Time Raiders Series
Dear Readers
Welcome to the world of TIME RAIDERS, the ROMvet series! The ROMVETS, women who served or are serving in the military and are writers, have created the exciting TIME RAIDERS series. If you love time travel, military heroes, aliens, paranormal, kick butt-take names heroines, and nonstop action, this is the series for you! Merline Lovelace and I created this series at the Romantic Times convention in St. Louis, in 2005.
And, if you like the first four books, go to eharlequin.com and tell
them so! This is a 12-book series and they have contracted the first
four books to test the waters to see if you, the READER, like the
series. If you do, please go to Silhouette Nocturne at eharlequin.com
and tell them you want to see the other eight! The first four books, bought by Silhouette Nocturne, are due shortly. They are written by some of your favorite authors. Here's the full list where you can pre-order them:
 |
The Seeker, August 2009, by Lindsay McKenna (USA Today Best Selling Author) |
 |
The Slayer, September 2009, by Cindy Dees |
The Avenger, October 2009, by P.C Cast (New York Times Best Selling Author) |
|
The Protector, November 2009, by Merlin Lovelace (USA Today Best Selling Author) |
For more on the series go to http://www.timeraidersseries.com
THE SEEKER, book 1 by Lindsay McKenna
Delia Sebastian is a trained historian and psychic. Former Army Captain Jake Tyler is her swaggering ex-lover, who can read her most intimate thoughts--and desires.
Together they will make the risky leap back to 44 B.C. to infiltrate the court of Julius Caesar by posing as Grecian mercenaries. But with assassins everywhere, will old passions reignite to undermine their cover...leaving them trapped in history forever?
One of the important reasons we created TIME RAIDERS was to uncover brilliant, powerful and transformational women throughout our history. And, in most cases, history has forgotten them. We wanted to bring them back and reintroduce them to our readers of today!
I chose to utilize Servilia Caepionis who was the half sister of Marcus Porcius Cato the Younger, as the strong secondary character in THE SEEKERS. Servilia came from a patrician family in Rome. Her parents died young and that may explain her strength that she carried for the rest of her life. She was married twice. Her son by her first husband, General Marcus Brutus grew up to become one of Julius Caesar's most trusted officers in his legion and later one of his assassins. She was born in 100 B.C. and died in 42 B.C.
Servilia waited on no man. She was a tour-de-force of her own. A good example of this that is historically noted is that she became the mistress of Julius Caesar while still married to Decimus Junius Silanus. And if she wanted Julius Caesar to show up at her home, she told him so. It wasn’t the other way around. In one love letter from Servilia (who was still married to Cato the Younger) she sent it directly to the Senate to Julius. While Caesar was trying to covertly read the missive, it was Cato the Younger (her half brother) who accused him of secretive and conspiratorial behavior.
Julius tried to deflect Cato’s attack and told them all that it was a letter from his mistress. He wasn’t about to name her! Cato snatched the letter from Caesar because he thought the general was lying to him. Cato read the letter. There is nothing in history to tell of Cato’s reaction to finding out his married half sister was Caesar’s mistress. Shortly after that, however, Servilia was divorced from Silanus.
Servilia was an adroit and highly intelligent Roman woman who had no equal among men or women of her day. She was several years older than Julius Caesar, but that didn’t matter. During the Gallic wars (58-51 B.C.) that involved Gaul, Germania and Britannia, Servilia was at Caesar’s side. It was widely known among the legions that she not only discussed tactics, but actual battle strategy with Caesar and her ideas helped him to win this war. Eventually, the Roman republic annexed Gaul into their expanding empire. There weren’t many Roman women, or indeed, any women who had this kind of power in ancient Rome or the ancient world as a whole. As a thank you and reward, Julius gifted Servilia with a rare and priceless black pearl worth a million and a half denari.
What I admired about Servilia is that she considered herself a EQUAL to any man. She refused to be beneath any of them. She was highly skilled at guiding her son’s twenty year career as a Roman soldier. Marcus Brutus, grew to love Julius Caesar as few men ever would. And, Servilia had great political power over Caesar in Rome while he was alive. After Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March, Servilia led the Senate and Rome to the start of the golden reign of Augustus.
Her life was high drama and politics. Her beloved son, Marcus Brutus, had loved Caesar and fought at his side like a son for twenty years. When Caesar returned to Rome to become its dictator, the morals and values of Brutus would not allow him to support him. Instead, Brutus joined Pompeii's army. It was on the plains of Greece that Pompeii's army--and Brutus, were defeated by Julius Caesar. Yet, afterward, Julius freely welcomed Marcus Brutus back as the dear old friend he’d been before. Although a traitor, Julius forgave him and took him back into his political and personal fold. Later, Servilia’s son would be one of the assassins that killed her beloved Julius Caesar. And later yet, her son would die. Servilia lived to see many changes in the Roman Republic. And through it all, Servilia was her own woman all the way. She used her power and politics to bring Augustus to power as Emperor of Rome. And it was during the “Golden Age” of Augustus that Rome was at its apex---all thanks to a powerful woman known as Servilia.
Now you know why I honor her and wrote about her in THE SEEKERS. There was an HBO movie, “ROME,” but she was poorly portrayed and that is regrettable. Above all, Servilia served no man. She served herself, her ideals and had only the best invested in Rome for everyone. You don’t get much more heroic than that. And yet, history has tarnished this powerful woman’s achievements. Now, you know the ‘rest of the story.’ And why I wrote about her in THE SEEKERS.
Do let me know what you think! I love to hear from my readers!