Friday, April 14, 2006

Lost Blogs: Day Five

How did I get here? From Queen of Sparta to Princess of Troy, and now a refugee. I have lost everything. It wouldn't matter if my love were still here. But I have lost him, too. And I don't know how to start over without him. I don't want to.

I look at the few survivors around me, and I weep. It is my fault that they are here. If not for my affair, they would have remained in the peaceful existence they knew before all of this. But Aphrodite's spell, nay, curse, was too strong to resist. All the women who have lost their husbands. All the children who have lost their fathers. I feel their scornful eyes upon me wherever I go.

I know what I must do. It will not bring back their loved ones. It will not bring back the wonderful kingdom that was conquered by the combined Greek army. And it will not undo the ruin that our city has become. But it might save me in the next life.

-Helen

This post is part of Kevin Apgar's Grassroots Blogger Book Marketing Campaign (GRBBMC) for the upcoming release of the very talented Paul Davidson's new book, The Lost Blogs. If you want to read the possible blogs of hundreds of other historical figures (though much better-written, I'm sure), click here to pre-order your copy of Paul's book. At the end of this five-day contest/exercise, the characters of all participating bloggers will be revealed. If you wish, you can leave your guesses in the comments.

7 comments:

Nicole Kelley said...

Congratulations to Jill, who correctly guessed my lost blogger's identity on Day Three. (Although several others guessed it on Day Four.) Was it the "face that launched a thousand ships" reference that gave it away?

And what has the lovely Jill won, you ask? A personally-autographed copy of my big band's latest swing album (released last summer). Yeah, it's shameless self-promotion, I know. But it's good music, I promise.

JillWrites said...

YAY! Can't wait to listen to it!

What gave it away...? Unhappy marriage, new lover, gods intervened, new lover's father could have ordered her return, and the final piece... the THOUSAND ships...(with her husband on one of them!)

ninjapoodles said...

Beautifully done!

Unknown said...

Great! Your posts were good because they made Helen balanced. On the one hand, I found her a little vain and selfish, on the other hand, man to be married off to someone you don't love . . . bad.

Karl said...

Nicole, I really enjoyed your entries this week. Very well done, even if I didn't quite get Helen's name out.

*lynne* said...

well done! if i hadn't been so braindead I might have ID'd ya sooner... but enjoyed your posts all the same :-) congrats on the win too :-)

Anonymous said...

Whoa. The 'thousand ships' reference was totally lost on me!! I didn't pick that up at all. *DUHH* And I had NO clue until the Helen signature. Talk about sucking at history! :)

Amazing job - beautiful writing, Nicole!

And the whole swing thing?? I'm floored - I just started taking swing lessons (east coast!) and my favorite music to dance to...big band!

You and I need to talk more! :)