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Welcome to my blog, which I call The Purple Parchment. I hope you’ll find these posts interesting, leave comments, return often, and become a subscriber. And if you’re curious to know why I chose a name like The Purple Parchment, click here.
I’m Martha Marks, the author of Rubies of the Viper, a mystery/romantic-suspense novel set in first-century Rome and Syria. A sequel, The Viper Amulet, is now in the first-draft stage. I anticipate that there will be one more sequel after that.
My “Martha’s Art” website showcases both Rubies of the Viper and my wildlife photography. But I decided also to blog about the wealth of fascinating information on the first century that I have discovered (and continue discovering) in the course of researching and writing my novels.
I’ve organized the material here into two sections.
Section 1: FASCINATING FACTS covers a variety of subjects related to the first century: agriculture, cities, houses, language, rural places, slavery, travel, women, etc.
Section 2: RUBIES OF THE VIPER provides additional insights into the historical characters—Nero, Otho, Poppaea Sabina, and the Flavians: Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, and Flavia Domitilla—and the fictional characters—Theodosia, Alexander, Stefan, Nizzo, and Lucilla—who populate my novel. There’s also a synopsis, a map of places in the book (95 KB PDF), and a 42-page sample (478 KB PDF). Please enjoy the sample and share it with others who might be interested.
All text on this site is copyright © Martha Marks.
