Abigail Keyes on Writing Historical Fiction

I met Abigail Keyes through her partner, Tim Rayborn. I’d been referring ghostwriting clients to Tim, and he mentioned that Abigail was an excellent book coach and editor, and that she was writing historical fiction. She soon became an excellent resource to send potential clients! 

While Abigail edits a variety of work, from business leadership books to memoirs to fiction, her most recent book is a brilliant historical novel, a coming-of-age story set in ancient Egypt.

Resurrecting a 35-year-old draft

Lisa: Where did the idea for Daughter of Sekhmet come from? Is there a story behind the inspiration?

 Abigail: The original ORIGINAL idea came from a video game ad that I saw in OMNI magazine in 1993, when I was a teenager. It showed a woman archer, and at the time, I was really craving any woman warrior or hunter character; it was the 90s, so we didn’t have many. I used to draw a lot and create my own characters, so I created this woman-warrior character based on the archer in that ad, set in an Arabian Nights setting, and started writing short scenes for her. It wasn’t until I read Mara: Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw a few years later that I thought I’d change the whole thing to ancient Egypt. I wrote a few scenes for this character set in Egypt, and didn’t really do anything with them.

It wasn’t until almost 35 years later that I decided to actually hunker down and finish the novel. I’m glad I did, because no one wants to read those chapters I wrote when I was a teenager!

Experiencing Place in Real Time

Lisa: How does your experience living in the Middle East for some time contribute to your ability to write this story? What did you pick up in those travels?

Abigail: So, I’ve only visited the Middle East/SWANA (Southwest Asia & North Africa) region, but my travels and study of the region there have absolutely informed Daughter of Sekhmet. 

Community . . .

One way is the sense of community, not just in Egypt, but throughout the Arab world, especially amongst the matriarchs of a family. The mothers, the aunts, the grandmothers—they will make sure you’re taken care of, no matter what, even if they’ve just met you. They’re really in charge of the whole family, despite the social patriarchy, which is why Sati’s mom has such authority in the household. She has the final say on everything. This also comes up a little more in Book 2 of the series after tragedy strikes Sati’s family. 

Food . . .

Food is central to so much of SWANA culture (as in many Mediterranean cultures). Once a family invites you into their home, you will not go hungry. It’s almost an insult if you refuse an offer of food, like, why would you turn down food?! So, I wanted to make sure that Sati’s relationship with food is really clear, even if it’s just a honeycake or flatbread. In Egypt, bread is called’ aish, which literally means “life.” So I wanted to make sure we see Sati’s mom ensuring that everyone who comes to their gathering room is well fed. 

Negotiating . . .

I also drew on the culture of haggling and negotiation in sales, something I find really fun, as well as on sensory and scene-setting details. In that region, too, everyone’s a little more up in their neighbors’ business than they are here in the US, which helped inform the market scenes. I also found that my knowledge of Arabic helped me understand ancient Egyptian. They’re both Afro-Asiatic languages and share a lot of the same grammatical structures and conventions. Some words from antiquity even survive in modern Egyptian Arabic today.   

Of course, when I went to Egypt in 2024, I kept my writing front of mind, using the entire trip to evaluate and inform my worldbuilding. Even though it had been a while since I’d visited Egypt (the previous time being for work in 2007-ish), my imagining of the ancient sites was pretty spot-on! 

I’m sure there are more elements that I’m not even aware of, because I’ve been studying the SWANA region since I was 12 years old. Sometimes, we’re not even aware of what we know shows up on the page. 

The Process of Writing Historical Fiction

Lisa: What is your process like? Did you begin with research? Or did you start with a scene or the backstory of your main character? And how did the story develop? 

Abigail: It’s taken me a bit to figure out my “process,” but I definitely start with the characters. I like to know who I’m working with! If I don’t know who they are, what motivates them, what they value, what they want, and what they need, it’s really difficult for me. 

Start with Characters . . .

