Early Christmas Ideas - Middle-Eastern Fantasy

Why would books based on middle-eastern myth be appropriate for a Christmas present?

Because any book is a great gift, and  my middle-eastern books are far more Disney than bin Laden.

Before Mohammad, the Aramaic people had a variety of religions. Within these religions, a pantheon of gods were worshiped, placated, begged of, and permeated the hearts and minds of those who lived in Persia, Mesopotamia, Canaan, Sumeria, Phrygia, Egypt (the most consistent of kingdom names), and many more which rose and fell.

Two of my books, I consider to be my middle-eastern cycle. Will there be more to come? It all depends on whether you, dear reader, let me know it's worth my time to continue. How will I know that? First, you could buy the books in ebook or print format. Second, you could review the books you have read (whether getting them free or by purchase). Third, you could tell me here, on Google+, Facebook, Twitter, or by email whether I should or not.

No Longer Available

First, there was "Cadida and the Djinn." I wrote this short story decades ago. Back then, I wasn't submitting any writing anywhere. It was a nuisance having to print a double-spaced copy with the approved font, margins, information on the first page, titles centered just so. Also, it was difficult to find any publications that accepted submissions. Anyway, I was working full-time with two kids, and a husband often absent because his job required travel to distant places where he stayed for months blowing things up.

No Longer Available

When I could get back to writing and the internet helped me find publication submission requirements, I wrote another Cadida story titled "Cadida and the Cave Demon." Both stories were taken in by Sam's Dot Publishing (now virtually gone). The two stories were produced as chapbooks. Nobody was creating ebooks back then either. I wrote five more Cadida stories and all of them were bundled in a single book, "The Seven Adventures of Cadida."

While researching various mythologies, I was reminded of Scheherazade's 1001 Arabian Nights. While 7 is far short of 1001, I liked the idea of the frame story. I wanted a story teller sitting in an ancient bazaar telling tales for a few coins. I discovered the poet Abu Nuwas and borrowed his persona to be my storyteller.

The frame story contained the telling of the seven adventures of the adventurous girl and her genie. I'd made up my original character names, but I now wanted them all to have proper middle-eastern names. Thus Cadida became Setara, Bascoda the djinn became Basit, and so on.

This compilation became "The Tales of Abu Nuwas."

Since I had some left over demons and deities, I wrote another novella based on middle-eastern mythology. It became "Quest for the Simurgh."

I then placed both books with MuseItUp Publishing (yes, they knew these were previously published). They books became "Setara's Genie" and "Faizah's Destiny."

You can buy any of these variations from Amazon, MuseItUp, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Smashwords, etc. for various prices.

Since I produced both the ebooks and print books of "The Tales of Abu Nuwas" and "Quest for the Simurgh," I have made them Amazon Matchbooks. Buy the paperback of Quest and get the ebook free. Buy the paperback of Abu Nuwas and get the ebook for 99 cents.

Now my tale of two books becoming four books is complete. All the links to buy sites are readily available on another page of this blog and in the sidebars and on my website.