AUTHOR E. CHRIS AMBROSE ON RESEARCH--INCLUDING CHOCOLATE, GUATEMALA, CENOTES, MAYA PYRAMIDS, AND HUMAN SACRIFICE(!)

Maya Pyramid (photo by Chris Dionne)

E. Chris Ambrose is the author of the Bone Guard archaeological thrillers, as well as a dark historical fantasy series about medieval surgery, among other things. In the process of researching her books, E.C. learned how to hunt with a falcon, clear a building of possible assailants, and pull traction on a broken limb. To find out more about her and her books, visit her website.  

One of the most fun parts of writing archaeological thrillers is the chance to delve deeply into a particular place and time. For my forthcoming novel, The Maya Bust, that meant Guatemala. I wanted a region with a rich archaeological history, cenotes, and chocolate! (Yes, I got to split open a cacao pod and eat Guatemalan chocolate as part of my research for this one. I love my work!)

 

I started with a geological map showing where cenotes are present, since I knew I'd be using one in the book. Cenotes are underground caverns, accessible from the outside, that form as sinkholes in the limestone of the Yucatan and surrounding areas. They were sacred to the Maya people, who depended on them as a reliable source of water, and regarded them as the openings to Xibalba, the underworld, populated by dangerous gods, and often depicted as an open mouth gaping with teeth. Offerings and sacrifices were made within the caves, including human sacrifice. They held human life to be extremely important, and thus worthy of being offered to the gods to ensure the ongoing survival of the community at large. Blood forged a liquid connection to the rain and agricultural fertility they needed. Often, those sacrificed were warriors or nobles from competing regions—the worthiest of all. Nowadays, cenotes are popular as swimming and diving destinations, as well as rich archaeological sites.

 

As I dug deeper into the history of the area, including the more contemporary drug smuggling that forms the plot of the book, I zeroed in on the Alta Verapaz region in the Guatemalan highlands. This area was renamed by the Spanish explorers in their quest to subdue and convert the indigenous peoples. "Verapaz" means "truth peace," appellations that weren't applicable when the Spanish first arrived, and not for very long afterward. The region includes not only sacred cenotes and Maya architectural sites, but also Spanish colonial architecture, including beautiful Baroque-style churches and monasteries. Because of the jungle cover and difficulty of travel, much of the archaeology of the region remains unknown, concealed by centuries of growth. 

 

Since mountains were also considered sacred as closer to the sky gods, Maya step-pyramids are designed to be artificial mountains. They usually had a temple on top, often with an altar for sacrifice, and sometimes an interior staircase leading down to a concealed entrance to Xibalba. Pyramids frequently contain royal burials, with painted murals, sculptures and offering plates to honor the dead. However, the Maya also had a sophisticated understanding of astronomy, and used some structures as viewing platforms and observational markers for events like the rise and set of Venus, which suggested the best times for planting and harvest. Pyramids often have astronomical alinements, usually with the summer solstice. Here's a time-lapse video of the shadows cast on the Spring Equinox to look like the sacred serpent Kukulkan creeping down the stairs at Chichen Itza. 

 

The link between mountains and pyramids makes the pyramids even harder to distinguish. New technology such as LIDAR allows archaeologists to perform non-invasive scans of the jungle that reveal artificial structures and patterns beneath the trees and accumulated debris, stripping back the new to find the extensive human intervention that allowed this region to sustain a population of hundreds of thousands at the height of the Maya empire around 900-1000 CE. 

 

Even setting aside the chocolate, I really enjoyed researching this destination, and I hope I've managed to do it some justice in the book!

 

The Maya Bust

A Bone Guard Archaeological Thriller, Book 4

 

A secret stash, a hidden tomb, a father's love—sworn in blood

 

When his commander's estranged daughter vanishes in Guatemala, Grant Casey treks a deadly jungle and dives a sacred cenote to free her from a drug smuggler looking for a stash in an ancient pyramid.

