Dark Goddess by Kelsey Ketch

This blog tour is organized by Lola’s Blog Tours and the tour runs from 7 till 13 August. You can see the tour schedule here.

Dark Goddess (A Dark Reflections Short Story #1)
By Kelsey Ketch
Genre: Dark Fantasy
Age category: New Adult
Release Date: August 2022

Blurb:
Chaos has descended on Egypt, and the people are revolting against their immortal king. Little do they know the wrath he is about to unleash using his daughter as his weapon.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo
– Smashwords
– Google Play
– Apple

Other book in the series:
Dark Creation (A Dark Reflections Short Story #2)
By Kelsey Ketch
Genre: Dark Fantasy
Age category: New Adult
Release Date: 30 April 2021

Blurb:
Long before Charissa began her murderous rampage through history, she was a young woman living in ancient Alexandria.

Oppressed by society and cursed by the color of her hair, Charissa had hardly seen the world beyond the four walls of her home. So, when her husband leaves for extended military duty, she takes the opportunity to tour the city her brother once loved. Little does she know the Fates have other plans in store for her when she runs into an exotic woman in the Rhakotis District. The encounter will change her life forever.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo
– Smashwords
– Google Play
– Apple



About the Author:
Kelsey Ketch is a young-adult/new-adult author, who works as a Wildlife Biologist and Data Analyst. During her free time, she can often be found working on her latest work in progress. She also enjoys history, mythology, traveling, and reading.

Author Links:
– Website
– Newsletter
– Facebook
– Twitter
– Pinterest
– Instagram
– Goodreads
– Amazon
– Bookbub

“Combining Egyptian Mythology with Vampire Lore”

When I was writing Dark Reflections, I wanted Charissa’s backstory to be unique. And since my knowledge of vampires was limited at the time, I started researching historical vampire figures and lore. One that I found was very familiar:

During the time when Ra was king over both the divine and the mortal worlds, Sekhmet—goddess of desert sun, plague, chaos, war, destruction, and healing—was sent to punish mankind for plotting against him. After a day of massacre, Ra felt enough had been done to show the traitors who was in charge. Unfortunately, by this time, Sekhmet’s bloodlust was out of control. So, the sun god ordered seven thousand jars of strong beer be made and dyed with red ochre (or pomegranate juice) and poured over the fields where Sekhmet was due to appear the next day. When she arrived, she believed the beer to be a lake of human blood and drunk it until she fell into an intoxicated slumber for three days. When Sekhmet woke, her bloodlust was gone, and mankind was saved.

Until that search, I never linked Egyptian mythology with vampiric legends. However, when rereading Sekhmet’s story, I could definitely see similar aspects, particularly when it came to the goddess’s bloodlust. Plus, it is a subject I am very familiar with, and thus, made outlining Charissa’s origin and the events prior that led to her being sired by the Egyptian goddess much easier.

When it came time to write Charissa’s origin story in Dark Creation, it was Sekhmet who spoke to me first. She shared bits and pieces of the events that occurred from her point of view until Charissa felt comfortable enough to start opening up about her past. After the completion of Dark Creation, I then felt it only fair to write Sekhmet’s story, itself. Which was a bit tricker that I first believed. Though I had knowledge of Sekhmet and the “Eye of Ra” story, there was much more to the goddess’s background than I first realized. Additionally, there were several variations of the “Eye of Ra” myth. Instead of ignoring aspects that I didn’t account for in my novel or short story, I carefully crafted the aspects into my version of the vampiric world.

For example, I did not account for Ptah, Sekhmet’s husband, and their son. In fact, though I have offspring of vampires and humans in Dark Reflections, I was not sure the offspring themselves could have offspring of their own. As it was, in the world that I built, offspring of vampires and humans were rare. However, in Egyptian mythology, it wasn’t uncommon for mortals to later become gods. This includes Imhotep, an architect that was later revered as a god, as well as Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure, all of whom became later known as the “pyramid gods.” Therefore, I weaved in Ptah (a human) as Sekhmet’s first love, and later mentioned that they adopted a human boy to complete the family dynamic from Egyptian mythology.

It’s fun taking things one learns and looking at them in different ways. Combining Sekhmet’s mythology with the elements of vampiric lore was a challenge. Yet, I feel I did justice to Sekhmet’s character as well as sticking true to the world I originally built in Dark Reflections.