Barone, Sam

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Barone, Sam

PERSONAL: Born in New York, NY. Education: Manhattan College, B.S., 1965.

ADDRESSES: Home— Scottsdale, AZ. E-mail— [email protected].

CAREER: Writer, novelist, software designer, and software developer. Military service: Served in the U.S. Marine Corps.

AWARDS, HONORS: Arizona Authors Association Literary contest, first place, 2006, for Dawn of Empire.

WRITINGS

Dawn of Empire, William Morrow (New York, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS: After a thirty-year career in software development, Sam Barone retired in 1999 to pursue his love of writing. His first project after retirement took the form of a science fiction novel. However, “after a few months, I began having recurring dreams about an ancient warrior, drafted by a small village to defend it from an oncoming barbarian invasion,” he stated on his home page. “The dreams would not go away, and started becoming more and more detailed, more and more real to me.” “To get the story out of my head, I decided to write a chapter, knowing there’s nothing like actual work to make you lose interest,” Barone continued. The story, far from dissipating after his tentative first efforts, grew into Barone’s debut novel, Dawn of Empire. Set in the lush lands of Mesopotamia in the fourth century A.D., the book tells the story of the people of Orak, an agricultural village of more than 2, 000 residents, and the proto-city’s siege by a horde of barbarians intent on its destruction. Situated in the fertile valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, Orak is a prosperous and peaceful town. Around them lurks the constant threat of the barbarous Alur Meriki clan, a group of barbarians that regularly raids agricultural settlements along the Tigris to capture slaves and steal supplies for the clan’s warriors. When the residents of Orak learn that the Alur Meriki has targeted them for a raid, they hurriedly rise to form their own defense. The village leader, Nicar, chooses former barbarian Eskkar as the city’s war leader, relying on the warrior to devise a defense that will turn away the marauding Alur Meriki. Eskkar is given a teenage slave girl, Trella, as a companion, and together the two form a personal and martial partnership. Eskkar directs that a wall of fireproof brick be constructed around the city, and hurriedly works to train both men and women in archery and other combat arts. As preparations are made, weapons forged, and training conducted, the relationship between Eskkar and Trella deepens, and the two eventually marry. A Kirkus Reviews critic called the novel “a Bronze Age historical romance with brains as well as brawn, ripe for a sequel.” A Publishers Weekly writer concluded: “Equal parts history lesson, love story, and war saga, Barone’s first historical will have readers turning pages.”