The Qedesha

Most of the day has been spent working on a Quickies story that I’m really trying to keep short titled Qedesha – it’s the child of a short burst of freakiness and historical fascination. If you don’t know what Qedesha means, I’ll save you the look up:

According to Encyclopædia Britannica’s website, the Qedesha, also spelled kedesha or kedeshah, Akkadian qadishtu, are one of a class of sacred prostitutes found throughout the ancient Middle East, especially in the worship of the fertility goddess Astarte (Ashtoreth). Prostitutes, who often played an important part in official temple worship, could be either male or female. In Egypt, a goddess named Qedeshu, Lady of Kadesh (Syria), was worshiped in the 19th and 20th dynasties (1292–c. 1075 bc). Her representation is found on private stelae of middle-class workers. She is shown nude, posed frontally on a lioness (or a leopard), holding arrows in her hands. Although Israelite prophets and reformers repeatedly denounced sacred prostitution, the early Israelites seem to have adopted the local Canaanite rites, which they apparently practiced publicly until the reform of King Josiah about 621 bc.

I was playing around with StumbleUpon (my hands down favorite Chrome extension, followed by AdBlock and Grammarly) and found a page talking about them. Which, of course, me being me, made me instantly spark up and start researching the hell out of them, learning all kinds of fascinating things. I had no idea people like that even existed! Several hours later I was plotting and, several hours after that, I was slamming away at the keyboard.

I’ve already finished the rough draft (which comes in at 6,790 words so far) and submitted it to Amazon, so in a few weeks (after the standard three edits / beta-reader opinions / editor review) I’ll have it finished and out to you guys. I’m gunning for before Christmas, and I might even run a promotion on it. Who knows.

I’m kind of a Harley Quinn type of writer. 😛

Anyway, until tomorrow…

#Lust