With Djedi, for instance, Sati’s roommate in the scribes’ quarters, I didn’t know who he was, and every scene with him felt really muddled. Like, who is this guy? I thought maybe I’d make him a secret antagonist. Still, it wasn’t until I was watching Glow Up, a British competition show for aspiring professional make-up artists, that I figured it out—Djedi’s definitely a friend, a little distant at first, into aesthetics, and queer. From there, I based him on a few real-life friends of mine, and writing Sati’s interactions with him became really easy. 

Create Anchor Scenes . . .

From there, I create “anchor” scenes. These are the major events in the story that lead the protagonist to the final conflict at the end of the book. 

For Daughter of Sekhmet, a few key elements acted like “anchors,” even from when I first started writing it back in the 90s. In every version of this novel, Sati always runs away from home. And always finagles her way onto a fancy ship to go to the capital. She always became a soldier. Then she always meets a young man of higher status and becomes romantically entangled with him. She always fights a treasonous general.   

Similar to Dance Choreography

In this way, it’s really similar to how I choreograph dances. First, I need to know my emotional perspective, that is, my “character” for the piece. Who am I in this song, and what am I saying? Then there are key parts of the song that act as “anchors,” where I know exactly which movements I need to do in those musical moments. Then I craft the rest of the dance around it, figuring out smooth transitions from one to the next. 

Research

Research, for me, happens in parallel. I’m always reading about ancient Egypt, listening to podcasts, following archaeologists and Egyptologists on social media… all of that. If I need to look up a particular detail for a scene, I do it after the scene is written. I’ve learned the hard way that stopping to look up something can absolutely derail my writing momentum. 

Getting to Know the Main Character

Lisa: How did you get to know this character, 16-year-old Sati? 

Abigail: Like so many protagonists in debut novels, Sati is very much a part of me, or at least how I would like to be. 

I got to know her in the writing of her, but also in sketching out her background—she’s a foreigner, she’s adopted, she resists gender norms, she’s more educated than most women of her time, she feels like an outsider, she loves her adopted parents, she wants to do the right thing, but she also feels really stuck by the roles available to her as a woman in New Kingdom Egypt. 

I also wanted to make sure that her decisions drive the story. Things happen because she makes a decision, often an impulsive one, not because things happen to her, which is something that really annoys me, especially with female main characters. So, I had to make her someone who isn’t going to take “no” for an answer, who’s going to go out and make her own way in the world, who isn’t afraid of running toward a fight, and who is also lonely, because there isn’t really anyone else like her in her neighborhood. 

Researching Martial Arts

Lisa: Sati studies martial arts with her father, a retired general. What research and knowledge informed the military training that Sati receives from her father, and later from a general in the king’s army? 

Abigail: This is such a great question. For Sati’s knowledge of staff fighting, I drew heavily on the Egyptian play-fighting tradition of taḥṭīb, a martial art with ancient Egyptian roots. I’ve studied quite a bit of taḥṭīb technique through my training in Egyptian dance, and I watched so many videos. Of course, taḥṭīb isn’t the same as it was in antiquity, but the presence of tomb depictions of the technique shows the form’s longevity. Today, there’s a group in France that’s codifying taḥṭīb into a contemporary martial art and is even trying to get it into the Olympics. 

For the Military Training

For the military training itself, I drew on ancient tomb depictions of military training, specifically those showing wrestling moves. Some of the more famous ones include those on the walls of the tomb of Baquet III at Beni Hasan, and in tombs at the ancient necropolis of Saqqara, which is very near to the ancient city of Men-nefer, where Sati grew up. This image is really striking because it clearly shows Fighter A as light, and Fighter B as dark, so someone learning the moves can easily tell them apart without having to know how to read:

I also did a lot of reading on ancient Egyptian military tactics and techniques by various historians and archaeologists, including Osprey Publishing’s books on ancient Egyptian warfare. This is difficult research because, unlike with, say, the Roman Empire, we don’t have much surviving information on military strategy. But I also worked at the Pentagon for a summer, so I drew on my experience of being in and serving that hierarchy. 

