Theos-Talk Archives (May 1995 Message tl00142)

Aki Korhonen:

> I have to make a note.  There is a famous Finnish novelist, Mika
> Waltari, who wrote a book with same name, "Sinuhe, The Egyptian".
> I wonder was your movie based on this same book.

Waltari was the author, but in the US they left off "Sinuhe".  As
I recall, it was about a man who became physician to the Pharoah
Akenaton.

> I think there is something to do with Waltari's past lives.  I
> have heard, that Mika Waltari went so deep in his book, that he
> lived in Egypt in his mind - he met at daytimes those people he
> wrote about etc.

I believe this.  When I am writing, there seems to be a separate
universe in my mind and the more energy and attention I pour into
it, the more real and alive it becomes.  The characters seem to
live beside you.

Alex Haley, the famous American author who wrote "Roots", the
saga of Africans taken to work as slaves in the Old South, told
this story.  While he was writing the book, he was on a boat and
he was almost out of money.  Standing on the deck at night, he
despaired and thought about giving up on it.  He said that all
the characters, who were his ancestors, came to him and begged
him to keep writing.  The book was a bestseller and was later
turned into one of most sucessful TV miniseries of all time.

-ann