SS: Andrea, can you share a bit about your background?
AS: I am a middle school Latin teacher. I was a Classics major at the University of Texas at Austin. I serve on the writing committee for National Mythology Exam sponsored by the American Classical League. I am also a former board member of the ACL.
SS: Have you always been driven to write? Or did you begin writing in response to a particular stimulus?
AS: I was always planning novels and writing scenes, but in over twenty years I never managed to finish a book. When my oldest daughter at the age of fourteen showed me her COMPLETED first novel, I took it as a challenge. Everyday after I finished the technical writing I was doing for my dissertation; I would treat myself to writing about this poor Daughter of Athena trapped in the goddess’s Tower and her adventures when she escaped to the real world. It took me five years to create the world of Arcadia and complete that first book, but now it is a spring of stories, poems, songs, and even art that just keeps flowing out. I now understand why the ancient Greeks believed in the Muses. It sometimes feels like there is a story inside me trying to get out.
SS: What literary pilgrimages have you made?
AS: As a Latin teacher, walking the streets of Pompeii (where our text book is set) was an incredible feeling. I also once sat beside the altar of Apollo at Delphi and invoked the Muses to help me create a poem. (The poem they inspired was about the eruption of Mt Vesuvius.)
SS: Do you have a day job? If so, is it a distraction, or does it add another element to your writing? What prompted you to branch out from your day job to writing?
AS: Although I love writing, I love my day job, too. It hasn’t really been a distraction. In fact my students have found themselves as characters in the books and my Latin club even tested out the game of TRIAD from The Academy to see if the rules really work.
SS: If you have children, does being a parent influence your writing? To what extent?
AS:I think my daughters would tell you the relationship between Athena and Ardella (The Daughter of Athena) is a little like me as a parent, but way over the top. I am getting good at channeling the goddess of wisdom and her desires for mankind. To be honest, it would be hard to be a benevolent parent when you are also an omnipotent being.
SS: Do you generally write in one genre? If so, what is it? And what can readers expect from one of your books?
AS: I write Sci-Fi mythology, which means I can’t stick to one genre. Imagine a future planet controlled by the gods of ancient Greece. That is Arcadia. I have an AI that runs the Tower of Athena, flying cars, spaceships and a fifty-five floor library—the goddess Athena’s personal collection of one copy of every acceptable book written by the human race. They exist alongside Amazons, Minotaurs, the Academy and, of course, meddlesome Olympian rules.
SS: Who do you consider to be your biggest and best mentor and/or inspiration?
AS: I loved Anne McCaffrey’s Dragons Riders of Pern. I remember adapting her story and trying to create a Pern version of D & D when I was young. As I created the world of Arcadia, I used Pern as my guide.
SS: I enjoy McCaffrey as well. If you were deserted on an island, which three people would you want with you? Why? One fictional character from your book, one fictional character from any other book, one famous person that is not a family member or friend.
AS: Alexander, the Son of Ares from my book—he is just ruthless enough to be good at surviving. Lyessa & her dragon from Dragonriders of—it would be fun to ride a dragon. Plus dragons on Pern can fly between places and between times in the blink of an eye. REALLY COOL. Rick Riordan – his Lightning Thief series brought mythology to the modern world and made me wonder what a “future myth” would look like.
SS: I love Rick Riordian’s series. I bought the first book for my son, but he wasn’t interested until I told him about the chihuahua morphing into Cerberus at the top of the St. Louis Arch. THEN, he got hooked. What writer would you be most thrilled to hear wants to meet you?
AS: Rick Riordan (I would love to meet Anne McCaffrey, but that is no longer possible).
SS: Which of your characters surprised you the most for the decisions they made?
AS: In Son of Ares I wrote myself into a difficult situation. Ardella and Rafe had played all their cards, and Hermes had called their bluff. I couldn’t think of any reason the god would have spared their lives, and suddenly a minor character named Faryn opened her mouth and said just what needed to be said to resolve the situation. I didn’t plan that. I guess the Muse in my subconscious helped me.
SS: What is a fun or strange source of inspiration that ended up in your book (a name, location, line of dialogue, etc.)?
AS: I often use the name of my students as minor characters in my books. In one scene the Son of Ares and the two minor characters with him were attacked by a manticore. The monster ripped the shoulder off one of the “red shirt” characters with Alexander, but when I realized it was a student’s name, I just couldn’t let him die. Hermes intervened, and it changed the direction of the story.
SS: What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer?
AS: Vicki Alvear Schecter who wrote Cleopatra’s Moon was kind enough to give me writing advise early in my development of Daughter of Athena. She and I have become friends over the years.
SS: What works best for you: typewriters, computer, dictation, fountain pen, or longhand?
AS: I write on a computer. I read it aloud to do my editing. You would be surprised how much that helps the flow.
SS: Do you ever incorporate something that happened to you in real life into your novels?
AS: All the time.
SS: Which scene did you find the most challenging to write and why?
AS: The final scene. I am always crying because I don’t want the story to end.
SS: Do you believe you write the kind of book you’d want to read?
AS: YES
SS: Over time, what would you say has improved significantly in your writing?
