How I’m Doing on Book One of Savage Land–1

Neanderthals are arguably the most maligned, misunderstood humans in the history of mankind. I am excited to set that straight in my next trilogy, Savage Land–share with you why you will be proud to call them kin.

Their world in decline with one chance to save it.

Nature had a plan to wipe Man from her planet. She didn’t count on the Neanderthals. 

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Modern man is 2-4% Neanderthal (depending upon where we live) with over 30% of their essence spread throughout ours. Makes you wonder what they were like? Were they hard-working, the type you’re proud to call family or that embarrassing Uncle you try to avoid at family gatherings?

About 75,000 years ago, Indonesia’s Mount Toba erupted and man–Neanderthals and all other Homo species–almost disappeared from the face of the earth. If you’ve heard of the Year without a Summer (in the 1800’s), this was worse. If Neanderthals were the dullard caveman history makes them out to be, Mount Toba’s devastation of their critical habitats might have been their demise. But they weren’t–dull cavemen. They were smart, clever, and resilient.

Join me in this three-book fictional exploration of Neanderthals. Be ready for a world nothing like what you thought it would be, filled with clever minds, brilliant acts, and innovative solutions to life-ending problems, all based on real events. At the end of this trilogy, you’ll be proud to call Neanderthals family.

Here’s what I did the past month:

• Picked my jaw up off the floor: Neanderthals were nothing like what I thought. Rather than doltish ancestors I wanted to hide in the attack, they are worthy kin, strong, competent, smart, clever problem solvers. As Rebecca Wragg Sykes says in Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death, and Art:

…they cast a net of presence, action, intention across land… Theirs were minds that looked out to the horizon and knew it intimately: how the paths changed in spring, when the fords would fill and perhaps even how many sunrises until the great cliffs came into view… 

• So much interesting about man’s evolution at this time in prehistory.
• And mysteries! To the surprise of those who study early man, Neanderthals–creatures we thought had no sense of art or culture–left geometric symbols on cave walls and not just random symbols–the same 32 throughout Europe. What does that mean? I’ll give you some ideas in the book.
• The crisis that drives Neanderthals out of SE Asia (in my story) is the Toba Eruption. When Toba erupted, it sent enough soot and ash into the atmosphere to turn summer to winter, the sound circumnavigated the Earth three times, and everything our ancestors knew changed. I had thought that would be the story, but I was wrong. 
• I learned to make a two-four-hole flute/clarinet–because Neanderthals made them! Music was another skill scientists never thought them capable of. I watched a lot of YT videos on this.
• Research in human evolution often includes sentences like: “the main ontogenetic mechanism to attain an exceptionally high degree of encephalization during adulthood”. What?? I Googled it… scratched my head… walked in a circle… drank a Red Bull–Got it. Neanderthal children matured at about a modern human rate. That’s important so my story portrays the children correctly.
• I watched hours (and hours) of natural survival videos, how people live off the land despite no technology. Some of these YouTubers enter the wild with nothing more than a knife. This is perfect for my research because Neanderthals  were hunter-gatherers, pre-farming, pre-industrial. Well, turns out there is huge interest in survival skills. YouTube has a ton of videos on survivalists doing exactly this, others spending months (or longer) with primitive tribes (mostly in Africa or the Amazon rainforest). The videos have millions of viewers! Often, 10-15 million! Who knew?
• It struck me these viewers are the type of folk who would love my book. Now how to reach them.
• I love words–I’m a bibliophile at heart. One word on my long list of favorites is ‘quotidian’. I’ve never run across it in my reading until now, in Rebecca Wragg Sykes consummately readable book on Neanderthals:

“…composite tools were far more quotidian than the rarity of their archaeological traces would lead us to believe.”

What a great day!

• I’m considering a BookFunnel Group Promo or Author Swap. Any insights for me?

That’s it for now! How’s your writing going?

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Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular prehistoric fiction saga, Man vs. Nature which explores seminal events in man’s evolution one trilogy at a time. She is also the author of the Rowe-Delamagente thrillers and Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. Her non-fiction includes over a hundred books on integrating tech into education, reviews as an Amazon Vine Voice,  a columnist for NEA Today, and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. Look for her next prehistoric fiction, Savage Land Winter 2024.

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