For thousands of years we’ve read about Oedipus, the fellow who married his mother. At last we can finally hear her story, for Jocasta: The Mother-Wife of Oedipus, by Victoria Grossack and Alice Underwood, is available on Audible! The narration by Sally Stewart brings Jocasta: The Mother-Wife of Oedipus to life. It’s a treat. OK, it’s more than a treat. Engaging, makes you want to laugh and to cry. Young and beautiful, born to a powerful family, Jocasta is destined to become Queen of Thebes. Trapped in a loveless marriage, she cannot save her firstborn child from her husband's wrath. After her husband's death, she must contend with the dangerous Sphinx and contrive a plan to protect her city. Charmed by a foreign prince, she does not know she is falling in love with her own son. Clytemnestra: The Mother’s Blade has just been reviewed by the Historical Novel Society! Here’s a quote: “The locales and the culture feel solidly real, and the reweave of the ancient story from Clytemnestra’s point of view is strong, engrossing, and for once the clothing described is correct for the time/place!” The Meryton Murders: A Mystery Set in the Town of Pride and Prejudice is now available on Audible! Do you have Kindle Unlimited? Or Amazon prime and a kindle? If so, you can download all our books for free! However, we only get paid if you actually read them (or at least turn the pages). In case you’re wondering, the Victoria Grossack of this website is the author of the poem, “Oh, Yes!” This is not the place for poetry (I may change my mind on that), but it’s garnering more attention than expected, so I wanted to connect the dots for those who are curious. At Long Last: Clytemnestra! Finally, we came out with the new book of the Tapestry of Bronze: Clytemnestra: The Mother’s Blade. It was published on September 1, 2017. Just click on the picture to go to Amazon. Clytemnestra, in case you need reminding, is the sister of Helen of Troy. She marries Agamemnon, who is both brother to Menelaus (Helen’s husband) and the leader of the Greek forces that go to Troy to retrieve Helen. We also show the war – and what it was like to be back home, taking care of the citadel. You’ll have the chance to meet other famous characters: wily Odysseus, fierce Achilles, Paris and Priam of Troy. From the back: Raised a princess in Sparta, Clytemnestra understands that leaders make many sacrifices.  But she is shocked when she is forced to marry the murderer of her husband and firstborn child. Though she wields great power as High Queen of Mycenae, and adores her younger children, being Agamemnon’s wife is difficult – and becomes harder after her sister Helen’s departure for Troy ignites the greatest war the world has ever seen.   Clytemnestra’s determination to protect her children and her city faces complications when a long absent prince – her husband’s hated rival – begins to claim her heart… Clytemnestra: The Mother’s Blade is consistent with the other novels in our series, but you don’t need to have read the others to understand it or appreciate it. New review from Bob Mielke, professor of English at Truman University! With Clytemnestra: The Mother’s Blade the Tapestry of Bronze series authored by Victoria Grossack and Alice Underwood achieves a soaring new height. After previously making us rethink -- and re-experience -- such famed Greek women as Jocasta, Niobe and Antigone, they have dared to reimagine for us Clytemnestra: the murderous wife of Agamemnon and mother of avenging Orestes. … Clytemnestra: The Mother’s Blade is the most action-packed and thrilling Tapestry of Bronze novel yet. One can imagine Jennifer Lawrence, Amy Adams, Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway drooling over this retelling at the prospect of playing such a character onscreen. Audaciously, the Trojan War is a mere sideshow in this incident-laden and surprisingly moving tale. … this book has it all: the intellectual act of re-envisioning the distant Hellenic past as plausible historical fact, the uncanny retelling of some very familiar stories in a strikingly new way and the pleasures of a thrilling beach read -- all at once. Updates to the Other Books We have issued new versions (2017) of our other books. One reason to do this was to include Clytemnestra: The Mother’s Blade in our list of titles, but we made a few other changes. To those that did not have them already, we added Authors’ Notes and Casts of Characters. We also include Family Trees (after finally figuring out how to make them). We have made no changes to the stories themselves, with one exception: we have standardized the spelling. When we began the Tapestry of Bronze, we often tried to make the names as close to the original Greek as possible, such as using “K” instead of “C” in order to reflect the Greek letter kappa. This, however, prevents readers from easily researching the backgrounds of characters on the internet. We now almost always use the most standard spellings. The Other Books in the Tapestry of Bronze In case you need reminding, the other books are listed over and over on this site! They are: Jocasta: The Mother-Wife of