 

Before his death in a rain of gunfire at her Quinceañeria, Raxha's druglord father encoded a map on a cacao cup, a map that might lead her to millions in drugs in the tomb of Maya royalty. A decade later, his old mistress gave the cup to some Americans to prevent Raxha from completing the delivery and re-establishing the influence of the deadly Zetas cartel. Determined to claim her father's legacy, kidnapping is only the beginning of a quest that may end with Raxha tearing out the heart of her enemy.

 

Awakened by a call from his old commander's ex, and sworn to secrecy about his rescue mission, Grant's integrity is torn. Does he betray his client's trust, or the man who hated him for so long, the man who risked his life to save Grant's own? He sets up for his CO to follow the clues while he tracks down Lexi's friends to find the cup—and only then finds out Lexi's boyfriend is missing, too. How complicated could this get? Oh, yeah, Lexi is deaf, the police are complicit, and their adversary keeps a pet jaguar. When the ransom exchange goes south, Grant embeds with the bad guys in a desperate attempt to rescue the victims before they become the latest blood sacrifice.

 

Releasing September 7^th. Pre-order now.

TRAVEL WITH SERENA--GUEST AUTHOR PATY JAGER ON GUATEMALA AND THE MAYA

Award-winning author Paty Jager and her husband raise alfalfa hay in rural eastern Oregon.  On her road to publication she wrote freelance articles for two local newspapers and enjoyed her job with the County Extension service as a 4-H Program Assistant. Raising hay and cattle, riding horses, and battling rattlesnakes, she not only writes the western lifestyle, she lives it. But Paty isn’t here today to talk about the American West; she’s here to talk about something altogether different—Guatemala, Maize, and the Maya. Learn more about Paty and her books at her website and blog.

Guatemala, Maize, and Adventure

Guatemala has been termed the “Land of Eternal Spring.” This is due to the fact most of the country has temperatures that range between 64-82° F, and humidity is rarely a problem. The temperature does cool significantly during the night. However the coastal areas and Petén jungle lowlands are hot and humid. The combination of hot and humid can drain you. The temperatures in the jungle are above 85° F, giving the lush vegetation the perfect conditions to thrive.

Many beautifully colored birds live in the lush environment, along with howler monkeys, spider monkeys, jaguar, coatie, agouti, foxes, pecarí, and leaf cutter ants.

The country is bordered by Mexico, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador. It also has two coastlines--the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. Besides exploring the lovely beaches there are also volcanoes, jungle, mountains, lakes, and Mayan Ruins.

The Mayan people lived in Central America and Mexico for 2500 years. During this time, as they prospered, they built cities to house their people and temples to pay homage to their gods and leaders.

Ti’kal is one of the largest urban centers of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. It sits in the Petén Region of Northern Guatemala and has many visitors yearly. There has been much speculation on why the Mayan civilization declined abruptly. Some say it was because they ran out of space and workers to raise the food needed to feed their growing numbers.

The fresh fruit and vegetables in Guatemala have supplied its people with nourishment for thousands of years. The staples have always been corn, beans, and chilies. There are also plantains or bananas, yucca, carrots, celery, cucumbers, and radishes as well as papaya and mangoes.

Mayas were wonderful farmers. They learned to use different methods depending on the area where they lived. They terraced on slopes, raised fields in swamps and rivers, and slashed and burned forests to provide more land for planting. Their main crop, and what they used as currency as well as food, was maize a forerunner to the corn we have today.

The life cycle of maize was the outline the Maya used to come up with their 260 day calendar. Maize was the major substance of the Maya people. Because it could not reseed itself and required a human to plant it, maize was the symbol of Maya social existence in communion with nature.

Because it was an essential of the life of the Maya, they had bloodletting rituals to bring forth vision quests that opened portals to the otherworld, which allowed the gods to come forth and bless their crops.

Corn or maize was also an important crop for many of the North American natives and while it was revered and used in many ways, it wasn’t held as a religious icon as it was in the Maya culture.

