On Ovid, Myth, and Historical Imagination There is a question every novelist must answer, if only to themselves: why this story, and why now? For me the answer arrived not gradually but all at once, in the final lines of a myth I had known for years without truly seeing. Ovid tells Atalanta‘s story across […]
Why a Novel About Atalanta? Read More »
People sometimes ask me why I write the way I do. The question usually comes wrapped in a polite puzzlement, as if the asker suspects a rational explanation must exist but cannot quite locate it. Occasionally it comes less politely: “People don’t talk like that.” True enough. They didn’t talk like that even then, not
The Art of the Archaic: How I Choose Words and Expressions Read More »
Asterios and the Labyrinth (Mythos of Knossos) by Edmond Thornfield transports readers back to the time of ancient Greek power, of mythical beasts, sorcerers, and the battle for royal succession. Upon the death of King Minos, his son Asterios must succeed to the throne before the various warlords tear the kingdom apart in their quest
Asterios and the Labyrinth | Reviewed by Grant Leishman for Readers’ Favorite Read More »
There is a mountain that watches over the plain of Neméa from the north—flat-topped, unmistakable, rising above the valley with the quiet authority of a place that has been looked at for a very long time. I first saw it in April 2019, at the end of forty kilometers on a bicycle, with the Temple
Perseus and the Altar on Mount Apesas Read More »
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 »
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
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 »
