As soon as I read the prompt for the Unearthed anthology, I was hooked and knew I would be submitting a pitch.
Editor Kara Dennison and the team at Altrix Books were looking for stories about “the contents of any coffin, sarcophagus, mausoleum, or other big mysterious tomb,” and explained that the contents of said tomb “could be a person, a thing, a non-corporeal entity, a feeling…”
Their only stipulation? At some point in the story, the writer must reveal what’s inside.
My Story Pitch
With no limitations on genre or setting, my mind went in a million different directions, but I kept coming back to a poem I had read by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Skeleton in Armor”, published in 1841.
The poem explores the hypothetical origins of a real skeleton, adorned in copper armor, which laborers discovered in a sandbank in Fall River, Massachusetts in 1832. In the poem, Longfellow attributes the body to a viking, and links the discovery to another famous (and mysterious) site nearby: the Newport Tower in Rhode Island.
Without giving too much away, my story follows a gumshoe/journalist who uncovers the secrets of these (ancient?) sites. While primarily a work of historical fiction, there will be hints of supernatural elements sprinkled throughout.
Learn More / Meet the Other Authors
But hey, enough of my yakkin’. I’m just one of 12 authors who will be featured in this anthology from Altrix Books. You can see the full list of authors and learn more about the project here.
FYI: All of the proceeds from Unearthed will go to ARCE, the American Research Center in Egypt, which is “devoted to preserving ancient Egyptian culture and supporting scholars and archaeologists.”
Unearthed will be available for purchase in early 2019.
Pssst. Interested in reading some historical fiction a little sooner? Check out The Woburn Chronicles.
“It’s like The Devil in the White City meets Hocus Pocus”
I. E. Kneverday 