1--What is the title of your latest release?
MEDUSA’S SISTERS
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
It’s the Medusa myth as told by the sisters who were cursed by her side, from their birth to Perseus and beyond.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
Because I wanted to maintain strong ties to the foundational myth, I was a bit constricted on where I could physically place the characters. However, I did add a sojourn in ancient Thebes that I think readers will enjoy!
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
Absolutely! There are two protagonists to this story, Stheno and Euryale. Stheno is the oldest sister, and she most closely resembles how I present myself to the world but Euryale, the problematic middle sister, is who I identify with on the inside. Euryale is the friend you go to bars with; Stheno is who you call when you’re in jail!
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Stheno: loyal, selfless, practical.
Euryale: emotional, complicated, driven.
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
In ancient Greece, brothels would identify themselves with a secret code – a scallop shell. It connects back to the mythology of Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty, and the image of her borne to land on one.
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I had a newborn while I wrote this book, and because I didn’t want his little brain next to a screen all day, I hand wrote the novel while he played on a blanket beside me. Then, when he and my other two kids were asleep, I typed up what I’d drafted. This has become my go-to writing process because of its built-in editing component. As I type, I inevitably make revisions and corrections.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
The Pacific Northwest has amazing seafood. Give me oysters and a glass of champagne and I am one happy girl.
9--Describe your writing space/office!
I have a desk with a beautiful view of Lake Union that I never use. I honestly write at the dining room table in the center of my family’s chaos. I think I thrive best at the eye of the hurricane.
10--Who is an author you admire?
In the past: Ursula Le Guin and Virgina Woolf. Of the present: Arundhati Roy and Maggie O’Farrell.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
The works of Ta-Nehisi Coates, Ibram X. Kendi, Clint Smith, Isabel Wilkerson, and Ijeoma Oluo. Because of their brave and insightful work, I am better able to understand my own biases and relationship to power. Their testimonies, analysis, and research is eye-opening, heartbreaking, and life-changing.
12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
My agent, Jane Dysel, is an actual fairy godmother. She makes magic. We ended up selling Medusa’s Sisters at auction, which is the stuff aspiring writer dreams are made of. I celebrated with a good cry.
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
This is like asking me which child I like most – it’s impossible, I love them all differently! I honestly read everything. Ursula Le Guin says there is no such thing as a bad genre, and I defer to her wisdom in all things.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
Emperor’s New Groove. Yzma is the GOAT.
15--What is your favorite season?
Fall, the most basic answer of all time, but I just love a chunky knit.
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
With oysters and champagne, of course! I like to spend the day with my family but the night with my girlfriends.
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
Yellowjackets. I’m obsessed. And any of the Below Deck franchises. I need to sell approximately one billion books and then I can afford to be a charter guest.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Italian.
19--What do you do when you have free time?
I ride my horse, Roo. Wrangle my three Bear cubs. Laugh as much as possible. And nap. I am so, so good at napping.
20--What can readers expect from you next?
MOTHER OF ROME, my feminist retelling of the Rhea Silvia myth, coming in 2024! Vestal Virgins and the god of war and a nefarious uncle, oh my!
A vivid and moving reimagining of the myth of Medusa and the sisters who loved her.
The end of the story is only the beginning…
Even before they were transformed into Gorgons, Medusa, Stheno, and Euryale were unique among their immortal family. Curious about mortals and their lives, Medusa and her sisters entered the human world in search of a place to belong, yet quickly found themselves at the perilous center of a dangerous Olympian rivalry and learned—too late—that a god's love is a violent one.
Forgotten by history and diminished by poets, the other two Gorgons have never been more than horrifying hags, damned and doomed. But they were sisters first, and their journey from lowly sea-born origins to the outskirts of the pantheon is a journey that rests, hidden, underneath their scales.
Monsters, but not monstrous, Stheno and Euryale will step into the light for the first time to tell the story of how all three sisters lived and were changed by each other, as they struggle against the inherent conflict between sisterhood and individuality, myth and truth, vengeance and peace.
Fantasy [Ace, On Sale: August 8, 2023, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9780593547762 / eISBN: 9780593547779]
Lauren J.A. Bear is a reader and writer, an educator, a troublemaker, and a fierce mama bear.
Lauren was born in Boston and raised in Long Beach, CA. After studying English at UCLA and Education at LMU, she taught middle-school Humanities for over a decade — and survived! She is a teaching fellow for the Holocaust Center for Humanity, and lives in Seattle with her husband and three young children. She likes crossword puzzles and being on or near the water without getting wet.
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