Patricia Furstenberg, Writer of Historical Fiction, Children's Books
Travel via Stories
When Emperor Trajan marched north to face the Dacians, it wasn’t just another Roman campaign. It was personal. The Dacians, led by their fierce king Decebalus, had grown too rich, too proud, and way too independent. For Rome, as a winning empire, Dacia was both an embarrassment and an obsession.
Continue reading “The River Treasure and One Map that Shouldn’t Exist”
Chasing Dracula at Tihuța Pass, one Saint Andrew’s Eve when the wolves are said to speak and the living seal their doors with garlic, I strode that winding road. Between Fiction and the Carpathians was born there, where the veil thins and the line between myth and memory fades.
Continue reading “Chasing Dracula at Tihuța Pass, Between Fiction and the Carpathians”
I love books featuring real-life locations. That’s why I write them. To read about a city steeped in history, to hear the pounding of a character’s steps and know that I can walk the same path! Finally, there’s less than a week to the release of Dan Brown’s new Robert Langdon mystery thriller, The Secret of Secrets. So I splurged into an imaginary journey of my own. Why don’t you join me?
Book Review: “The Secret of Secrets” by Dan Brown: a labyrinth of mind, mystery, and manuscripts. Read below.
Continue reading “Following Robert Langdon, a Journey Through Dan Brown’s Hidden Secrets”
Join me on a wintry pilgrimage through the heart of Romania. Snow on the Tracks: Shadowing Vlad the Impaler to Sighișoara is a travel essay close to my heart, recently featured as a finalist in the Pilgrimages writing competition on Intrepid Times. This journey by train, from Bucharest to the birthplace of Vlad the Impaler, the medieval town of Sighisoara, threads through snow-dusted forests, ancestral echoes and the pulse of a country still shaped by its legends.
It’s a story of looking out the window. And into the past.
Read the full piece here: Snow on the Tracks: Shadowing Vlad the Impaler to Sighișoara.
With thanks to Intrepid Times for publishing my travel story and to my wonderful husband for supplying those gorgeous pictures.
For centuries, the white storks migrated witnessing humanity’s triumphs and tragedies unfold beneath its wings. From the old African tribes to the sacred temples of Egypt and the battlefields of the Levant; from the grandeur of Ottoman palaces to the villages of Romania, the white storks have traveled through space and time. They carry no bias, no memory of war or peace. Only the rhythm of migration and the promise of return. And so, when it takes flight again, it remains, as ever, a silent witness to the world’s unfolding tale.
Yesterday, on the 21st of February, we witnessed the white storks taking flight on their migratory journey. Let’s join them.
Continue reading “Where the White Storks Migrate, Folktales and Histories Along their Path”