Drawing on Dance Training

In addition, I drew from my own intensive dance training. I’ve taken many workshops and classes where I only got a few hours of sleep the night before, had to push myself to my physical limits, questioned my abilities, and even got in trouble for acting out of line! 

Lisa: Many characters in the story live in Egyptian lands but come from elsewhere —Sati, her father’s dear friend and his family. Did you set out to draw parallels with the current conflict in the US about immigration, rights and belonging? The current conflict over who “belongs” in the US and over immigrants’ rights. Or did the story start in your imagination, only later realizing how relevant it is to today? 

Unintentional Parallel to Current Events

Abigail: I would say this was partially intentional and partially unconscious. It didn’t start as a story about immigration or outsiders, but I’ve always felt like an outsider myself. Sati was the first “outsider” character to emerge; she wasn’t originally from Syria, but I really liked the idea of tracing the story of this girl who, despite everything, wants to find a place that feels like home, somewhere she feels like she really belongs. That’s something I’ve always been seeking too. I think a lot of us feel that way! 

Then, as I was filling out the story, particularly in 2020, the themes of immigration, belonging, and xenophobia began to reveal themselves, making sense in the context of the time and place. The ancient Egyptians had their own very specific ideas about what made someone “Egyptian” and what actions outsiders had to take to show they belonged. They called foreigners agents of “chaos,” a direct threat to the pharaoh’s order and rule. And the biggest cities, such as Men-nefer, Luxor (ancient Thebes), and the capital, Per-Ramesses, in the Delta, were quite diverse, with people from all kinds of backgrounds living in proximity to one another. When you have that dynamic, it’s almost inevitable that there’s going to be some tension, especially when men in power wish to exploit it for their own gains. 

Adding Characters for Interaction

Then I did make a concerted effort to give Sati other outsiders to interact with. Rahuti, her friend in the military, is an outsider because he’s a big guy, quite soft-spoken, kind, and underestimated by his fellow soldiers and commanding officers. Ahmose, too, despite being a nobleman, doesn’t feel like the high-born life is really for him, even if that’s what he’s supposed to do; he’d rather be off on trading missions up and down the Nile. And, of course, Djedi, being a queer man in a heteronormative society, has to tread very carefully around revealing too much about himself and how others might weaponize that against him. Even Setankh, our villain, feels out of place as a general; he feels that his place is on the throne. Everyone’s trying to find where they belong, for better or worse. 

Lisa: The scenes in Daughter of Sekhmet are so alive, vibrant and detailed. What advice do you have for writers in historical fiction to understand an ancient culture and make it come alive for readers? 

Making Historical Fiction Come Alive

Abigail: First, thank you! For me, research for Daughter of Sekhmet has been a lifelong project; I’ve been interested in ancient Egypt since I was a kid, so immersing myself in that world has always been such a pleasure, not a chore. I was constantly imagining what it would be like to walk ancient streets, what it would smell and sound like, and even what the food would taste like. My partner has even attempted to make some ancient Egyptian-style meals and desserts! 

But the biggest piece of advice I would give is to integrate sensory elements into your POV character’s experience of their world. A developmental editing course I took recently suggested that we include at least one sensory element on every page. 

I made a concerted effort to integrate Sati’s immediate perception and experience into the exposition and interiority. I was very aware of not putting my research on the page, as though I were writing a paper for a history class. I’m always asking, “What would Sati notice?” or “What would catch her ear? and what memories or feelings would those senses evoke for her? What headspace is she in for this scene, and how does that affect her experience?” One of the fun parts of writing Daughter of Sekhmet in 1st-person present is that every sense Sati has is so immediate and sometimes very instinctual, especially because she’s a teenager. And because it’s present tense, she’s not going to be giving the reader long, drawn-out descriptions of what she sees, smells, hears, and all that because it’s happening now, not in the past. 

