Forbidden (29 page)

“There are times, Jayden, when a woman’s emotions run higher and fuller than the waves on the Akabah Sea, threatening to drag her to the bottom and drown her.”

My mother’s words had been true nearly a year ago, and they were still true, but I wouldn’t drown. I would rise above the waves of danger and death and fear.

“You have become one of a long line of goddess women at last, Jayden,” I heard her whisper as the wind swept over the hills and across the Assyrian plains. “Just like the ancient goddess who gave us life and power and womanhood so long ago. Nobody can ever take that away from you.”

Danger and uncertainty twisted deep in my belly as the universe around me shifted. Images of my ancestors danced before my eyes; unseen spirits of the ancients pushed against my back, and I felt as though I were being flung across a new threshold. But it was a doorway I wanted to enter, a life I wanted to live. I was creating my own time now, apart from the women’s circle of my tribe and my mother, separate from my father and my grandmother and Leila and all that I’d known.

I wouldn’t see the people I loved for a long time, if ever again. The desert was a harsh master and never held any promises. But this was a step into a world
I
had chosen. A world I would fight for, a clan I would die for, and I knew that my life would never be the same again.

I
t’s almost surreal to be writing the acknowledgments for this novel. The setting and time period and people of the ancient Middle East have been a love interest and passion of mine for close to twenty years. I purchased, borrowed, and read stacks of books and researched until my eyes went blurry. It’s been ten years since I wrote a messy draft of the first chapter of
Forbidden
. The story has gone through countless configurations—too many to keep track of over a decade, but my love for the story’s roots and its themes of family, faith, dance, and courage has never diminished. Publishing this novel, which is close to my heart and soul, is a deeply satisfying event and honestly I’m thrilled to pieces.

Even though a writer sits alone with her paper, pencils, keyboard, and imagination, no writer’s journey to publication is ever solitary—thank goodness, or we’d be certifiably nuts by
the time we reached The End! I’m thankful and indebted to Jim and Carol Gee and our Jordanian tour guide, for taking us to all the behind-the-scenes wonder that is the ancient glorious city of Petra. It was a thrill to travel the ancient King’s Highway and visit their Bedouin friends in their tents and caves. The deserts and mountains of Jordan are stark and magnificent and awe-inspiring. Riding jeeps through the scenery of Wadi Rum was like a dream and literally took my breath away. Memories never to be forgotten.

I am blessed with many friends who read with enthusiasm from the very beginning when the story was awkward and gangly in its infancy. First, the Fems: my long-ago critique group of dear friends and talented women: Carolee Dean, Kris Conover, Nancy Hatch, Marty Hill, and Neecy Twinem. Thank you for always lifting me up when I brought a new chapter and giving me terrific advice.

After four years when I was lost and wondering if I was on the right track, Shutta Crum generously read the manuscript and nearly burned her dinner because she couldn’t put it down. Shutta, you gave me the impetus to write a new draft and keep going, thank you!

Still, the story needed new plot oomph and it was Lisa Ann Sandell who provided inspiration and a push when I rewrote the manuscript again two years ago. Her comments and insight pushed me to think harder and deeper, and many parts of the story came alive in new ways. Thank you so much, Lisa!

Two women have recently come into my life and become my new best friends: Jackie Garlick-Pynaert and Martina
Boone, both brilliant writers and story analysts. You adorable gals have played a huge role this past year in helping me bring Jayden’s story to new heights. I will be forever grateful.

My incredible agent, Tracey Adams, stuck with me through some major ups and downs with
Forbidden
, but never wavered in her belief in this book. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, plus a deep well of gratitude to the entire Adams Literary team!

Tremendous appreciation also goes to Karen Chaplin whose enthusiasm and love for this project carried me through hard revisions and delays and lots of personal angst along the way. Our first marvelous phone conversation on the day you made the offer for the entire trilogy will remain in my memory forever. I’m grateful to the entire HarperCollins team of assistants and copy editors and cover designers for their hard work and dedication to
Forbidden
. Working with you all is a dream come true.

Finally, I am always grateful to my husband, Rusty, and our children, Aaron, Jared, Adam, and Milly, for letting me spend time with my imaginary world and characters and for indulging me in those revision nights when I begged for take-out burgers to keep me sane.

For pictures and photo albums of the Middle East and the friendly Jordanian Bedu people, please visit my website, Pinterest pages, or Facebook photo albums.

www.kimberleygriffithslittle.com

M
y fascination with the ancient time periods of Mesopotamia began more than fifteen years ago when I heard a magical story about how the Arabian horse was bred and raised on the deserts by the nomadic tribes. After researching the roots of the story and publishing a version of it in
Cricket
magazine, the first flicker that originally sparked my imagination became a bonfire of intrigue and passion.

I spent the next several years reading everything I could find. The writings of early explorers and adventurers daring to cross the Empty Quarter of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Oman on the Arabian Sea Peninsula, as well as the writings of nineteenth-century historians, researchers, and members of various Bedu tribes who have written personally about growing up on the desert with their tents and camels. A lifestyle and culture that has remained virtually unchanged over thousands of years.

