Touching Base with My Old Students

I hope you'll share the creative journey with me and my new novel AKMARAL coming in May 2024 from REGAL HOUSE PUBLISHING.

To All My Students and Families from The Writers Circle:

After over thirteen years of running The Writers Circle, I just did something I’ve never done before. I went back to the very beginning, looking for names of all the students who have studied with me over the years. I didn’t expect to get emotional, but the deeper I went, the more tears came to my eyes as I remembered so many of you: your stories, your faces, conversations we had, laughter and frustration over writing and other things.

I found the names of the very first Story Magic kids I taught: Zoe, Nick, Ethan, Lucien, Evan, Hikaru; and my first teens, Erin, Ginamarie, and April, who took classes in my living room and once even in my backyard. As I went through the adults’ names, I found friends who have become permanent fixtures in my life, and so many more who’ve drifted out and back, or away.

What happened to all of you? Are you well? Are you still writing? Kids—now some of you are grownups! What are you doing with your lives? Do you remember our classes, pretending to be animals or doing “info-mercials” to learn about plot, drawing super-hero characters, all the odds and ends in my “treasure box?”

There were almost 1000 names on my list—all students I myself taught—and that doesn’t count all the wonderful students who have worked with other teachers at The Writers Circle over the years.

I’ve been slaving away at my own writing since long before you met me.

Now I have a new novel, AKMARAL, coming out in May 2024—yes, at last!—and want to invite you to join me on my new literary journey. You can read a bit about my story of a nomad woman warrior on the ancient Asian steppes below.

Some of you may have heard me mention the novel, research, or even read an early draft. Over the years, it’s changed a lot, as have I. Haven’t we all?

I will be starting a newsletter soon—yes, to promote my novel, but also to share inspirations, recommendations, and creative writing prompts—of course! I hope you’ll be happy to stay on my list (much of which was compiled long before double opt-ins, which is why I’m sending out this message). I promise not to inundate your inbox. You’ll hear from me every month or so, with a few extra emails when May 2024 comes around, announcing book events, giveaways, and more. Of course, feel free to unsubscribe below.

Either way, please drop me a note and let me know how you are. And, parents, please let your beautiful, creative children know that I’m thinking of them and sending them my very best!

Thank you to every one of you for sharing the writing journey with me, even briefly way back when. Thank you, too, for your support on my new literary adventure as I launch AKMARAL into the world.

With affection,

Judith Lindbergh, Author of literary, historical, archaeological fiction and the Founder/Director of The Writers Circle

AKMARAL

Pronunciation: ähk-mä-räl | Meaning: White Deer

~a nomad woman warrior of the ancient Asian steppes must make peace with making war~

Before the Silk Road had a name, nomads roamed the Eurasian steppes and women fought side by side as equals with men.

Like all women of the Sauromatae, Akmaral is bound for battle from birth, training as a girl in horsemanship, archery, spear and blade. Her prowess ignites the jealousy of Erzhan, a gifted warrior who hates her as much as he desires her. When Scythian renegades attack, the two must unite to defeat them. Among their captives is Timor, the rebels’ enigmatic leader who refuses to be broken, even as he is enslaved. He fascinates Akmaral. But as attraction grows to passion, she is blinded to the dangerous alliance forming between the men who bristle against the clan’s matriarchal rule. Faced with brutal betrayal, Akmaral must find the strength to defend her people and fulfill her destiny.

Inspired by extraordinary archaeological discoveries, including the Pazyryk Ice Maiden in Siberian Russia and the Issyk Gold Man in Southern Kazakhstan, and drawing from Herodotus and other ancient texts, AKMARAL brings to life a time and people lost to history, and breathes humanity into the provocative image of the woman warrior.

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NOVELS by Judith Lindbergh

The Thrall’s Tale: three women pitted against fate in the first settlement in Viking Age Greenland - published by Viking

-- "Historical fiction at its best” - The Philadelphia Inquirer and praised by Pulitzer Prize winners Geraldine Brooks & Robert Olen Butler

Akmaral: a nomad woman warrior on the ancient Eurasian steppes must make peace with making war - forthcoming in May 2024 from Regal House Publishing

"A gripping saga, a love story, and a convincing portrait of a time and people lost to history” —Christina Baker Kline, #1 bestselling author of Orphan Train and The Exiles

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Or visit judithlindbergh.com.