Potiphar’s Wife Q&A – Part I (Research)

Though we tried to make everything PERFECT for Potiphar’s Wife FB Live Release Party, some things we just couldn’t control–like the hotel’s spotty internet connection. Some of the Q&A time was pretty chopped up, so I thought we’d give a fuller version of ALL the questions submitted. The week before the book’s launch, my newsletter subscribers (affectionately called, “newsies”) offered some fantastic questions to enter a giveaway. The questions were sooooo great that I divided them into categories. Today, we’ll tackle the questions about research, leaving the other three topics for the next two weeks.

Research, Research, Research!

Research is my favorite part of the writing process, and lots of folks have asked where I found the facts for Potiphar’s Wife.

1. Not a lot is known biblically about Potiphar’s wife. What did you base your research on?
2. How did you do your research?
3. What historical/Biblical resources did you use to research?

I didn’t read all those books from cover-to-cover. Some of them I’ve used for other projects and some were strictly for the Hyksos era (Second Intermediate Period ca. 1800 – 1550 BC).

Here are short answers to the specific questions from above:

1. I started by simply Googling “Potiphar’s Wife” and found lots of interesting online resources.
2. Though I LOVE books and have compiled a significant personal library, I also use several academic online resources as well. The best way to discover reliable resources is to study the footnotes of academic articles. When you see one name or one resource quoted more than any other–that’s the person or book you want to purchase!
3. The picture above gives you a good glimpse of my most-used resources. You can find my favorite online resources in my previous post: 3 Secrets to Research Success for Potiphar’s Wife

Favorite Random Research Fact

Question: What’s your favorite piece of random trivia you learned while researching for this book?

This one is easy. BY FAR, my favorite research involved the ancient Egyptian cure for hysteria–what modern medicine would term mental illness. Of course, the ancients only recorded the cure for WOMEN’S hysteria because, evidently, men never suffered from such a malady (really?!?!?!)

Ready for the cure?

Ancient physicians were instructed to “fumigate the uterus” to cure a woman’s hysteria. It was an extremely unpleasant process, and I’ll spare you the details. I’ve described it in Potiphar’s Wife, but let me just say…for millennia men have blamed women’s foul moods on her female parts! LOL!

Favorite Clothing

George E. Koronaios, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Question: Which clothes were your favorite that the characters wear?? Were they inspired by an actor from a film like The Mummy or The Chosen?

I found the Minoan women’s dress very . . . intriguing. Their colorful tiered skirts sounded beautiful and stunning, but it was their short cropped jackets that got my editor’s attention. The jackets were worn OPEN in the front–with nothing underneath. Eeeeek! A bit too racy for the Christian market, so we made a few subtle changes to Zully’s historic costuming and covered her chest!

Egyptian women wore very sheer linen robes (as you can tell in tomb paintings and temple reliefs), but I let that word “sheer” speak for itself without a lot of description or emphasis.

Wanna Go To Egypt?

Question: Have you ever been to Egypt? Or do you want to go?

No…and YES! I’ve never been to Egypt, but OOOOOOHHHHHH, how I want to go! In 2020, we took a group to Israel and had every intention of leading a group to Egypt in 2022 to celebrate the release of Potiphar’s Wife. 

But Covid… The world actually went crazy while we were in Israel, and we had to cancel our extension into Jordan (to see Petra) because of it. Someday, we’re hoping to return to Israel, see Petra, and finally see Egypt! Big plans for a world that’s still pretty topsy-turvy.

Would you pray with me that the Lord will open the door to go someday?!

More Questions to Explore!

Here’s what’s coming next in the Q&A from Potiphar’s Wife:

• June 13 (Blog): Potiphar’s Wife Q&A – Part II (What’s Fact and What’s Fiction?)
• June 20 (Newsletter): Potiphar’s Wife Q&A – Part III (Spiritual Themes & My Writing Life)

If today’s questions and answers sparked more thoughts, be sure to comment below. I love hearing from you!

Tweetables:

• My favorite research was the cure for hysteria. Of course, pharaohs physicians blamed it on a womans hormones!
• It’s Part I of a 3-part series of Q&A on #PotipharsWife! Questions from readers and answers today about research!