I’m close to launching my new novel. It’s still a type of historical fiction, but this time I’m not going back 400 years—I’m slipping back 40,000 years!
And yep, you guessed it: the story includes Neanderthals. You know, those dull, dimwitted brutes popularized in the Geico TV commercials and in the movie Quest for Fire. But guess what? It just ain’t so. Here are some things you may not know about our Neanderthal cousins based on the latest research:
* Science has proven that a small amount of ancient Neanderthal DNA (2-4% on average) is carried by all present-day Homo sapiens (us) outside of ancestral sub-Saharan Africa. There is a direct link in the genomes of the two species.
* Neanderthal genes still influence our physical appearance and behaviors. Things like: hair and eye color (look at that cover again; Clan of the Cave Bear got it completely backward!), how badly we sunburn, and even sleep time preference, or whether you’re a morning person or a night owl.
* Neanderthals had a brain size equal to, and in some cases, larger than their modern human counterparts at the same time when both existed together in Eurasia (~50-30,000 years ago).
Oh, and that bit about Time Travel in the subtitle? You’ll have to read the book to find out.
Soon.
UPDATE: It’s live! …
The Time Travel tease got me hooked!! Congratulations on a really challenging, yet enjoyable, I’m sure, achievement! 😁
Thank you, Barbara! I’ve been a sucker for Time Travel most of my life, it seems. Besides the classics (e.g., Finney’s “Time and Again”), I really loved Stephen King’s “11/22/63.” Then, when I read Harari’s nonfiction “Sapiens,” I knew the direction I wanted to go with this. More to come.