Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Tour Stop!!! KIYA: Rise of a New Dynasty by Katie Hamstead! @KatieTeller1

Today, I am excited to bring you an awesome guest post from Katie Hamstead! Her Queen Kiya trilogy has sadly come to an end, but really, all that means is you can now read them back to back and binge on an amazing series!!! 

Who doesn't love a good book binge!?!?!? 

HUGE congratulations on a fantastic, successful debut series, Katie!!! I'm so proud to have been a part of your amazing journey!!! <3 

KIYA: Rise of a New Dynasty
Queen Kiya, Book Three
By
Katie Hamstead

Tut has grown into his position as Pharaoh, but he is a wild young man. Naomi fears for him, not only because of his recklessness, but because he has put his trust in Ay–the man determined to destroy Naomi—despite her and Horemheb advising against it.
Meanwhile, death and slavery hang over Naomi and her family. With fear of the booming Hebrew numbers causing talk of enslaving them, conscription is reinstated and Naomi fears for the lives of her other children. Especially since Ay's children are now adults, and just as dangerous as their father. They threaten to take Itani, conspire against Tut, and push for power.
But Tut is in trouble. While Ay's daughter draws Horemheb's attention, and Naomi deals with the struggles of her family, everyone's distraction could spell death for the young Pharaoh.


Grab your copy today!





And now, I'll give the floor to Katie . . . take it away, yo! 

Culture and Foods

Holidays in Ancient Egypt usually revolved around the gods. With only the Aten, most of these were done away with during Akhenaten's reign.

But the Hebrews had plenty of rituals and holidays, although, none are touched on until book 2 in the Kiya Trilogy. They did things in seven periods—the 7th day was the Sabbath, the 7th year was a time where slaves were freed, etc. They also had festivals for harvests, and much later, (post Kiya) the Passover was introduced.

During the reign of Akhenaten, the art grew more realistic and stylized rather than the traditional rigid, angular forms. Akhenaten was often portrayed kissing his family, and in other informal scenes previously shunned by royals as they were perceived as showing weakness.

Food. Meat wise, the Egyptians ate food like pork, lamb, mutton, duck, eggs, beef, veal and fish. I wasn't able to find if they ate chickens or not, it's likely though since they definitely had eggs, but those could have been duck or other fowl eggs, maybe even crocodile!

Here are some basic fruit, veg and grains they ate. Naomi mentions most of these foods at some point throughout the books.

I don't know exactly what type of apple they ate, but apples were definitely a popular fruit.

Chickpeas were probably used in a similar way to rice or potatoes today, as filler and a side.

Dates. Tut’s favorite.

 Lettuce

Pomegranate. This is Naomi's favorite fruit. 

Figs


The Egyptians brewed beer. They used barley based recipes.

So there you have it. Egyptian food. Naomi didn't eat things such as pork and likely not beer because she was Hebrew, but she would have eaten everything else.


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