I’ve also been fascinated by the historical figure and prophet Abraham and his posterity that has virtually spread throughout the world over the last 4,000 years. I chose that era for my own since I would not be held accountable for errors in a history that is unwritten except for the Old Testament (written several hundred years after Abraham’s lifetime). But I’ve written enough historical fiction and novels about other cultures over the last fifteen years that I painstakingly strive to make my books as accurate as I possibly can.

We don’t know the exact dates when Abraham lived; historians put it anywhere from 2000 to 1800 BCE. I split the
difference and chose approximately 1900 BCE. We know from Biblical records that he lived 175 years. He and his wife Sarah had a son they named Isaac. His son, Jacob, had twelve sons of his own, who are well known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel, some of whom are the ancestors of the Hebrew people of Moses (who lived approximately 500 years after Abraham).

Abraham’s second son by Hagar was called Ishmael. His offspring of twelve sons/tribes spread throughout the deserts of Arabia and became known as the Arab people. I chose one of the lesser known sons’ progeny, Naphish (sometimes spelled Nephish) to depict in my story.

The tribes of the modern-day Middle East descend from the Twelve Tribes of Ishmael. Four thousand years later, the Islamic people still revere Abraham as a prophet and their ancestor. In the time period of my story, his descendants, those twelve sons/tribes of Ishmael, would have tried to follow Abraham’s teachings and way of life while other local city dwellers worshipped the deities (gods and goddesses) of the local temples and religions.

In 1759 BCE, King Hammurabi was the king and ruler of Babylon and actually did lay siege to the ancient city of Mari on the Euphrates River, as he conquered many nations to bring them under the Babylonian Empire.

The Queen of Sheba is mentioned in this story as well. This is not the same queen who visited King Solomon in Jerusalem (called Salem in the time period of
Forbidden
), since that queen lived in approximately 960 BCE. But the Kingdom of Sheba existed in the far reaches of the modern-day country of Yemen on the southern borders of Arabia and was ruled
by various kings and queens through the centuries. The name “Sheba” was not the given name of the queen but refers to the name of the land, or the Kingdom of Saba/Sheba. The people of Saba are called Sabaeans. Archeological excavations continue in Yemen, unearthing palaces and dams from thousands of years ago.

Interestingly, after the death of Abraham’s wife Sarah, he married an Arab woman by the name of Keturah. Their son, Jokshan, fathered two sons he named Sheba and Dedan. But before Abraham’s grandsons, there were also two grandsons named Sheba and Dedan through Cush, Noah’s son. Their descendants spread south into the lands of modern-day Yemen, also known as Arabia Felix, more than a thousand years before the Queen of Sheba who is linked to King Solomon in 960 BCE.

Kadesh, who is from the southern frankincense land of Oman, is a descendant of Noah and Abraham through the tribes of Dedan and Sheba. More about Kadesh, as well as the Dedan and Sabaean tribes’/kingdoms’ return, will be explored in the second book of the Forbidden trilogy.

Discerning readers might notice a mention of the country Ethiopia, in the horn of Africa. In Biblical and ancient Egyptian texts, it was called Kush or Nubia. It was also known as Abyssinia over the last several hundred years. I used Ethiopia so readers would have an easier time determining the geography of the story.

I also purposely stayed away from specific physical descriptions of my characters, except in hair and eye color. Researchers
still debate what ancient people in Egypt and the Middle East thousands of years ago actually looked like. I didn’t think it was necessary to mention skin hue or to say he/she was “olive-skinned,” etc., because I don’t think it matters. Readers can picture the characters however they want to. Some people would have been lighter or darker skinned, depending on where they were from—or how much time they spent outside. In addition to modesty and religious traditions, a prevailing reason people wore—and still wear—clothing that covers their limbs, including head and face scarves, was to protect themselves from the brutal sun, wind, and blowing sand.

The ancient dance depicted in
Forbidden
is founded in the roots of dance that predate written history. The descriptions of the dancing statues mentioned in the story are based on stone and wood statues found in archeological digs around the Middle East. Often called Oriental Dance or
Raqs Sharqi
, (an Egyptian term developed a hundred years ago to depict tribal folk dances), the dance is now called by its modern-day term, “belly dance.” The dance was used as exercise, preparation for birth, entertainment, weddings, women’s private social gatherings, and in the ancient goddess temples.

If you have any further questions about the historical aspects of
Forbidden
, please email me at [email protected] or visit my website, www.kimberleygriffithslittle.com.

About the Author

Photo by DeAnn Payne

KIMBERLEY GRIFFITHS LITTLE
was born in San Francisco, but now lives in New Mexico with her husband and their three sons. For such award-winning middle grade novels as
When the Butterflies Came, The Last Snake Runner, The Healing Spell
, and
Circle of Secrets
, her writing has been praised as “fast-paced and dramatic,” with “characters painted in memorable detail” and “beautifully realized settings.” Kimberley adores anything old and musty with a secret story to tell. She’s stayed in the haunted tower room at Borthwick Castle in Scotland; sailed on the Seine in Paris; ridden a camel in Petra, Jordan; shopped the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul; and spent the night in an old Communist hotel in Bulgaria.

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