There have been many dissertations written on the influence and co-mingling that may have occurred. What I found interesting is the fact that while the Maya did perform bloodletting rituals and some human sacrifice, these rituals were not a part of the North American cultures. In fact, the North American cultures who offered prayers and song to the Creator rather than sacrifices to the Gods appeared to have a tighter community without social classes and jealousy.

I’ve set my action adventure romance novel, Secrets of a Mayan Moon, at an archeological dig in the Guatemalan jungle.

Secrets of a Mayan Moon

What happens when a brilliant anthropologist is lured to the jungle to be used as a human sacrifice?

Child prodigy and now Doctor of Anthropology, Isabella Mumphrey, is about to lose her job at the university. In the world of publish or perish, her mentor’s request for her assistance on a dig is just the opportunity she’s been seeking. If she can decipher an ancient stone table—and she can—she’ll keep her department. She heads to Guatemala, but drug trafficking bad guys, artifact thieves, and her infatuation for her handsome guide wreak havoc on her scholarly intentions.

DEA agent Tino Kosta, is out to avenge the deaths of his family. He’s deep undercover as a jaguar tracker and sometimes jungle guide, but the appearance of a beautiful, brainy anthropologist heats his Latin blood, taking him on a dangerous detour that could leave them both casualties of the jungle.

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TRAVEL WITH SERENA -- LITERARY MYSTERY AUTHOR SHEILA DALTON ON GUATEMALA

Literary mystery author Sheila Dalton joins us today to talk about how a trip to Guatemala inspired The Girl in the Box. Sheila was born in Hillingdon, England and emigrated with her family to Canada when she was six. She's worked as a barmaid, an art gallery assistant, an artist and crafter, a freelance editor and writer, and a librarian. She lives in Newmarket,Ontario with her husband, grown son, and two cats. Learn more about Sheila and her books at her website. -- AP

How Guatemala inspired my book

If you’re a reader, do you love books set in other countries? I hope so, because as a writer, I often get my inspiration from travels abroad.

My latest, a literary mystery (that’s what my editor calls it), The Girl in the Box, originated from a trip I took to Guatemala, way back in the eighties. I was traveling with a girlfriend. It wasn’t a vacation; it was an exploration. I wanted to write, and that seemed to require discovering more of the world and what it was all about.

We went for four months, with no itinerary and no reservations-in-advance. I had struggled to afford the trip through saving everything I could from my handicrafts business of the time. I lived in a ramshackle house in Toronto with a group of friends back then, and sold my crafts on the street, on consignment in stores, and at festivals and fairs. Luckily, the shared rent on our house was low, and I was very into an alternative lifestyle that meant not buying big ticket items or expensive clothes, so I was able to squirrel away just enough to cover our adventure.

We traveled on second-class buses and stayed in no-star accommodations. It was what we wanted, to be close to what we then defined as the “realities” of Central America. What we saw shocked us. It was the time of the Civil War, when the government was pitted against guerrillas fighting for the rights of the Maya, and there were terrible things going on. On one bus trip, several Mayan men were taken away by soldiers and never returned. We found out later they had been killed.

The beauty of the country could not blind us to the secret tragedy all around us. Locals told us of screams heard coming from a village church at night, a church they were convinced had been converted to a jail and torture center for rebels.

I was horrified by all this. I did not feel capable of using it in fiction. But it stayed in my mind for years and years, until, at last in the late nineties, a story began to gather together inside my head. It wasn’t a story directly about war or genocide or politics: it was the story of a beautiful Mayan teenager traumatized by violence, kept in a shed by her parents who believe she is cursed, and rescued by a North American doctor she ultimately kills.  Finding out why was the mystery the doctor’s lover, a journalist, set out to solve.

Thanks so much for joining us today, Sheila. Readers, have you ever travelled to worn-torn or strife-riddled locales? Tell us about your experiences and the impact they had on you. -- AP