Meet Del Blackwater

We were lucky to catch up with Del Blackwater recently and have shared our conversation below.

Del, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

Egyptology came to me early – I was seven years old when I got the call. It was, granted, a simpler pastime back then. A trip to the library and its copy machine, and then back to my room where I had a filing cabinet for organizing articles of interest. Although I was a dedicated student, I’m equally certain it was intolerable to be around me for any length of time.

In high school, all thoughts of Ancient Egypt left me, and my ‘collection’ went into a box in the garage, where it would live for many years.

Fast-forward to my college years, where weekly trips to the MFA in Boston reminded me of this place called Egypt. I dove back into research, unsure why, only knowing that there was something there I was supposed to discover. I stayed in my books until I found my answers, and when I found my answers, I took my research abroad, thrilled to fact-check myself under the full Egyptian sun. These days, I am always there even when I am not there. You can put me anywhere on earth and my mind inevitably stays in the Nile Valley.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I am a novelist and travel writer specializing in Egyptology. It always bothered me that historians write ceaselessly about Ancient Egypt while ignoring the 2,000 years of history that occurred afterwards. In my historical fantasy series Dead Egyptians, I decided to tackle the story of the birth of modern Egypt, i.e. the Egyptian Revolution of 1919. Unable to resist also discussing Ancient Egypt, I threw the ghosts of some very famous Ancient Egyptians into the narrative, so that I could discuss both Egypts simultaneously. Looking at you, Imhotep.

Because the development of the fantasy series involved quite a lot of research, I also inadvertently got to write some non-fiction as well, in the form of travel writing. My hope is that between both efforts, I can show readers the real Egypt, and what the land of wonders really gifted the world.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

This is a very easy question to answer – I could not have written a thing of relevance without extensive travels to Egypt, and even there, it was not a given that people would embrace me or show me the ropes. Thankfully for the human race, Egyptians did, and when I think about why, I know that it is a combination of learning a little Arabic before I went over, showing humility in the face of other people’s knowledge, and going with the flow. You have to let a place seep into you, rather than trying to imprint your own agenda onto a place.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?

Joan Grant’s book Winged Pharaoh changed everything for me. She published it as a novel in the 1930s and it was heavily praised for its uncanny level of historical accuracy. Later in life, the author admitted that it was not a novel, but an attempt to put her fragmented memories of a former life into a chronological narrative. Whether or not you believe Joan Grant’s story, her version of events is unforgettable, once absorbed. I can never go back to a time when I didn’t know about initiation rituals in the priesthood, and what that may have looked like.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://delblackwater.com/
• Instagram: @deadegyptians on Instagram and Threads
• Facebook: Del Blackwater Author – https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61550627112074
• Other: https://delblackwater.substack.com/

Image Credits

Cover design for Dead Egyptians by David King