Katie Hamstead Teller is the author of Kiya: Hope of the Pharaoh as well as an upcoming book called Branded.  After seeing her tweet about my 5 star review of her book, we struck up a conversation and I asked to interview her via email.  Below is the interview in which we discuss research, depictions of Akhenaten and how she fell in love with ancient Egypt.

1.  What was your research process like for Kiya?  Were you always interested in ancient Egypt or did you stumble across her story and then do the research?

As a young girl I loved reading about Egypt, Rome and Greece, (the big three!) and in high school I elected to study Ancient History to further this interest. It was during this time I developed my curiosity for the Amarna period. So, in a sense, I’ve been reading and learning about it for years.

Time passed and I decided to write the story. This meant a lot of research, even as I wrote. I pulled books from the library, and journals from universities and wove together the theories which best suited the story I wanted to create, and I filled in the gaps with my own personal interpretations. I’d also studied Hebrew culture a few years ago, so my understanding of the twelve tribes was much strong than it was as a teen, and again I pulled books and university journals about early Israel and somehow, using the later period theory of Israel in Egypt where the exodus was during the reign of Ramses II, I meshed the two clashing cultures together. Continue reading →