“Creative writing that pleases others is most satisfying, but only as an affirmation of what one’s Muses have aleady dictated. We are possessed by imagination more than we possess it."
All About Me
Gregory Michael Nixon read Homer’s Iliad at 15 while throwing bales for the summer on his uncle’s hereford ranch in Saskatchewan, Canada. Homer’s hero, Diomedes, became wedged in his mind as a heroic ideal, but he was troubled for his story was incomplete. Ever since, he has been drawn to ancient myth and history. He put this interest aside to become a high school teacher for ten years until he left a wife and a house behind to pursue higher education. He attained a doctorate in philosophy from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and spent about a decade as a peripatetic university professor in the USA, shedding another wife and house in that time. He returned to Canada again to attend to his dying father and become a professor at a university in northern British Columbia for thirteen years. As an academic, he published numerous research papers in the philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, and consciousness studies. One of his more cited papers is “Myth and Mind: The Origin of Human Consciousness in the Discovery of the Sacred,” which indicates his central philosophic position. His third wife and third house slipped through his hands, so he retired to rent a cottage in the hills above scenic Okanagan Lake and live only with his grey cat, Nigel. There, he found he still had the creative imagination to at long last begin writing his mythicohistorical novels on the post-Troy adventures of Diomedes set during the Bronze Age Collapse. The Diomedeia: Diomedes, the Peoples of the Sea and the Fall of the Hittite Empire (2022) came first, and Diomedes in Kyprios (2024), set mainly on the island of Cyprus, soon followed. Will there be a trilogy that brings Diomedes back to Hellas (Greece)?
My HP Books
This is a historically-based novel with authentic, mythic, & fictional characters interacting across the extraordinary panorama after the Fall of Troy and the Hittite Empire during the Bronze Age Collapse.
Diomedes leads his Akhaians (Achaeans) to the Isle of Kyprios (now Cyprus) to meet his lost love, Lieia, the ex-queen of the Hittites. Kyprios is where the Peoples of the Sea have gathered before their final assaults on Canaan and Aigyptos (Egypt). But Diomedes unexpectedly meets the avatar of the Goddess Aphrodite at her Temple in Paphos, the city of her birth. Will she take him from Lieia? Will his wanderings end, or will he head back to sea to seek redemption from the past in the further unknown? Aphrodite must also deal with the beautiful, impetuous youth, Adonis, who swears he would die for her.
The Bronze Age Collapse was a time of such chaos that empires fell, royalty was overthrown, palaces and temples were destroyed, and the hierarchy of the gods was doubted, yet people’s self-reliance emerged like never before, and the ancient Great Goddess of the Cycles of Time, who had been suppressed, began to regain her former dominance.
Book Excerpt
So Diomede and perhaps the others who chose to sail west into the heart of the storm instead of staying in Paphos had been mistaken about Kyprios. Even though chaos and city conquests were still bringing down the world around them and despite the megadrought continuing to ravage other lands, most of Kyprios managed to survive by planning and working together within the intercity reforms Diomedes put in place. Paphos itself flourished as the spiritual heart of New Kyprios.
“Mother, are you out here again?” Her beautiful chestnut-haired daughter appeared and hugged her tightly. “Are you wondering about my father again?”
“Just looking at the stars, Harmonia,” Lieia responded.
“Mother,” Harmonia continued, “You explained that he didn’t know of me. But now that I am older and understand more, I have to ask how that could be.”
“My daughter, I stopped using the wisewoman’s protection when it was clear he was leaving. I never told him. I’m sure he never would have left had he known, but I did not wish to force his hand so deceitfully. And it is probably best this way, for when my human end comes, you will carry on here as the reborn Aphrodite. As your name implies, you will bring harmony and love to Paphos and maybe well beyond. Where there is love there is hope, even in these dark times.”
“Mother, are you implying there might not be love? Can there be places or times when there is no love at all, no hope? How can that be? It sounds like sacrilege for Aphrodite.”
“Yes, my Harmonia. If there is harmony, it can only exist as the polarity of disharmony. If there is love, and there is, it can only exist as the opposite of hate and fear, which can also rule hearts beyond all human control. A god of love alone would be a lie, alas. This is why the other gods exist.”
Book Reviews
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
5.0 out of 5 stars Remarkable and Enthralling Historical Fiction...A Must-Read!
Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2024 - ANTHONY AVINA
This was a powerful and compelling read. The author did an incredible job of infusing great detail into the narrative, exploring the ancient cities and states of the old world before they became what we know today, from Kyprios being Cyprus to Aigyptos becoming Egypt. The imagery in the author’s writing style brought these ancient cities and their peoples to life perfectly, and the evolution of Diomedes and Lieia as characters really took off, giving them each new role and path to explore. Seeing Diomedes adjusting to life after the first book's events and trying to become a creator more than a destroyer was such a great story, and the compelling journey of Lieia as Aphrodite’s avatar was mesmerizing.
The balance of genres in this book was really what brought the whole story together. The emotional connection and story between Diomedes and Lieia were great uses of romance. At the same time, the military action and adventure of the narrative added depth to the fantastic historical fiction storytelling of the book, allowing readers to feel embedded into the conflicts that would follow, including an attack on the Sea People from what would be the Ancient Egyptians.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent High Bronze age Adventure and Romance.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 9, 2024
Verified Purchase - L. FARRELL
I love a story that takes you places you've never been before, immerses you in a fictional factual world and at its end lingers with you and evokes a nostalgia for the adventure read and a sadness at the end of the story. That it's finished. This is just that. Written by an author who is authoritative in their knowledge of ancient history and Bronze age myth and who pumps fresh vigor and life into the great historical and romantic epic with a wonderful archetypal but flawed hero at its heart set in the birthplace of Aphrodite. The pace is different in this excellent original sequel to Nixon's first high Bronze age adventure. Whereas the first book was full of the dry heat of battle and high adventure this sequal follows a ‘reborn’ Diomedes on his travels to Kyprios where the ‘Peoples of the Sea’ are gathering along with Queen Lieia the woman he adores. The story has a warmer breeze and is full of twists, turns, intrigue and treachery. Wonderfully told with an attention to period detail. Nixon in both books delivers a new story whilst putting flesh on the bones of the mythic Mediterranean and Middle Eastern worlds set during a period of cultural tectonic upheavals of legendary proportions amongst the established power sources. Enjoy. I did.
