Author and Botetourt County resident Brook Allen is no stranger to literary success: her debut novel, Antonius: Son of Rome, has reached bestseller status twice on Amazon in Australia and Canada. But when she saw last week that she’d been awarded a silver medal by the international review site Readers’ Favorite, it was a new level of excitement.
“It was a miracle,” said Allen of the moment she logged into see that she’d received the award for Son of Rome. “Contest after contest passed me by, but for some reason this one caught my eye.” Going with her gut to apply made the moment all the sweeter: “I did a dance in the living room.” The news came just in time to accompany the October release of the trilogy’s final book, Antonius: Soldier of Fate, which closes the saga continued in the trilogy’s second book, Antonius: Second in Command.
Marcus Antonius, better known to English readers as Shakespeare’s Mark Antony, is known mostly for his romance with Egypt’s Cleopatra. “Classicists to this day are very polarized in their opinions of him… but he’s got a military background, he’s got the romantic background… he’d make one heck of a story. He was an enigma … in some regards he was misunderstood because his story was written by his enemies.”
Allen uses Antonius as a vehicle to explore more of Rome’s culture and history alongside the figure’s own storied life. “I have always just wanted to write on Republican period of Roman history — ever since I was in high school and read Shakespeare’s Julius Cæsar.” Better known to most Botetourt County residents as Margaret Courtney, Allen produced the trilogy as full-time music teacher at Greenfield Elementary School where she continues to teach while writing and researching. Her investigations have taken her far from Botetourt County: from being tossed in the waters above the ruins of Egypt’s Lighthouse of Alexandria to several locations in the Roman Palpatine Hills, traditionally closed off to the public, but which her trilogy’s hero would have known well.
The work isn’t all travel. Allen taught herself Latin, drawing on experience in French, and often pores over her manuscripts with precision: “Being an author is such minutia work — you have to do line edits constantly.” Her advice to aspiring authors? “Don’t do it for the money. Do it because you love to write and you love to tell stories and you have something to share.”
Allen’s passion has earned her global praise. “I have readers in so many countries. I was speaking with a reader in Australia the other day and it’s really poignant — her husband has cancer and she said my blogs and my book were really helping her get through a hard time. Because of the virus, he’s a prisoner in the hospital.” And with the possibility of a translated edition in Italian museums, her continued global presence seems likely.
Allen’s latest, Son of Rome, launches October 16, with physical copies available at the Valley View Mall Barnes & Noble and bookstore Book No Further in Roanoke. For e-readers, her works are available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble’s Nook and Kobo. Her website is brookallenauthor.com.
Though this is the end of her Antonius trilogy, Allen is turning to another place steeped in history for her next project: Fincastle. “I’m going to tackle some of the history surrounding Judy Hancock and William Clark. I’m excited to learn more about Botetourt County!”
