With the conclusion of this novel, in the past two years I've written four novellas and seven full-length novels. Which is insane; never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd write seven novels in my lifetime, let alone in a two-year span of time! I couldn't have done it without all you lovely people. Sappy/cliché? Yes, but also 100% true.

Back in October of 2020 (!) (I think), one of my readers reached out me to let me know they were holding a contest, the Golden Writers. I wasn't sure if I was going to participate; I was starting to question the validity of Wattpad-user run contests (no offense; I entered a bunch that never went anywhere, literally, and was getting pretty frustrated). Even so, I decided to take a gander.

Well, after reading the writing prompts, I knew that I had to. Prompts about an Ancient Egyptian story?! Oh, my God, you could not sign me up fast enough! Some of you may know this, but for awhile I was seriously thinking about pursuing Egyptology as a profession. I was majoring in Anthropology, with a focus on archeology, subset Egyptology. My minor was English. So, this contest was LITERALLY right up my alley.

I was still hesitant, because there was a romance aspect. At the time I didn't considered myself to be a romance writer (which is kind of funny looking back on it, because yeah, I write fiction, but there's ALWAYS a romantic slant to it), so I was worried it was going to be a challenge.

However, once I started getting concrete ideas for my story, I became really excited. The first scene that popped into my head for this story was the last handful of chapters. Originally, Thea was going to be trapped in the pyramid by herself. There was going to be a cobra. Originally a God and her lover were going to rescue her. Also originally, the room was going to be completely sealed. But the more I thought about it the less it made sense.

How could she not get bitten with a cobra all over her? How would she escape, sealed in a pyramid? Then I thought of it like a maze, perhaps (which was where my first idea came from, having Lapis guide Thea using the stars to find their way out).

I decided to shelf that mystery for later. In the meantime I created the core characters. As it's said up front within the story itself, I chose Thea's name with a very specific purpose. I think I spent an entire hour searching for the perfect name. I also made the conscious decision to not only reference an obscure Egyptian God, preferably one with little known information about so I could have artistic leeway, but I also wanted to throw a curve ball by having Ahmed/Aqen look hawk-like, to make people think of different Gods just to trip then up. I also wanted people to question if he were mortal early on, because I thought if I could make people question that they'd want to keep reading (which worked).

Originally I was going to have the story be a love-triangle between Thea, Aqen, and Ankh. However, for whatever reason, that just didn't sit right for me. It didn't seem dire enough, and it also felt too much like a soap opera to me. I was already writing by the time I got the idea of Ahmed being Aqen...it was actually a few chapters in where I had the idea of having Aqen fall in love with a straight male.

I've always loved mythology from all over the world. My first obsession (when I was little) was Greek Mythology, which I then began to realize was heavily influenced by Egyptian Mythology. One of my favorite aspects of all mythology are the relationships that the Gods share not only with each other, but with mortals. Especially the unrequited love stories, or love stories that end up going awry (Persephone, anyone?). Thus, Aqen falling for a mortal and wanting what's best for Ankh bloomed.

As with Aqen, I wanted to make up a Pharaoh. As someone who takes Egyptian Mythology seriously (for a time in my teenage years I literally worshiped Osiris, and I still like to think of him as my patron God), I was overly concerned with taking a historical figure and getting it *wrong*. I'm a failed Egyptologist. I didn't need comments from people correcting me on some historical inaccuracy. I wanted to take what knowledge I knew and make it shine.

I yearned to make this as realistic as possible. I didn't make Lapis trans just to have a trans character. Lapis was inspired by the prosperous female Pharaoh, Hatshepsut. There have been other female Pharaohs, but what set Hatshepsut apart was her transness. Now, while it is thought she did this as an attempt to be taken more seriously as a ruler, I question that conclusion on a series of things. First, so far as I know, she was the only female Pharaoh to wear a false beard. She used male pronouns. She wore the MALE headdress, NOT the female designated one for rulers. She wore male clothes. The few remaining pictures of her and busts that weren't destroyed show her with more masculine features—toned arms,little or no chest.

