M.J. Rose

True romance…

Pyramid Age love story comes to life in Egyptian tomb’s vivid color

by Owen Jarus LiveScience

Photo by Ms. Effy Alexakis, (c) Macquarie University Ancient Cultures Research Center

“Inside a tomb dating back to the age of the Pyramids in Egypt was this image, an embrace between a priestess and her husband, a singer in the pharaoh’s palace. The image has been recorded by researchers in full color.

She was a priestess named Meretites, and he was a singer named Kahai, who performed at the pharaoh’s palace. They lived about 4,400 years ago in an age when pyramids were being built in Egypt, and their love is reflected in a highly unusual scene in their tomb — an image that has now been published in all its surviving color.

The tomb at Saqqara — which held this couple, their children and possibly their grandchildren — has now been studied and described by researchers at Macquarie University’s Australian Center for Egyptology. Among the scenes depicted is a relief painting showing the couple gazing into each other’s eyes, with Meretites placing her right hand over Kahai’s right shoulder…”

Read the rest, here. See Photos of the Pyramid Age Tomb & Artwork here.

We were out for a week, but now we’re back. We missed you.

Now, please enjoy some genuine old portraits, and then some newfangled alterations of old portraits.

Old portraits of children with creepy ‘ghostmothers’ in the background show how far mums would go for a good photo

By Daily Mail Reporter

“In the early days of photography, many well-off families jumped at the chance to have their precious children’s likeness captured for eternity.

The one trick that they had to deal with next, after finding photographers willing to set up the bulky equipment and travelling to the portrait location, was getting the little babies to sit still for the entirety of the session.

As a result, many photographers enlisted the help of the children’s mothers, with often creepy outcomes…”

Read more here.

And now these lovely wonders…

History Meets the Strangest Animated GIFs

by An Xiao

Decoy Howizter [Remastered] (all images via fluxmachine.tumblr.com)

“OAKLAND, Calif. — In an era of ubiquitous photography and advanced editing, it’s fun to look back on old images and bring new techniques to play with them. There’s the popular topic of colorizing historical images, which has been making the rounds lately. And the NYPL made waves when they turned old stereographs into animated GIFs that are surprisingly effective at showing their 3D quality. And meme land has given us the history photobomb.But what about completely deconstructing historic images all together? I recently encountered the wacky and amazing animated GIFs of Kevin Weird…”

The rest here.

Click here and vote for Best Fantasy Novel of 2013 and Victor Hugo and I are counting on you!

I’m so honored that you all have voted and helped Seduction make it to the Goodreads Best Books 2013. Thank you!! I hope you will consider casting your vote now (voting ends Friday) for the final selection. I’m up against tough competition:)

 “Readers will be enchanted by M.J. Rose’s supernaturally charged novel Seduction, inspired by Victor Hugo’s self-imposed exile on the British island of Jersey in the 1850s. Great elements of suspense are present — a remote, misty island teeming with century-old Celtic ruins, an unreliable narrator who may or may not be going crazy.” —USAToday