currently a secondary school teacher and also an artist, which allows me to focus on my other love which is the Middle Eastern desert landscapes and Arabic ornament/patterns, at times incorporated with other ancient cultural art elements and surrealistic/abstract forms (oils on canvas). In the future I hope to produce a series of paintings based on Roman soldiers.
I hope to write more novels in the future and have in mind a trilogy based the idea that Caesar was not assissinated and went on to conquer Parthia, Dacia, Arabia, Germany and all of India. It would end with Caesar asking a special question at the Siwa Oasis - just like Alexander.
Still thinking about what signature to go with. I'll try not to take to long.
Cheers
Jezz
(Jeremy Elkington)