I don’t think I was ever prepared for the fact that my prose would sell… consistently at every market/trade show/convention. It’s not massive but it’s always more than I ever thought it’d move.
Myth Retold is a series of short stories I decided to write, retelling Greek Mythology. My god, do we not have enough of these??? I know we all read Song of Achilles and Circe [both by Madeline Miller] and fell in love and thought we could be the next Madds making big bucks off plots that have been around since antiquity.
Well, I’m half Greek so I call fucking dibs on this one.
Joking aside. I read those, and the prose was just, phenomenal. What a ride and the earnestness of the queer depictions of Patroclus and Achilles in Song of Achilles really did a number on my ass.
I’ve been raised on these stories just as much as I was raised on Grimms Fairytales. I knew a lot about Greek Mythology early on, but I rekindled a passion for it in University when I took several classics courses alongside my major. Some better than others. I think ‘Myths of the Mediterranean’ was taught by a teacher who just really ignited my burning flame again when she started talking about bias.
Patriarchal bias in mythology.
And something about that really struck me. And its been worming in my brain ever since. She brought up a lot of interesting points about how we have just gladly accepted Mythology transcribed by maybe a small handful of people as truth. As fact. When these were really just stories for entertainment. For people to explain the world around them. To inspire relationships and instill morality and understanding with younger generations, older generations, friends, strangers.
These were stories people changed with each iteration, with the different flavours of versions people told them. With perspectives added to them that spoke to their character.
And I find that absolutely fascinating.
I used to have this tome on the table titled: The Myth about Myths: Greek Mythology that I wrote summarizing hundreds of figures in Greek Mythology paired with a character image to give a face to all these eclectic names that don’t always roll off the tongue (the Greeks sure LOVE their A-names… their P-names… mygods). And while many people gushed about the book, this series kept bringing up a series of comments that I like to call.
“Well Actuallies”
People really do like to flex the things that they know, they like to prove a point. They like to regurgitate facts without really considering where they come from. “Well actually the myth of Apollo isn’t at all like this, I heard it was [this].”
Sorry that’s not even antiquated, that’s a renaissance retelling of the myth.
Except the thing is I was wrong, too.
Because we were both, right.
The thing about Mythology is that these are stories, antiquated, sure. But they’re framed by the person telling them. And not long after I sold out of this tome, sitting a bit disgruntled by the complete missing of the point people had of that book (which was just a quick and easy resource for folks to refer to).
I was brought back to that class, the musings we had about how these myths might have been told Different but those versions were never transcribed. The example of a minority highlighted at the time was women, because we still weren’t quite at the point where we could consider and discuss transgenderism or queerness outside of a very small sliver of accepted tropes, (these gods sure were Gay but only the boys and we never talked about how many of them were really just antiquity’s bisexual).
I started thinking about this a Lot.
And then I saw it done beautifully, artfully, by Madeline Miller. And I knew this was something I could do. Take myth and shape it, what would it look like, told by people just like me?
So I started thinking a LOT about my own interpretations of gender and sexuality for different gods and goddesses of ancient antiquity because… that’s the next natural step right?
Now THAT’s a post for another time.
I can’t even really explain why I started with IPHIGENIA anymore. I think it’s because I was personally fascinated by that one chapter in SoA with Achilles’ marriage to Iphigenia and how he was more angry that they didn’t TELL him she was to be sacrificed, how it hurt his honour more than saddened his heart–how I could re-interpret this myth favouring a relationship with Artemis and the woman she condemned to death.
Which felt very off-base for a Goddess who was meant to protect young women, girls, as they grew up in such a hazardous environment. I wondered what that would look like, what it might feel like for Iphigenia. I was hooked, I was fascinated. I was writing and writing and my hands wouldn’t stop.
[Completely unrelated side note: someone at my table recently went on a tirade about how much she hated Iphigenia’s sister, Elektra and like… babe… who hurt you. I’m still thinking about it and I feel absolutely nuts. But I’m also fascinated, there’s like very little in the way of iterations about Elektra to warrant such vehemence, like if you’re reading this PLEASE send me an email, a DM, a whatever, like please I need your reasoning.
But this also illustrates my point, that certain characters in these stories are made out to be terrible, but there’s always room for exploration on a character who is merely a piece to someone’s particular retelling. WHICH VERSION of Elektra did you hate? Who retold that version? What does it say about the person writing that story? What does it say about you, that you accepted it as fact, enough to hate this particular character based solely on this one (or two or even three) versions you might have read?]
Anyway.
I wrote IPHIGENIA. And I was hooked. And I know it’s cliché and about 500 people wrote MEDUSA but I caught the bug and I knew nobody would ever consider pairing MEDUSA with PERSEUS. Let alone making him a trans man. The more I wrote, the more ideas for future iterations came to me. I was hooked. There was something really fun about fitting these nuances to these characters people understood and already knew so well into the myths they were from.
I knew from the start I didn’t want to make huge deviations to the original antiquated versions people have claimed to be the ‘true’ versions of the stories. Despite that being a completely wrong sentiment in and of itself. Somehow that de-legitimizes a work, especially one like this that tries to imbue these characters with queerness. These versions often get hit with the ‘Well Actuallies’ very hard.
Besides. I like a little challenge.
The series launched on Kickstarter and did modestly. We made the goal but only managed to unlock one more story: ATALANTA after the main two. I was a bit bummed but then I set to work writing that one while fulfilling it all. Long story short, I really meant to continue with another story per year after this…
…but then we hit pedantry again.
People often tell me not to look at Goodreads and its extremely good advice that’s also extremely difficult to follow. Typically I get good feedback from most things. But people write reviews, again, like they are facts and not, in fact, opinions. It throws me off every time. It’s been a long time since I checked. I’m glad I’ve resisted the urge for so long.
It knocked me off kilter a little bit. Maybe more than I’d like to admit. But on the one hand my original work with Prism Knights garners inexplicable praise while my newer work on Myth Retold is left to pedantry and nitpicking. It’s got me wondering for a little while now whether or not it’s worth up-keeping the series.
Or moving on to something more original.
But every so often someone crawls out of the woodwork, someone sends you a really kind message, talks with me at my table, and really just Gets what I’m going for. Appreciates the work that I’m putting into these and that single message just fuels that flame that’s been sitting as burning embers for so long. The fire that wants to come back but the work to bring it back feels tantamount.
But that one message alone sets the kindling and I can’t help but wonder if there’s still room for me to keep going here. If the ideas in my heart will keep touching the right people.
Thank you, for reaching out. For understanding that these stories don’t just belong to those who wrote them centuries ago.
Just because they wrote them down.