Gregory Nixon

Hi. After spending most of my later adult life as a university prof, publishing papers mainly on consciousness studies, philosophy of mind, and mythic memory, I now find myself authoring ancient historical novels, especially set during the Bronze Age Collapse involving the Peoples of the Sea. I have been writing all my life, beginning in our small town in Saskatchewan. As an avocation, in my off hours I studied the Mycenaean era of Ancient Greece, as well as theories of myth & ritual and the mythic mind. Once I retired, I returned to a novelistic venture I had been dreaming of since reading Homer's Iliad at 15 years old: bringing to life the further adventures of the hero, Diomedes. When at last I dedicated myself to novel writing two years ago, my dream was reinvigorated. However, my characters insisted on entering the Hittite Empire, probably because its capital, Hattusa, came down in flames only a few years after Troy (Ilios). I followed their wishes and brought Hittite royalty into my tale, including Suppiluliuma II, the last of the Great Kings. I immersed myself in Hittite studies, and finally an unusual book emerged — an historical fiction with a strong portrayal of mythic consciousness at the time of the Bronze Age collapse: The Diomedeia: Diomedes, the Peoples of the Sea, and the Fall of the Hittite Empire.

[Note: the Bronze Age Collapse was probably precipitated by Climate Change!]

I am now doing the sequel and conclusion because I needed to honour Diomedes and follow him to the end of his life. He has taken me back to Peloponnese of Mycenaean Hellas, which is where he began. Mycenae, Tiryns, and other major cities have fallen to the Peoples of the Sea, as did Troy and Hattusa. In Hellas, the Dorians are also leading a revolution against the palace kingdoms. Diomedes was an ideal mythic hero to make into a novel protagonist because he is "dynamic", that is, he goes through a major change in character from the beginning when he his a destroyer of cities to becoming a city builder, very rare during the Bronze Age Collapse.

Like Diomedes, my own life has recently gone through major changes. I retired from my small university in northern British Columbia, Canada, and, at her request, I left my ex with the house we had lived in there. I am now by big beautiful Okanagan Lake, living alone in a woodsy apartment out in nature—perfect for a writing life!