Oedipus The sequel to Jocasta, with the showdown between Jocasta’s brother Creon and her daughter Antigone: Antigone & Creon: Guardians of Thebes And the Niobe trilogy: Children of Tantalus: Niobe & Pelops The Road to Thebes: Niobe & Amphion Arrows of Artemis: Niobe & Chloris By the way, all the covers were designed by Alice. Victoria’s Other Stuff You may have landed on this page because you’re looking us up for some other reason. If you’re searching for Victoria Grossack because you’re interested in her Jane Austen novel based mysteries, rest assured that you have found the right Victoria Grossack (there actually is another; the granddaughter of one of her cousins). Victoria also writes about writing. On the side panel you will find links to information about her other books: The Meryton Murders: A Mystery Set in the Town of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice The Highbury Murders: A Mystery Set in the Village of Jane Austen’s Emma And Crafting Fabulous Fiction: Levels of Structure, Characters & More Are You Using Our Books in Your School? We know that some schools have assigned Jocasta to their classes, and that some students have used the Niobe trilogy for papers. If so, we’d love to hear from you! Please shoot us an email at tapestryofbronze (at) yahoo (dot) com. We have also added a new Teaching Mythology page to our website; we hope to update this frequently as we find new items to include. If you have lesson plans or other suggestions, please contact us at tapestryofbronze (at) yahoo (dot) com. Are You in a Book Club? Jocasta: The Mother-Wife of Oedipus makes for a lively discussion. On the page for the novel you’ll find questions. Moreover, if you’re having a meeting, we’re happy to participate either by phone or by chat. Just contact us below and let us know the details. Older Announcements “Memory Delete,” a short story by Victoria, was published by Untied Shoelaces of the Mind. Reading it costs nothing in terms of money, and very little in terms of time, so go and enjoy! The Highbury Murders will be the featured book at A Prairie Girl Reads on January 19, 2014, in honor of their time devoted to promoting cozy mysteries from indie publishers. In the first December, 2013 newsletter of NS Gill’s “About Ancient History,” she wrote that she “thoroughly enjoyed” Antigone & Creon: Guardians of Thebes, and recommended it to mythology lovers. Victoria wrote another mystery novel, Academic Assassination (A Zofia Martin Mystery). It’s a contemporary cozy in an academic setting – inevitable as her father, husband and daughter are all professors. Nice light reading! By the way, the cover was designed by Alice, who was the first beta reader. Antigone & Creon: Guardians of Thebes received two great reviews which have been promoted at The New Book Review blogspot. One was by Steve Donoghue, who reviews regularly for Kirkus reviews and The Washington Post. The other was by Bob Mielke, a professor of English at Truman State University. Victoria was interviewed by Hilary Green about the Tapestry of Bronze. Antigone & Creon: Guardians of Thebes received an absolutely fabulous review from the Historical Novel Society. In fact, the review starts by describing the whole series as magnificent. Victoria wrote a mystery novel, The Highbury Murders: A Mystery Set in the Village of Jane Austen's Emma, which has nothing to do with Greek mythology but is still a great read, especially if you have always wished to combine Jane Austen with Agatha Christie. She was also interviewed about writing The Highbury Murders by My Jane Austen Book Club in June 2013. The Mystery of the Delphic Oracle, an article, was published in February, 2013. The Ode to Hephaestus winners (Spring 2013 contest) can be found here. Children of Tantalus: Niobe & Amphion was selected as the book for a face-to-face book club in Morgins, Switzerland. “The Myth Behind the Olympics” was published at Unexplained Mysteries on July 27, 2012. Victoria started as a columnist at Writing-World in July, 2012. Her column is called “Creating Fabulous Fiction.” Her columns have been so popular that the editor has been forced to write stern pieces on how wrong it is to use the articles without permission. Victoria was blog-interviewed by Jennifer Brown Banks at Pen and Pro$per on June 13, 2012. And speaking of book clubs, the on-line discussion group, “Historical Fictionistas” over at www.goodreads.com has chosen Jocasta: The Mother-Wife of Oedipus for its next “featured author group read.” The dates are March 15, 2012 (the ides of March! Hope we have better luck than Julius Caesar!) to April 14, 2012. The discussion thread will remain up indefinitely; you can read it here. Victoria was blog-interviewed at Stephanie’s layered pages blog spot on March 12, 2012. Check it out! Jocasta: The Mother-Wife of Oedipus was reviewed at the Women of History blog. Melisende d’Outremer writes: “not once was I tempted to put this book aside…” For the complete review, as well as a lot of other interesting information about women in history, go here. NS Gill of About.com (Ancient/Classical History) has our Niobe trilogy as her