I stood in the back of
the classroom and listened to a great presentation by the history
teacher, Mrs. Ervin, about life in the middle ages. As a high school
principal, I had the privilege of watching the students learn every day.
Unfortunately, it was what they weren't learning that worried me.
All the great heroes were men. Why didn't the text books talk about
women warriors? There were thousands of warriors from every country and
almost every generation who were women. Women had been left out.
I pondered this problem
for months until a friend suggested I write a novel about one of the
women I admired - Matilda, the last person to lead a land invasion of
England to get back her throne.
The Warrior Queen
Series was born and like any birth, came kicking and screaming into the
world. My motto became "Write Women Back into History," but I wanted it
to be fun. These women became real to me, and I wanted the reader to
feel they'd been transported back in time.
It takes a year to research and write one of these novels. It's
difficult to find information about women warriors in the traditional
way because they were systematically left out of the history texts, so I
turned to anthropology and archeology for help.
