Medusa’s Sisters is a beautiful, mythologically based novel that centers around the gorgons, from the perspective of the two the world never hears about. The novel was released just this week on August 8th and we got the chance to ask author Lauren J.A. Bear about her story.
Mythology and Originality
Mythology is a wealth of inspiration for a lot of writers, what drew you to these characters specifically?
Almost everybody knows Medusa. She’s Zeus’s shield, the Versace logo. She’s
Britney and the snake at the VMAs. She’s in video games, in Percy Jackson, in
Amazon Prime commercials. I mean, she even has her own jellyfish! Yet very
few knew she had sisters. In 2017, I was a middle-school Humanities teacher
on maternity leave. But the geeky mind never rests – just like a new mother! —
and a late-night, sleep-deprived question, “Who were the other Gorgons?” sent
me down an internet rabbit hole. I found a quote from a classical scholar
calling Medusa’s sisters mere “appendages,” who didn’t matter, and for
whatever reason – the state of the world in 2017, the postpartum anxiety of
holding my baby girl – I took it like a gut punch.
I spent years researching Medusa and her sisters in my spare time. Besides
the names Stheno and Euryale, the primary source material (Homer, Hesiod,
Ovid, Hyginus, Apollodorus, etc…) had little to say about the other Gorgons.
But by this time, I was thoroughly obsessed; I decided to write my own story.
You found a refreshing angle to a tired story, were you concerned about originality when you started?
Absolutely! Marie Helene Bertino, a speculative fiction writer, and professor I
ardently admire, says your work should always answer the Passover question;
that is, how is this night different from every other night? It’s a challenge to
myself – a reminder – as I tackle every character, every scene, every twist and
turn of plot. How can I push myself to explore a new perspective? Employ
exciting, exact, and unusual language? Surprise my readers?
If anything, I wanted to get the most famous part of the story over with in the
beginning. That’s why Medusa loses her head in the Prologue. I hoped to
throw the reader off guard, make them wonder what else could possibly be
coming. Obviously, this book is a Medusa story, but it’s also not. Medusa does
not get a point-of-view – her sisters do – and she is revealed through their
perspectives of her.
How to Tell a Story…
Tell me a little bit about your writing process and how this story came together…
Because I found little information in the mythological canon, I got to
incorporate some of my personal favorite stories into my novel – so long as
they plausibly fit into the timeline of the Medusa story. (Perseus, after all, is
one of the earliest Greek heroes, so the Athens they visit is pre-Pericles, pre-
Parthenon.)
Honestly, my first creative decision – long before I wrote a single word – was
about the snakes. Stheno and Euryale had to look different than Medusa. No
green snakes. I gave Stheno three coral snakes, and Euryale one huge yellow
snake that wraps around her head. Their personalities grew from there.
I have three young children, so I wrote almost all of Medusa’s Sisters by hand
while I was home with them during the pandemic. At night, while they slept, I
typed up what I had. It’s become my preferred process. The act of typing
serves as a first round of editing/revisions, and writing longhand forces me to
pause.
What is a theme or message you hope readers get out of your book?
Before I answer, I should say this: I don’t always think it’s the writer’s duty to
relay some great message. I know I certainly don’t have all the answers!
Rather, a writer should bear witness. I watch. I take notes. I listen. And this is
what I hope to impart with my stories:
1) Agency. Finding your voice and using it to tell the story only you can tell.
2) Compassion. A story is an opportunity to experience another (albeit
fictional) life. But perspective – access – is a privilege. It’s the chance to find connection and understanding across time, age, gender, setting, etc..
Avid reading opens the heart.
3) Subversion. Challenge authority. Question what you have been told. To
do so transfers power away from the dominant storyteller.
Do you have a favorite passage or quote that you have written that you feel represents your writing?
Two come to mind.
1) This passage between Mistress Charmion, the brothel owner, and
Euryale:
“’The mothers must survive in a world where men and gods – and men who
think they are gods – limit their choices… To have choices is to have power.
Most women have neither.’”
2) And this one, about a pearl:
“Because a pearl is a symbol of wisdom gained through experience.
Because a pearl is a treasure that needs no cutting or polishing by man.”
Your novel is bound together by the theme of sisterhood, what about that story is important to you?
I don’t have a biological sister, but I have lifelong female friendships that are
sacred to me. Sisterhood doesn’t necessarily mean that you are similar, but
that you are connected. It’s an unconditional understanding. For the Gorgons,
their sisterhood is complicated from birth. Because Medusa is mortal, they live
under a constant threat, a constant timeline: Medusa will die one day, so how
should they live their lives? How will they honor and appreciate their time
together? The Gorgons sisters are all distinct personalities, who lose each other and break way, through misunderstandings and betrayals. And yet,
when they find each other again, when they reclaim their sisterhood, they —
strangely enough – take the most important step in self-acceptance.
Medusa’s Sisters is an incredible take on tired mythology and is definitely worth the read for anyone and everyone remotely interested in mythology, or stories about identity or sisterhood, or independence.