Historical Fiction as Emotional Experience

Ultimately, we read fiction to have an immersive, emotional experience first, not an educational one. And we historical fiction authors need to keep that at the forefront of our minds as we write. 

Lisa: You’re a dancer and professor of Middle Eastern Dance. Were those military training scenes choreographed in your mind? How does your experience of dance apply to any of the scenes in this book? 

Applying Knowledge of Dance to Add Movement

Abigail: My dance experience has 100% informed the writing of this book, but for the fight scenes, I didn’t choreograph them ahead of time. I wanted the fights to be very action/reaction, which is very related to how I learned to improvise to Arabic music.

When a dancer is performing with a live band, she’s (I use “she” here, because the professional dancers in the SWANA region are mostly women) constantly having a conversation with the musicians. She knows the songs inside and out, and should have an excellent command of her physical technique. But she still has to listen very intently, because the musicians could shift to the verse early or repeat a phrase more times than she expects. They could even unexpectedly segue into a song in a related musical mode (maqam). In a way, it’s a power battle between the dancer and the musicians, and the musicians are almost always all men. And the audience is paying far more attention to the dancer. It makes for a very dynamic situation! 

I think that’s the same if you’re fighting someone—you’re constantly listening to their movements so you can predict what they’re going to do next. And your technique, skills, and muscle memory had better be impeccable so you can react without thinking. 

Lisa: You were an analyst for the CIA for many years. What did you learn in that job that you apply to your research and writing? Any insider tips for our readers–whether writing fiction or nonfiction–to apply to their own research and writing, based on that experience? 

What I Learned at the CIA

Abigail: The biggest thing I learned at the CIA is always to keep your reader in mind and give them only what they need right now. In fiction, this means including only the description, exposition, dialogue, and beats necessary for the scene. Don’t bog readers down with endless description, filler, or dialogue that doesn’t advance the story. 

Another key thing I learned is that writing (that you intend to publish) isn’t about you, the author. It’s not about showing off how much you know or how much research you’ve done. It’s not notes to yourself. Writing is about your reader.

For nonfiction, this means asking yourself a lot of questions as you write: What does your reader need to know at this point in your book? What questions are they going to have? Can you anticipate their questions and answer them before they have to ask? What assumptions do they have about a particular topic that you might need to address to mitigate any misunderstandings or misinterpretations? Are there terms or jargon that they might need clarified or that might be unnecessary in the context of what you’re writing? Are there things that you know that the reader might not and need to be clarified or explained? Could you be more specific about what you’re saying to prevent any potential misunderstanding? 

Basically, be precise, yet clear, with your words. At the CIA, we called this “granularity,” a word I probably overuse with my book coaching and editorial clients. But it’s also what I think makes really evocative writing. 

The Editing Process for an Editor-Writer

Lisa: You work as an editor. What are the editing phases you went through with this book and what was the process like? 

Abigail: My process was a little unconventional because my partner, Tim (a professional author, editor, and ghostwriter), was my “alpha” reader and acted almost like a developmental editor. He gave me feedback as I was writing and revising, often several chapters at a time. I also did a lot of self-editing, drawing on my editorial training at the CIA and with the EFA, as well as on several books on self-editing. When I felt it was ready for more eyes, I gave it to my beta readers, some of whom have worked in traditional publishing. When I handed it to my publisher, she and her managing editor also read it and gave it a cursory proofread. Tim also helped with proofreading. I’ve been really lucky to have so many people in the literary world to help me through the editorial process. 

The Biggest  Challenge

Lisa: Were there any particular challenges you faced in writing Daughter of Sekhmet? If so, what was it and how did you overcome it? 

Abigail: The biggest challenge was believing that I could finish and publish it. But in all my creative work as a dancer, I’ve learned that showing up is 90% of the battle. So, I committed to writing every day, as much as I could, even if I only wrote for an hour or only wrote 200 words. Every little bit counts. 

