Fun Facts about the Amazons by Melinda Leigh

I'm letting my inner geek out to play today.  When Rayna Vause and I teamed up to write Amazon Heat, we did some research and learned there are many versions and stories of the Amazons in Greek mythology.  Here are some fun things you may not have known about the various legends.

• The Amazons were a tribe of warrior women who kicked butt across Asia Minor. 
• In order to prevent their race from dying out, the Amazons, uhm, visited a neighboring tribe, the Gargareans. In some stories, male children from these liasons were killed.  In others, the infants were delivered to their sires.
• The Amazons didn't kill all the men they defeated. Some they took as slaves. In some legends, they used such males for, well, you know.
• Amazons had their right breasts removed to ensure accurate aim with a bow. Can we have a collective ewww here?
• One of the labors of Hercules was to acquire the girdle of the Amazon Queen.
• Amazons are first mentioned in Homer's Iliad.
• Marriage was seen as a sort of slavery to men and was prohibited. 
• The statue on the left is a depiction of an Amazon preparing for battle.  Amazons were trained to fight hand-to-hand, with all weaponry, and on horseback.
• Amazons remained virgins until they had killed three men, therefore proving themselves as warriors before they were allowed to reproduce.
• The Amazons fought against the Greeks in the Trojan War.

Any other geeks out there?  What are your favorite myths?

Amazon Heat was released on January 9, 2012 from Carina Press
 

2 years ago...
Driven by grief to find a cure for cancer, Elizabeth DeMarco left Logan Spencer to accept a position on a research expedition to the Amazon rainforest. Kidnapped by guerrillas, she was saved by a secret all-female civilization, the last of the ancient Amazons. But Elizabeth discovers she's traded one form of captivity for another.
Today...
Logan never stopped searching for Elizabeth. While consulting in the remote Brazilian interior near where she was kidnapped, Logan suffers what should be a fatal fall. Near death, he's collected by the Amazons and magically healed. Elizabeth is the first person he sees as he wakes.
But there's no time for a joyful reunion. The Amazons' mystical medicine is rapidly changing Logan. They want his DNA and plan to take it—and then kill him. Logan and Elizabeth must escape before dawn or Logan—and their second chance at happiness—is doomed.

Find Amazon Heat at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and Carina Press.  



sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazons
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/previous_seasons/case_amazon/index.html