Novelist Edmond Thornfield explains why literary travel is essential to writing historical fiction, from Knossos and Mycenae to Florence and Cortona. There is a question I am sometimes asked, usually by readers who have noticed something in the novels that feels too precise to be invented. How did you know what the road from Knossos […]
Literary Travel as Research: Why I Must Go There Read More »
If you have ever read a novel set in the ancient world and found yourself wondering how much of it is true—how the author knew what a Mycenaean palace smelled like, or how a Minoan priestess dressed, or what Linear B actually says—then you have already crossed the threshold from reader into something more. You
Five Works of Classical Scholarship Every Historical Fiction Reader Should Know Read More »
A Tale of Paris & Paris: Echoes of Troy by Edmond Thornfield is an adult historical fantasy set primarily in fifteenth-century Cortona, Italy, a period defined by religious authority, political tension, and unspoken desire. The novel follows the intertwined lives caught between duty and longing, most notably Lorenzo di Ranieri, a Florentine soldier returning to
The objects in the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion are not merely remnants of Minoan civilization; they are among the most important surviving works of Bronze Age art anywhere in the world. What each taught me about the Minoan world Even before I knew that one day I would write a novel set in the
The Archaeological Museum of Heraklion: Thirteen Objects That Changed My Writing Read More »
There are books one reads, and books one lives. The ten gathered here belong to the second category. I have returned to each of them more than once—some many times—not always for study, not always with a writer’s analytical eye, but often simply for the comfort of returning to a world that once held me
Ten Novels That Made Me a Writer Read More »
AS THE EPICENTER OF RADICAL HUMANISM AND ARTISTIC ENLIGHTENMENT, FLORENCE BECAME THE PARAMOUNT CRUCIBLE OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE. Independent thinkers broke free from the constraints of the preceding millennium. Against this backdrop, the following tale gives voice to the long-suppressed desires and identities of those who suffered the dominant assumption that heterosexuality is the default and
Author’s Note of Meeting Donatello Read More »
Edmond Thornfield’s novel, Asterios and the Labyrinth (Mythos of Knossos), is a reimagined, action-packed mythological and historical story, set in ancient Krete (Crete) during the period of the Bronze Age Minoan civilization. When King Minos dies, his son Asterios succeeds him as the ruler of the Kingdom of Labrys. Prince Phaistos of Archanes is commander-in-chief
Asterios and the Labyrinth | Reviewed by Saifunnissa Hassam for Readers’ Favorite Read More »
There are journeys one spends a lifetime preparing for without knowing it. Mine to Archaia Neméa began, as so many things do, in childhood—with a book. I was perhaps seven years of age when my beloved Madrinha Ionyr placed in my hands a children’s volume of the Twelve Labours of Hēraklēs on my birthday. I
Following in the Footsteps of Hēraklēs to Archaia Neméa Read More »
(Posted by Literary Titan on January 23, 2026. To read this and other reviews there, click here.) Asterios and the Labyrinth follows a grieving prince of Knossos as he battles political treachery, invading powers, and ancient prophecy, risking his crown and life to fight for the man he loves and the legacy he must protect. What
Telling the Prince’s Tale in Asterios and the Labyrinth Read More »
An exploration of Donatello’s revolutionary contribution to Renaissance sculpture, psychological realism, and the rediscovery of the human form in fifteenth-century Florence. IN THE LONG HISTORY OF WESTERN ART, THERE ARE PERHAPS A DOZEN MOMENTS WHEN A SINGLE ARTIST SO FUNDAMENTALLY altered the way human beings see that the world before and after their work are,
Donatello: The Sculptor Who Awakened the Modern Eye Read More »
