Book of the Month: Magdalene

If you've been reading this blog a while, you were probably with me while I was writing Magdalene--it wasn't that long ago! In fact, the book was a "rush" job, and I think I wrote it in forty-five days.

This book was a little different because I was approached to write it--the opposite of what usually happens. Tyndale House wanted to publish three books that would release at about the same time as the DaVinci Code movie. I still had to put a proposal together that would meet with editorial approval (and I had to finish Uncharted before I could even begin any of this), but my agent and I put our heads together and came up with a rough idea. I was excited by the possibility of working on a novel that would faithfully create a woman of the first century in part because I had just completed my master's course in Advanced New Testament--I had just finished reading the NT and studying that era.

Harriet Klausner, review maven of the Internet, has posted a review of the book, from which I've excerpted a portion:

In the first century in Israel, nobody hates the Roman occupation more than Miryam . . . Angela Hunt has written a meticulously researched and well told story of Mary Magdalene; one of the most controversial people in Christ’s ministry. The author makes the era come alive, populating the storyline with actual historical figures, and allowing the reader to visualize the turbulence during Christ’s earthly ministry, and the disciples who spread his word around the world. This is a fascinating work based on biblical and historical details.

Tomorrow: how the idea germinated

~~Angie