A FEW YEARS AGO I participated in a writing exercise with some friends, just for fun. Each of us was given the following outline with instructions to write a scene in our given genre. Mine was historical. Here's what we were given—
A man walks into a room occupied by two women. One he loves, one he hates. He utters one line, then exits. One of the women then follows him.
Years earlier I'd read about a rather dubious honor related to the burial of Egyptian royalty. I'd jotted the information down in my notebook thinking it might someday make a good scene. Pairing the research with the outline, here's the story I wrote—
