Luciana Cavallaro grew up in a small country town in Western Australia and moved to Perth to study teaching at university.

Luciana began writing as a cathartic exercise after a traumatic car accident, she moved to Perth to study teaching at university and is the first in her family to attain a university degree.

Since then she has attended writers’ workshops and is a member of various associations.

After some years teaching teenagers, she decided it was time take some of her own advice and follow her dream.

Luciana has travelled extensively and since her first trip to Europe revisited her favourite destinations — Greece and Italy — the inspiration for her stories.

Always interested in Mythology and Ancient History, her passion wasn’t realised until seeing the Colosseum and the Roman Forum, from then on, her inspiration to write Historical Fantasy was borne.

‘Mythology and Ancient History has always been my passion and I want to share these wonderful legends.’

She is a self-professed lover of Homer.

Luciana has written 2 novels with a third in progress [unpublished series] and has a short story Aphrodite’s Curse available as an eBook on Amazon and Smashwords.

She has recently finished writing a second short story titled The Curse of Troy: Helen’s story and begun working on her third.

Her books include the following:

A Goddess’ Curse

Hera, Queen of the Gods, is the most powerful goddess on Mount Olympos.

Beautiful, sensual, and merciless, she is a goddess renowned for her jealous rages and for inflicting horrors on hapless victims.

She’s the protector of women, virtue, family and marriage yet her husband, Zeus, has had countless affairs.

She puts up with it.

Why?

Is she really malicious or a product of circumstance?

For the first time ever in a candid interview, Hera shares what it’s like to be a goddess and wife to Zeus, the King of the Gods.

Drake Dabbler, chat show host, sees his exclusive interview with Queen Hera as a sure road to a Daytime Emmy…

He should have been more thorough in his research.

The Curse of Troy: Helen’s Story

Helen of Troy! The name has echoed through the ages since the great Trojan War was fought in her name.

Helen, Queen of Sparta, was so beautiful her face launched a thousand ships and captivated Prince Paris, who stole her away from her husband’s palace…

That’s the story known to history.

And yet – history is told by the victors, and facts can be rewritten to introduce scapegoats and to rearrange the facts.

Is it possible Helen of Sparta never went to Troy?

Could she have been a pawn in a devious game played out among the Greek kings, and orchestrated by Agamemnon in his search for power and wealth?

Perhaps.

Here is Helen’s story in her own words, as told to a young wandering historian.

Aphrodite’s Curse

About a dynasty’s fall from grace, unrequited love and retribution.

A powerful family is brought to ruin, the consequences unforeseen and irreparable.

The trouble begins with King Minos who asks the gods for a bull to be sacrificed so that he may become ruler of Kretos and surrounding lands.

Poseidon sends him a gift of a white bull and instead of sacrificing it, King Minos keeps it.

Poseidon is angry by his supplicant’s actions and as punishment glamour’s the king’s wife, Pasiphae to lust after the bull.

The story is told by Phaedra, Theseus’ wife, who witnesses first-hand, the rise and fall of her family.

She grows up in a privileged environment, a princess and daughter of King Minos.

From a very early age she knows the power her father wields, but is also aware his actions may have precipitated the misfortunes that followed.

She reflects on the different and disturbing events from a detached perspective.

Her tone can sometimes be one of a spoilt child, then at other times resigned and on occasion shows an uncanny insight.

This retrospective musing comes from her sighting of Hippolytos, her husband’s son from a previous marriage.

She falls in love with him and finds it difficult to contain this secret and eventually tells her nurse.

Phaedra asks for Aphrodite’s help, even builds a temple, however Hippolytos spurns her advances.

Shamed by her actions and by his revulsion, she poisons herself, leaving a letter to her husband writing that Hippolytos had raped her.

Boxed in a Curse

She was created by the gods as a gift to humanity.

Then there was the urn.

Pandora, the first woman on Earth, was endowed with many gifts: beauty, intelligence, domesticity, and curiosity.

She was at once lover, sympathiser and nurturer.

Zeus presented an urn as her wedding dowry.

Neither she nor her husband, Epimethos knew what it contained inside, and Hermes, the Messenger, warned them never to open it.

So the story goes… according to Grandpa.

Two precocious children visit their grandfather and beg him to tell a story.

It wasn’t ‘on a dark and stormy night’ or ‘once upon a time’ type of story either.

All these books can be found in my Bookcase under Historical Fiction

Call over to Luciana’s website and get more details by clicking HERE.