Character Development

The protagonists of The Ankh Akademy are all related.  Two brothers and their three cousins make up the team of youth who are being prepared to save the world.  Their mission is simple but the path getting there is another thing completely.  Who are the heroes of The Ankh Akademy?

Base Characters

Alu - 11 year old son of Mr. and Mrs. Johnson.  Alu is bright, ambitious and very protective of his younger brother.  He is very respectful of his elders and is sharp, quick witted and very intelligent.  He sometimes moves too fast for his own good but because of his younger brother, he learns that sometimes it's okay to take the path of the "slow and steady".  Alu is a natural but reluctant leader.  His quick thinking will get his cousins out of many jams but a leader of a multitude is where Alu is heading.  There is also no one who can run as fast as Alu.

Usir - Alu's 9 year old brother.  A wise young man years ahead of his age.  Very spiritual and connected with Nature around him.  Usir is an avid reader who doesn't discriminate when it comes to knowledge.  Well versed in many areas of doctrine, Usir is the unofficial "counselor" for his family.  Usir is also very protective of his brother as well as his cousins.  Usir is well connected with the Universe and learned how to astral travel at the tender young age of 3.

Karum -  13 year old cousin to Alu and Usir.  Karum is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Ellis.  They are originally from a not too safe area of the inner city so Karum spent most of his early life fighting to survive.  A natural athlete and martial artist, Karum has a gift to be able to learn new things that deal with physical movement very quickly.  He is a "reformed" hot head who is learning how to control his temper and emotions through focus (from his younger cousin, Usir).  Karum is the "big brother" to both his sisters and his cousins and since moving out from the inner city around where his cousins stay, Karum is well on his way to accomplishing great things.

Safiyyah - 11 year old sister of Karum.  Safiyyah is a twin and shares a psychic bond with her "other half", Tia.  Safiyyah is the jewel of her family because she carries herself like the mother of the other children.  No one minds, though, and welcomes her unique form of guardianship with open arms.  Safiyyah is also very spiritual.  Her spirituality, however, is not apparent and will be manifest in time because of a very special connection that she and her twin shares with a past ancestor.  Safiyyah is also an animal lover and finds out that not only does she have an affinity towards the animal kingdom, she also possesses a unique ability that allows her to communicate with animals.

Tia - 11 year old twin of Safiyyah.  Tia is a Nature lover.  She loves everything about Nature.  She is an encyclopedia of information when it comes to knowing what type of plant life is in the immediate area.  She is a study on herbology and knows how to find just the right combinations of plants and herbs to cure all kinds of sicknesses.  The strange thing about this is that Tia has never had any formal training!  She has been this way for as long as anyone can remember.  Tia's connection with Nature gives her a high level of spirituality as well.  Tia can sometimes disappear and reappear days later having been in the woods with a new wealth of information.  Tia can also communicate with Nature.

more to come...

The Need For A Change

(excerpt from The Ankh Akademy I - The Great Keys)

In class, Mrs. Ramsey prepared the lesson for the day as the children
went about situating themselves.  Alu quietly prepared himself and
took his seat in the center of the classroom close to the window.  Alu
had requested it because he needed to occasionally look out and be
reminded that there is life after school.  Besides, since he was the
top ranked seventh grader, Mrs. Ramsey didn't see it as a problem
and happily obliged Alu.  
Today seemed different to Alu.  The unusual occurrences during the
morning had transpired and the air was different.  Something was
going to happen today and Alu could feel it.  As he sat patiently
waiting for class to begin, he began to doodle on his paper.  He
usually didn't doodle, but today, it was like he couldn't control
himself.  His hand began moving frantically, back and forth across
his paper.  He didn't think his hand was following any particular
pattern but when it finally stopped moving, he looked down at his
paper and a picture of an Egyptian cross, or ANKH, was perfectly
drawn on his paper.  The design was very intricate and had small
heiroglyphic letters that decorated it.  What was so intriguing about
the art was that Alu wasn't a good artist at all.  He had even joked
about how he couldn't even draw stick figures!
Even stranger was that at the same time in two other classrooms,
Usir, Karum and the girls, Tia and Safiyyah were experiencing the
same thing.  Usir had a perfectly drawn ankh, but his decoration was
slightly different.  Instead of Egyptian heiroglyphs, his ankh was
decorated with Native American symbols with feathers and a dream
catcher in the center.  Karum's Ankh was drawn out of what seemed
like wood and had various African symbols on it while Tia and
Safiyyah had both drawn Ankhs that were identical except that Tia's
was shaded lighter than Safiyyah's.  Their Ankhs gave the
appearance of being very shiny and each had a single word written
under it in a language that neither of them understood.  They would
find out later that Tia’s word said “gold” and Safiyyah’s word said, 19
“silver”.
While the children were all drawing, they had attracted the attention
of their classmates and their teachers.  When they stopped and were
marveling at what they drew, the class began to mumble and stir.
"What was that?"  A student in the back of the class inquired.
"Don't know," another student piped up who was sitting directly
next to Alu.
"Alu, are you okay?" Mrs. Ramsey asked, concerned.
"I ... I'm fine, Mrs. Ramsey."  Alu was slightly bewildered, "I just
blacked out for a minute.  I’m okay now."
The five students had just had a premonition of some very
interesting news that they were going to receive later on that day.
After a brief stir of excitement, the classes then settled down and
prepared to finish their day...

A Series For Youth of Culture

If you've ever watched any of the Harry Potter movies, the Twilight series, Bridge to Terabithia, Chronicles of Narnia, etc., then you are well aware of the growing popularity with making book series about youth and their exploits into movies.  There are millions of Harry Potter and Twilight fans around the world.

Here is something for the child of culture...

There is an evil force that threatens the very fabric of existence.  A 

daughter has been born to a very powerful, evil being. This being 

has ascended the heights of the heavens and has stolen the much 

coveted Tablets of Reality from the powerful galactic Beings of 

Balance.  The being was killed but now his daughter is gathering the 

scattered portions of the Tablets to finish her father’s sinister 

mission.  Now the universe is in jeopardy and the only hope for 

Earth and the rest of the galaxy lies in the hearts, souls and spirits of 

five very special children.  Time to learn a lesson… 

Our lesson begins in the future, the year 2007.  A year of much 

trouble and turmoil on the planet Earth, but also the year of the 

establishment of many wondrous and great things.  One of these 

great and wondrous things is a school.  Not your ordinary school, 

but a school of mystic and spiritual wonders.  Not wonders as in the 

teachings of evil magics or disagreeable arts or the likes but ancient 

wonders, the original wonders of which all other "magics" were 

born out of.  These are the wonders of ancient Egypt and other great 

civilizations and the school is... 

The Ankh Akademy 

Join our five heroes, Alu, Usir, Karum, Safiyyah and Tia, as they are 

invited to a strange, new school in the Northern region of Georgia.  

They find out that they play an important role in the future of the 

planet and this school, The Ankh Akademy, is the key to preparing 

them for their great mission.  This is book one out of a series of 

seven books that will cover our children’s amazing adventures. 

ISBN 978-1-4116-7021-1