recommendation for fiction for 2011! If you want to read it, go here. Books n Stuff of Southport, NC, is the newest bookstore to stock Jocasta. Head over to 4961 Long Beach Road! * Victoria published an article examining some of the background of the Oedipus story, in a column titled: “Did Oedipus really marry his mother?” To read it over at Unexplained Mysteries go here. * There’s a review of our trilogy over at The New Book Review by Barry Brake; to read it go here. * Here are excerpts we want to share from a prestigious review of the trilogy (Children of Tantalus, The Road to Thebes, and Arrows of Artemis): … our authors have taken the often one-note moralizing of their ancient sources and fleshed it out in ways that initially strike the reader as fascinating and then become completely compelling. … The resulting books will draw inevitable comparisons to the work of both Robert Graves and Mary Renault, but throughout these books (an earlier volume, Jocasta, is also not to be missed), Grossack and Underwood consistently manage a wit and breadth all their own. Readers will find themselves flying through these volumes, gripped the whole time. Very strongly recommended. – Steve Donoghue, Historical Novels Review Online, August 2011. To read it at the original website go here. Or else visit the books’ pages: Children of Tantalus, The Road to Thebes, and/or Arrows of Artemis. * Bob Mielke, an English professor at Truman State University, reviewed our trilogy for The Copperfield Review. Here are some of his words about The Road to Thebes and Arrows of Artemis: I was amazed to find how accurate their retelling is with regard to the details of the mythology / legend… It's all here in the Tapestry of Bronze series: romance, sex, suspense, violence, mystery, the machinations of the gods. After reading these books, you will want to visit rural Greece -- or at least go to your nearest Greek restaurant and enjoy some retsina and feta! To read the complete review, go here. Or if you prefer to read his review over at The Copperfield Review, go here. Here’s Mielke compares Children of Tantalus to the works of larger-than-life writers JRR Tolkien and Robert Graves: “The result is a world we can fully inhabit, as compelling as Tolkien’s but more rooted in actual history. The end result is a spellbinding entertainment which nonetheless reminds us -- in the spirit of Robert Graves’s I, Claudius -- that lust for power, and desire, have complicated lives long before our time.” To read the entire review at our website, go here. Or if you prefer to read his review over at The Copperfield Review, go here. Even Older News On March 21, 2011, Victoria and Alice were the featured guests on a radio show at Adrenaline Living Network with Angelia Miller. In case you missed it, it’s available as a podcast, click on Apollo on Trial: Investigating Mass Murder in Ancient Greece. Our Niobe trilogy - she refers to it as the Children of Tantalus trilogy - received thumbs-up and five stars from NS Gill, in charge of the Ancient History section of About.com (owned by the New York Times company). Some of her words: “The most amazing part of the series is how the authors retell the myths in such a way as to work for modern audiences… The series is definitely worth reading by fans of fiction and Greek mythology.” To read the entire review, click here. In January, 2011, Victoria published an article on the deaths of the Niobids (the children of Niobe) over at the website Unexplained Mysteries; to read the piece, “Gods Falsely Accused,” go here. The Tapestry of Bronze is a series of interlocking novels set in ancient Greece, starting several generations before the Trojan War. Archaeological evidence indicates that this “Golden Age of Heroes” aligns with Bronze Age dates.  Our series forms a tapestry, because the books tie together, though each novel focuses on one strand of story.  Jocasta, Children of Tantalus, The Road to Thebe, Arrows of Artemis and Antigone & Creon are available for purchase today. And more are in the works! Not sure if you’ll like the books? Then electronically download a sample at Amazon. Clicking on the covers below will take you to that company’s website.	The Tapestry of Bronze is a series of novels set in Bronze Age Greece. You may be interested in visiting other parts of our website: More about our books Jocasta Children of Tantalus The Road to Thebes Arrows of Artemis Antigone and Creon Clytemnestra Bιβλία στα ελληνκα - Our Books (in Greek) Teaching Mythology Odes to Olympians Contest Current: Winners of Past Contests: Zeus Hera Poseidon Demeter Hermes Athena Apollo Artemis Ares Aphrodite Hephaestus Pronunciation Guide Maps (Thebes, Pisa/Olympia, Eastern Mediterranean) The Stories Behind the Stories Acknowledgements, Thanks, Bibliography and Links About the Authors The Meryton Murders The Highbury Murders Victoria's Writing Classes Newly released! “Richly atmospheric and refreshingly multi-faceted” “A wonderfully nuanced novel” “Spellbinding entertainment” “Definitely worth reading” “A crackling good read”
Do you wish to contact us? Write to us at “tapestryofbronze” at “yahoo.com”