I would also say that the scene in Ahmose’s garden gave me fits. I think I wrote and rewrote that scene at least 10 times before it became what was published. All these things needed to happen, and information needed to be revealed, and I struggled with how to shape it into a cohesive, emotional scene. It’s probably no coincidence that it’s based on one of the first scenes I wrote back in the 90s. I probably should have just started from scratch instead of retrofitting something older! 

Surprising Relevance

Lisa: Did you experience any surprises in writing this book? If so, what? 

Abigail: I don’t want to give too much away, but the insurrection at the US Capitol happened around the same time I was writing the final battle scene in the book, which was eerily uncanny. But it also gave me real-life information to draw on. I had already planned the scene, and then something similar unfolded before our eyes in real time. Even though I know synchronicity is certainly a thing in creative pursuits, it always surprises me. 

Reader Feedback

Lisa: What have you heard from readers and what has struck you most? 

Abigail: Honestly, I’ve been thrilled with the overall positive reader responses. People say they love “Sati’s world,” meaning I’ve successfully integrated my research into the scene setting without it feeling overbearing or “info-dumping.” What really struck me is that two of my friends from college who majored in English (at Princeton) have absolutely loved it; one even said that it helped her overcome her reading slump. I wasn’t expecting that! 

I’m also really pleased that readers seem to be understanding the point. They’re seeing the themes of justice, belonging, identity, and coming of age. That means I did my job as an author. 

The Publishing Path

Lisa: Can you share about the publishing path you took and how you published? 

Abigail: I went with a small hybrid publisher, Armin Lear Press/Thousand Acre Books, run by Maryann Karinch, my partner’s literary agent. I do feel like I could have queried and found an agent, but honestly, I didn’t want to deal with that process. My goal for this book has never been to be a bestseller; the goal has always been to finish it and make it a real book. I’m really pleased with the hybrid process, even if it means paying more in the long run. And Maryann has been a real supportive force, going to conventions and other industry events to promote and increase visibility. 

Going with a hybrid also allowed me to choose my cover designer/artist. In this case, Elinore Eden, a professional illustrator, painted and designed the cover. She read the novel before even sketching out ideas. And she sent me the original watercolor when she was finished. I’m not sure I’d have that experience with a traditional publisher. 

Book Promotion

Lisa: How are you reaching readers with this book? Any advice for our readers on book promotion? 

Abigail: This is something I definitely am not as good at! But I talk about my book quite a bit on social media, and I send out emails to my list. As far as advice goes, I would say never stop talking about your book. Post about it. Tell your friends. Put a link to it in your email signature. Keep copies in your car to sell. 

Lisa: Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers? 

Abigail: Sure! Daughter of Sekhmet is Book 1 in a trilogy, and Book 2, Eye of Re, is currently with my beta readers. It will be released later in 2026, again on Thousand Acre Books. My beta readers have said that it feels more mature and is also quite a bit darker as Sati confronts many different shadows, both her own and those working for her enemies. I’m also working on Book 3 and am about 70,000 words in, which means only 20–30,000 words to go until the first draft is finished. I’m really excited about Book 3 because I’m digging into themes of manipulation, control, and coercion that challenge Sati’s sense of self, her strength, and her resolve to liberate and heal herself… and get revenge. 

If you are Feeling Stuck

And for those of you writing novels and are maybe feeling stuck or overwhelmed—keep going. So much of the early process is discovery, figuring out what the story is, who the characters are, and what the core themes really are. Those only truly become clear after you’ve put words on the page. It also helps to find at least one person you can trust with your draft, who’ll be a cheerleader for you, who’ll ask you, “When is the next chapter going to be ready?” That kind of early anticipation for your story can do wonders for your motivation and confidence. 

About Abigail Keyes

 

Photos here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lDHMVLcPUzOING1W-To30XauKCceck2F?usp=sharing

 

Link to performance with live music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E361_PZJtVs