A novel of Gubla, ca. 3000 BCE
Timbers of the Lady
When Egypt doubles the cedar quota, one hull must survive the storm — or none of them will.
- Cedar for the Nile
- A New Hull
- The Double Quota
- Storm's Reckoning
A Mediterranean storm forces reckoning.
In this book
Official link • Secure checkout on Amazon
About this book Available now
Gubla prospers on cedar exports to the Nile Valley. When a poor highland harvest collides with an Egyptian envoy's steep quota and a prototype hull becomes the focus of sabotage, corruption, and political leverage, five lives intersect around one season's critical shipment—until a Mediterranean storm forces reckoning.
Among them are Nadim the shipwright, who tests copper-clamped joints the elders refuse to trust; priestess Shira, reading thin smoke from sacrifice fires; Mallku Kemet's advisor Hannu, secretly routing prime timber to highland allies; Egyptian scribe-trader Meri, carrying a quota scroll that demands double the usual cedar; and Yara, daughter of a merchant lord who watches opportunity and gossip arrive together.
Set in Gubla (Byblos), ca. 3000 BCE, Timbers of the Lady is historical fiction about trade interdependence with Egypt, cedar sustainability against short-term wealth, temple authority, and the price of innovation when a storm breaks one vessel and spares another.