I woke up one morning with an idea for a short story. I drafted it out, and thought it would work, but I needed to check one thing. Did human flesh keep an impression of something that hit it?

“Triumphs and Tragedies” is an anthology of short stories on a Roman theme. Authors like Derek Birks and Peter Tonkin have contributed, and it includes my own Lucius Sestius story, “Blood Money”, and is on the Kindle Unlimited scheme.

My goodness, Pliny the Elder did not like pearls. Or seafood. “Luxurious living and the corruption of morals arises mostly from shellfish.” (Book 9. 104) Straight from telling us about crabs running backwards and changing into scorpions, Pliny gets right down to the nitty-gritty (oyster and pearl joke there), and goes on: “Out of the whole of the natural world, the sea causes most harm to our stomachs.”

I was very happy when the Qatar National Library published my short story “The Pearl of Catara” on their blog yesterday! For …