by Carol Ashby
Stadia: Roman units for distances: 1 mile = 8.7 stadia; 1 km = 5.4 stadia
Stola: a long robe worn by married women fastened by clasps at the shoulder and worn over a tunic
Taberna: tavern or shop selling prepared food
Tablinum: the main office and reception room for the Roman master of the house
Tabula: popular Roman board game, often played with betting
Te amo: I like you; I love you
Thermae: Roman bathhouse
Ubi honestum diversorium?: Where is a reputable lodging house?
Vale: Latin farewell, “goodbye”
Voluptas meus est: It is my pleasure or my delight
Scripture References
Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter 43: John 11:25-27 (ESV)
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
Chapter 50: Matthew 18:12-14 (ESV)
What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.
Acknowledgements
I’m so thankful that God has given me another opportunity to tell a story about the faithfulness of one person who tries his best to follow God’s command that we love one another, no matter the cost, and how that changes the lives of those around him. The hundreds of hours spent writing this story of transformation and love flew by, and it’s hard to say goodbye to these characters who feel like my dear friends.
No author could write the best book she can without the help of many others. Special thanks go to my critique partner, Katie Powner, who’s an award-winning author herself and read every line as if she were an editor. Many thanks also to Andrew Budek-Schmeisser, my New Mexico compatriot and fellow author, who gave tirelessly of his time critiquing both Faithful and True Freedom, number six in the series that will be out next year. He’s also been my expert consultant on combat and medical details for this novel and for True Freedom. What a blessing when the answer to a question I didn’t even know to ask is only an email away! I’m especially thankful for the deep wisdom and spiritual insight of my beta readers: alpha beta Regina Fujitani, who gets so many things tried out on her more than once, and my kindred spirit Lisa Garcia, who also read Blind Ambition and told me more than once that teenager Galen had to have his own novel when he grew up. She was right.
Many thanks also to my wonderful friends who read draft versions and gave me many helpful comments. My deepest thanks go out to Patti Stouter and Brennan McPherson for their wise comments on the deep spiritual sections. Their insights and suggestions made the characters more real and the situations more authentic.
It's been a delight to work yet again with my line editor, Wendy Chorot. I especially treasure her spiritual wisdom as we refine the deep spiritual conversations to mirror real life. Her skill as editor is everything a writer could want. It’s a true blessing to work with her. If you’re looking for an editor, call Wendy!
Roseanna White has created another gorgeous cover that captures the theme of the series, the Light in the Empire. No one could do a better job designing the cover of a historical novel about spiritual transformations with a romantic subplot that draws ooohs from women and wows from men. I feel the smiles coming every time I think about what she’ll come up with for the next two in the series.
I especially want to thank my wonderful family. I love talking books with my son Paul, who’s been writing himself since 8th grade. My daughter Lydia gives me the best reasons to shut off the computer and enjoy a day with her. God truly blessed me with them!
Nothing tops being married to a man who is kind, smart, funny, and so patient he even smiles as he listens to my umpteenth variation on a scene. Jim has been a true blessing for two thirds of my life now, and that’s a record I look forward to beating for years to come.
About the Author
Carol Ashby has been a professional writer for most of her life, but her articles and books were about lasers and compound semiconductors (the electronics that make cell phones, laser pointers, and LED displays work). She still writes about light, but her Light in the Empire series tells stories of difficult friendships and life-changing decisions in dangerous times, where forgiveness and love open hearts to discover their own faith in Christ. Her fascination with the Roman Empire was born during her first middle-school Latin class. A research career in New Mexico inspires her to get every historical detail right so she can spin stories that make her readers feel like they’re living under the Caesars themselves.
Read her articles about many facets of life in the Roman Empire at carolashby.com, or join her at her blog, The Beauty of Truth, at carol-ashby.com.
The Light in the Empire Series
Dangerous times, difficult friendships, lives transformed by forgiveness and love.
The Light in the Empire Series follows the interconnected lives of the members of three Roman families of the senatorial order during the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian. Join them as they travel the Empire, from Germania and Britannia to Thracia, Dacia, and Judaea and, of course, to Rome itself.
Available in paperback and Kindle at Amazon.com
and epub version at Kobo.com and Barnes & Noble.
Forgiven
Are some wounds too deep to forgive?
With a ruthless father who murdered for the family inheritance, Marcus Drusus plans to do the same. In AD 122, Marcus follows his brother Lucius to Judaea and plots to frame a zealot for his older brother’s death. But the plan goes awry, and Lucius is rescued by a Messianic Jewish woman. Her oldest brother is a zealot and a Roman soldier killed her twin, but Rachel still persuades her father Joseph to put his love for Jesus above his anger with Rome and hide Lucius until he heals.
Rachel cares for the enemy, and more than broken bones heal as duty turns to love. Lucius embraces Joseph’s faith in Jesus, but sharing a faith doesn’t heal all wounds. Even before revealed secrets slice open old scars, Joseph wants no Roman son-in-law. With Rachel’s zealot brother suspecting he’s a Roman officer and his own brother planning to kill him when he returns, can Lucius survive long enough to change Joseph’s mind?
Available in paperback and Kindle versions at Amazon.com
and epub version at Kobo.com and Barnes & Noble.
