I am just 10000 words into my latest Roman adventure Wolves of Rome but it is practically writing itself. This latest fantasy is inspired by the legend of Romulus and Remus and the founding of Rome. I am thinking, what might have happened if Romulus had not killed his brother?
For worldbuilding help, I found a great video of a 3D aerial reconstruction of ancient Rome on YouTube.
So far, Livia has finally settled on a choice of husband, he just doesn’t know it yet and Lucius has returned to Rome to take up his family’s seat in the senate.
Excerpt from Chapter One
Livia glanced at her broken mess of threads that should have resembled a rectangle of beautiful cloth by now and looked at the floor in shame. “I’m sorry, Mother. I was distracted.”
Her mother glared at the slave girl, knowing Marna’s character all too well. Marna lowered herself onto her cushion, kept a look of docile servitude on her face and pretended she wasn’t there. Mother tutted before taking Livia’s place at the loom. “I can’t keep weaving your cloth or fixing your mess. You will soon be wed and must clothe yourself and husband.” Her fingers knotted the thread and it slide seamlessly into the cloth as she worked the loom.
“You are right, Mother.” She kissed the top of her head. “But I refuse to wed that Gaius. I would need to weave day and night to produce enough cloth to cover that bloated-”
“Livia,” she snapped. “That is one of your father’s closest allies, you shouldn’t-”
“He is old and fat and bald and you can’t make me.”
Her mother chuckled. “You are eighteen. Most girls have been married for years and are mothers. You can’t keep refusing all the matches your father proposes. But I will speak to your father and tell him Gaius is not to be the lucky one. There. You keep going.” Her mother stood, and embraced Livia. “We will find someone suitable. With hair and under thirty.”
“That would be a good place to start.”
I better get back, these characters are insistent!
