Colleen McCullough's Rome Series--I think I read/have Caesar's Women and I remember her drawings--but don't know where it is among my boxes.

Meanwhile in 30 years since I've read and seen I Claudius by Robert Graves (2 books) and the Rome documentaries, so I understand it all better.

SPQR

Conn Iggulden's Caesar.

https://compulsiveoverreader.wordpress.com/2008/08/29/masters-of-rome-series-by-colleen-mccullough/

Currently re-reading McCullough's Caesar.

She does a fantasatic job, so detailed--so far got to the red-headed woman (whom I remember) --

I also read a lot about the Druids, the British tribes, Buddica or Boadicia--and similar TV series--so I have the Roman empire straighter in my head.

For a woman, based on myself,I feel it's hardest to write battle scenes, but McCullough does it with the greatest of ease--the loss of the silver eagle standard and one of the legions in Gaul, the warring tribes some of whom have become C's allies--horses.

So I think maybe I will read them all.

Yes, 781 pages this and almost 100 pages of glossary.

I remember my workshop mates not understanding Burmese words--

A debate some time ago on Himal about end notes.

Abraham Verghese saying "You can't white a book like this (his) without end notes (Covenant and Cutting for Stone--great novels)

And a Himal panel on which either a writer or an agent argued against notes--but I still put them in.

For samples I take them out of the requisite 10 to 50 pages agents ask for with the initial query.

Part of my problem is filing.

And the naming of files, and forgetting what I named them.

And also sometimes for decades at a time,I get discouraged and either don't file properly or don't update my cv properly, and this morning I accidentally erased the dates of some of the readings/presentations/art exhibitions I put on.

It's not easy being a writer unless you have a partner who does everything for you, or a village.

I'm always looking around, but it's not easy.

Sometimes I contract out but a lot of people don't reach my exacting standards.

So I end up doing everything myself

Or they get old and sick or die.

Sigh sigh sigh.

"It's not easy being green."

Kermit the Frog on Sesame Street.

Kyi May Kaung

10-2-2025