Blind Ambition
Sometimes you have to almost die to discover how you want to live.
It’s AD 114 in the Roman province of Germania Superior, and being a Christian carries a death sentence. Tribune Decimus Lentulus is on the fast track for a stellar political career back in Rome. When he’s robbed, blinded, and left for dead, a young German woman who follows the Way finds him. Valeria knows it’s his duty to have her and her family killed, but she chooses to obey Jesus’s command to love her enemy and takes him home to care for him.
It’s not his miraculous recovery that shakes Decimus to his core. It’s the way they love him like family and their unconcealed love for Jesus. In spite of himself, he falls in love with the Christian woman Rome wants him to kill. Can Valeria hide her faith to follow him into the circles of Roman power? Or should he abandon his ambition to help rule the Empire and choose to follow a different way?
Join many of the people you met in Faithful eight years earlier. What began as a bored man's decision to try a different road turns into an emotional and spirit
ual quest that changes the direction of his entire life.
Available in paperback and Kindle versions at Amazon.com
and epub version at Kobo.com and Barnes & Noble.
The Legacy
When Rome has taken everything, what’s left for a man to give?
Betrayed by a ruthless son who’ll do anything for power and wealth, Publius Drusus faces death with an unanswered prayer―that his treasured daughter, Claudia, and honorable son, Titus, will someday share his faith. But who will lead them to the truth once he’s gone?
Claudia’s oldest brother Lucius arranged their father’s execution to inherit everything, and now he’s forcing her to marry a cruel Roman power broker. If only she could get to Titus―a thousand miles away in Thracia. Then the man who secretly told her father about Jesus arranges for his son Philip to sneak her out of Rome and take her to the brother she can trust.
A childhood accident scarred Philip’s face. A woman’s rejection scarred his heart. Claudia’s gratitude grows into love, but what can Philip do when the first woman who returns his love hates the God he loves even more?
Titus and Claudia hunger for revenge on their brother and the Christians they blame for their father’s deadly conversion. When Titus buys Miriam, a secret Christian, to serve his sister, he starts them all down a path of conflicting loyalties and dangerous decisions. His father’s final letter commands the forgiveness Titus refuses to give. What will it take to free him from the hatred poisoning his own heart?
Coming in November 2018
Second Chances
Must the shadows of the past destroy the hope of the future?
In AD 122, Cornelia Scipia, proud daughter of one of Rome's noblest families, learns her adulterous husband plans to betroth their daughter to the vicious son of his best friend. Over her dead body! Cornelia divorces him, reclaims her enormous dowry, and kidnaps her own daughter. She plans to start over with Drusilla a thousand miles away. No more husbands for her. But she didn’t count on meeting Hector, the widowed Greek captain of the ship carrying her to her new life.
Devastated by the loss of his wife and daughter, Hector’s heart begins to heal as he befriends Drusilla. Cornelia’s sacrificial love for Drusilla and her courage and humor in the face of the unknown earn his admiration…as a friend. Is he ready for more?
Marriage to the kind, honest sea captain would give Drusilla the father she deserves…and Cornelia the faithful husband she’s always longed for. But while her ex-husband hunts them to drag Drusilla back to Rome, secrets in Hector’s past and the chasm between their social classes and different faiths erect complicated barriers to any future together. Will God give two lonely hearts a second chance at happiness?
Join the people you met in The Legacy eight years later in this tale of hope and a future never imagined until God opens the door.
Coming in May 2019
True Freedom
The chains we cannot see can be the hardest ones to break.
When Aulus runs up a crushing debt gambling with his father’s political enemy, he’s desperate to pay it off before his father returns to Rome. All seems hopeless until his best friend Marcus suggests they fake the kidnapping of Aulus’s sister Livia and use the ransom to pay his debt. But when the kidnappers decide they can make more money selling Livia into slavery, Aulus is catapulted into a desperate search to find her and bring her home before his father's return.
Torn from his childhood home by Rome’s conquering armies and sold as a farm slave to labor until he dies, Dacius’s faith gives him strength to bear what he must and serve without complaining. After a deadly accident makes him one of Livia’s litter bearers, he overhears Marcus advising her brother to kidnap her. When Dacius almost dies thwarting the kidnapping, a Christian couple pretend Livia and Dacius are their children to keep her brother from finding them before her father returns.
But pretending to be free again makes returning to slavery more than Dacius can bear, while acting like a common woman opens Livia’s eyes to dreams and destinies she never knew existed. With her brother closing in and her father almost home, can Livia find a way around Roman law and custom to free them both for the future they long for?
I’d love to hear what you think of Faithful!
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What should the future hold for Marcus Brutus?
In a militaristic society where it was considered a good afternoon’s entertainment to watch men fight to the death, Marcus Brutus is an honorable man in a brutal business, callous but not cruel, a man who treats his slaves like the men they are but is perfectly comfortable with making money off their deaths. Brutus will return in Spring of 2019 in True Freedom, a story set four years before Faithful. But I haven’t yet decided what Brutus’s ultimate end will be. Will he continue on his present path, or choose a different way? I’d love to hear your thoughts about that. Please go to carol-ashby.com and share your thoughts in the comment box. I hope I hear from you!
