Glyphs: The Scribe

by Cyndie Shaffstall

Wiraqucha, the creator god, loves and will not destroy the people and empire he has created, so he appoints others to watch over his creations while he continues his explorations of the heavens and the earth. After one hundred years, his appointed custodians must return to their home in the sky, leaving the people of the Wira Empire without the daily presence of those they believe protect them.

In accordance with this and other prophesies, and almost all at once, the Wira Empire loses their sun god, Inti, who succumbs to the ravages of the human form as Wiraqucha plans to flood the village in order to protect it as a place of rest for his future visits.

Pascac, son of Inti, leads villagers to safety in Sacsayhuamán, the sanctuary overlooking Qusqu—the capital city built by the god of civilization, Manqu Qhapaq. Despite their will to live and prosper, those things may not be within the grasp of the new settlers. Supay, the god of death, and other gods rage against them—seemingly intent upon wiping out the entire civilization and those who rule them.

Through it all, the scribe, one of only a few who knows the ancient art of glyph drawing, endures hardship and tragedy to fulfill her life’s purpose of recording history and creating books for the Wira descendants so they will know the story of how they came to be.
Cyndie Shaffstall’s new historical fiction is based upon the legends of Peru’s Wira and Inca gods and the theories of modern-day ancient astronaut theorists concerning their origins. You will be transported through the ages to join the villagers in the trials and tribulations of establishing their new home in the sanctuary on the hill.

295 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 2, 2015

About the author

Cyndie Shaffstall, a quintessential entrepreneur in the software industry, wrote her first book in 1992, QuarkXPress: Making the Most of Your Negative Experiences, followed quickly by a dozen after-market computer manuals. In the years since, she has further contributed to the design and business industries as the editor and publisher of X-Ray Magazine and more recently, revealing some of her successful business practices in Small-business Guide to Winning at Web Marketing. Cyndie Shaffstall is a prolific writer of eBooks, case studies, press releases, blog articles, and other online content for her company, Spider Trainers—a provider of automated marketing—and as a contributing blogger to Target Marketing Magazine, among other print and electronic publications. Cyndie Shaffstall is the inventor and patent holder of Sassy Strappings, a fashion accessory. She lives in Denver with her two dogs, Felix Trinidad and Oscar de la Hoya—boxers.

Reviews

[Lilian Flesher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peru, the beginning of time it seems, this book is narrated by "The Scribe" who in essence is a woman who was trained in the art of drawing and writing the signs that would in later years be the "history books" of their people. Created by the Gods, the Sun God, The Earth God etc, the land is protected by the Gods, but the Gods have to leave their earthly bodies and return to the heavens leaving the lands without their protection, thus allowing what we would call paganism where false gods, self-appointed gods, participate in human sacrifices, as well as animal sacrifices. This was against the Sun God Inti's wishes, and he is displeased.

This was totally different to any book I have ever read, it took me almost a week to read when I normally read a book in a day or two at the most. I think this was because the story was so detailed, so many characters to understand, the strange words, the strange names, everything was very detailed right down to how The Scribe created Maps, how she drew the flowers, plants, trees, giving a full written explanation of the things her civilisation had seen, done, and were planning to do. It was like a beginning of time, kind of tale, how they created LAWS and had the equivalent of judges, how they divided the cities, the way the hierarchy was set out right down to the bottom run which was the farmers, who were to maintain the land and provided the sustenance for the people.

Very enjoyable, read, I loved some of the descriptions of the people, the beliefs they held passed down from these Gods, the trust they had in them and how they adapted to deal with living without the living version of the Gods.

Every part of the book was full of information, explanations, colorful, heartwarming, but as I said there are many unusual names to try to follow, which did make it quite a difficult story to understand, hence slow reading is required!!!

[Leonide Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fanciful alternative history of the Inca. The Wira, predecessors of the Inca, are portrayed as created by star travelers (ancient aliens) who settled in the Peru region around 1100 BCE. The people worship and serve the "Gods" despite their decidedly un-divine behavior. Now the people are being prepared for the Gods' departure, and contentious factions are setting up turfs and power plays. The story is told by a woman scribe who has learned to write glyphs, the language of the Gods. These were recorded in books that later were all lost, making it appear that the Wira/Inca had no written language. The scribe's experiences are interesting, and give a possible view of Wira culture. It's fanciful because it stretches historical probabilities, including the Inca civilization timeline and when its leaders were active. The writing style reads like a memoir, with very little dialogue, written in first person present tense. Unusual punctuation is distracting—use of brackets rather than quotes, italics alone but also bracketed. It was hard to determine who said what. The Inca names did not daunt me, but the level of detail became tiresome, unrelieved as it was by no interaction among characters.