This is significant because when compared to other female rulers, it's vastly different. Sobekneferu; her rule was short, only three or four years. In that time, however, she always wore female clothes, and statues have her chest prominent. She wore a royal shendyt OVER her dress/skirt.

People erroneously think of transgender identity as a modern "affliction". Hatshepsut is a perfect example to goes against that. When I first read about her, back in 6th grade, I thought it was SO COOL she presented as a man. I didn't know about transgender identity in 6th grade, but as someone who was beginning to wish that I had been born a man, held a LOT of respect for the ancient Pharaoh. The question became for me, why SHOULDN'T Lapis be trans? Point is, I wanted to be as historically accurate as possible.

This also applied to character names. I, admittedly, knew very little about ancient Egyptian names. I knew they meant things, and I knew the honorific system of naming children after relatives and Gods /Goddesses, but actually names? Not a clue. I also kept whiffing; ask me to spell Ankh's full name right now and I couldn't. I kept spelling Aqen 'Aquen'. You don't even want to know how long it took me to get Chisisi right. I also sadly had no way to apply it in this story, but there are some AMAZING videos regarding what ancient Egyptians sounded like when they spoke, and how the language was influenced and emerged from surrounding cultures.

My other main concern, and the main reason it took me two years to finally complete this project, is I have never, EVER, written a murder mystery before. I really, REALLY wanted to do it right. I don't know if I got it right. I don't know if I provided enough twists and turns to make it not obvious. In fact, the idea of Chisisi came to me VERY late in the game. I originally was going to have it be just a random guy who he ran against for Pharaoh. Then, when I introduced his uncle, and everyone assumed it was his uncle, I was disheartened because it was too easy of an explanation.

So I tried to think. Infant mortality rates were high back then (unsurprisingly). Thus, especially in the case of royalty, it was the duty of the wife to produce as many children as possible before either the child died or the mother herself in childbirth. That's why you hear about Pharaohs and stuff who have like, thirteen siblings.

And it dawned on me. Ankh would have siblings. Especially since he came from a lineage linked to royalty, and seeing the amount of incest that not only happened back then but was acceptable, he probably would have had LOTS of siblings. And the second I thought that, I was like, My God, he has an evil twin brother that's been behind all this!

Another reason it took me so long to write this was I knew that I was onto something special. My Orion Series is, microscopically, wildly successful. Yeah I don't have a million reads, but it was way, WAY more reads than I ever imagined.

Shards of Ankh? The story didn't have to be completely done in order to participate in the Golden Awards. I won seven categories—SEVEN. I received multiple messages, both PM and on the judges form, how wonderful this story was and out of any story they were judging, mine was their favorite.

I'm not trying to brag, so I'm sorry if all this comes off as such. My point is, THIS story is what has finally gotten me to break through some of my imposter syndrome. Depending on the day, I most likely than not didn't believe all the lovely things people said about my Orion Series. It was a fluke. They were just being nice.

This? This contest was run by an account who, while not an "official" Wattpad account, was WILDLY popular. That in it of itself was deeply humbling. But then to see reads shoot up way faster than TOS ever did? To win that many awards? To be told "hey, this story was suggested to me!" time and time again? It was magical and it made me feel like, Hey. I guess I don't actually suck at writing.

And last but not least, it made me form real connections with some of my readers. I met @IsabellaRayne through this story. She has been one of my most devoted readers, supporters of my work, and I'm happy to call her my friend. Without Shards of Ankh, she probably wouldn't have found my work, and that thought makes me sad.

So yes. This story is special. It's going to be awhile, but edits will come eventually. Working on something for two years, trying to get it perfect...not to mention the six other NOVELS I've written...I'm exhausted, ngl.

Anyway, I'm rambling on enough.

Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

(@Trish_DW if I'm remembering any of this incorrectly let me know!)

Love always and eternally,

Sarah, aka QueenStarbuck