AS: Daughter of Athena was a first-person narrative, and the main character was basically me. In the Son of Ares, I changed to third person and told it from two different perspectives. Adding the Son of Ares’s perspective was challenging and really helped me grow as a writer. Ardella was a nerdy scholar in the Tower of Athena, but Alexander got to fight manticores and challenge the Olympians. I will never go back to a single perspective!
SS: If you could go back and edit or re-do a particular scene in something that you’ve already published, is there anything you would change?
AS: I may go back someday and retell the story of the Daughter of Athena from another character’s perspective.
SS: What was your first recognition/success as an author?
AS: I was walking down the hall at school and a student I did not know was carrying my book which he had just checked out from the library. It was my favorite moment.
SS: Who is the protagonist in your most recent work?
AS: The Chosen of Hera is Lyessa, the queen of the Amazons. She rules over the followers of Hera who share a rich and proud heritage and very strict code of conduct. She is torn between love and duty, which is never easy.
SS: If you were describing your writing to someone who hasn’t read anything by you before, what would you say?
AS: I write sci-fi mythology. Arcadia is a future planet controlled by the gods of ancient Greece.
SS: Was the decision of how to structure the novel obvious? How did you make the decision regarding point(s) of view?
AS: I was much happier with the storytelling using duo perspective in Son of Ares rather than the first person narrative from Daughter of Athena. In fact it was trying to write from Alexander’s perspective that gave me the skills I need to tell the story of the Chosen of Hera.
SS: Do you know the ending to your story when you put pen to paper? If so, have you ever changed the ending after you started to write?
AS: The ending of Chosen of Hera was the ending I had intended for my first book Daughter of Athena. It took me a trilogy to tell the story and get to that ending.
SS: What advice would you give aspiring writers?
AS: Start with fan fiction. Use the characters and setting in a story that you love and add to the tale. You are practicing dialogue and description and storytelling.
SS: Is there a phrase or quote about writing you particularly like or that inspires you?
AS: Ad Astra Per Apsera (to the stars through hard work). I sign it in every book.
SS: What is the appeal of the bad boy? The alpha male?
AS: I don’t know, but the bad guy in my first book, Daughter of Athena, morphed into the hero of my second book, Son of Ares. In trying to see the world from his perspective, I learned a lot about the nature of good and evil. It has a lot to do with perspective.
SS: You’re offered a contract to rewrite your book in another genre. Which genre do you choose and why?
AS: I actually did write a romance novel. It is set in my world of Arcadia and is the backstory to one of the minor characters. It is call Heart of an Amazon. (It is published under the name Diana Blackstone.)
SS: What, in your view, are the earliest works of science fiction/fantasy?
AS: I do a presentation on Images of the Underworld from Dante to Disney. I argue that the Greek afterlife—known as the Underworld—is an early example of fantasy. The stories of the sinners and heroes are still told today.
SS: What prompted you to write about the Greek gods?
AS: I love Mythology. I have since I first discovered it in my elementary school library.
SS: I love mythology too. I’m particularly fascinated by origin stories. In your view, who are the best science fiction/fantasy writers?
AS: Anne McCafftrey and Frank Herbert
SS: Who currently does the best job in retelling the Greek myths? (I’m partial to Madeline Miller’s Circe and The Song of Achilles.)
AS: Me, too.
SS: You are transported inside your book for one day. What role do you play? How do you alter the events of the story?
AS: I am the Daughter of Athena from my first book. I would do exactly what she did, including making the same mistakes.
SS: Ray Bradbury considers science fiction as “the important literature in the history of the world, because it’s the history of ideas, and the history of our civilization birthing itself.” Do you agree with him, as many science fiction stories do, indeed, depict disaster?
AS: Science Fiction is man’s imagining what the world could or should be. We can trace the growth of man’s imagination through the last century by reading its works of science fiction. It is also fascinating to read science fiction that has now become science fact.
SS: I find it fascinating that Soylent Green takes place on 2022—NEXT YEAR! If given the power to greenlight a summer blockbuster, what unrepresented or “unknown” (to the mainstream, at least) science fiction or fantasy book or series would you love to see on the big screen?
AS: Dragon Riders of Pern
SS: Of the technologies invented in your stories, what would you most like to see become reality, and which one would have the greatest positive effect on humanity?
AS: On Arcadia, WAR is forbidden. Any aggression by one Olympian sect towards another results in the annihilation of the aggressor by all the gods of Arcadia. It is a harsh but fairly effect means of stopping mankind’s less desirable traits—at least until the Son of Ares finds a loophole!
SS: Susan Sontag (The Volcano Lover) said, ‘Every fictional plot contains hints and traces of the stories it has excluded or resisted in order to assume its present shape. Alternatives to the plot ought to be felt up to the last moment.’ What story did you set aside in the writing of your novel?
AS: My website has the secret ARCHIVE of ATHENA. All of those background ideas, some poetry inspired by Arcadia, and even a map of the night sky wouldn’t fit into the books, so I put them on my website as a fun bonus for readers.
LIGHTNING ROUND:
Describe your books in three words: Sci-Fi Mythology
Favorite thing about your genre? I have all of earth mythology & history, plus 2000 years of Arcadian history to play with. I love Arcadia—my own Sci-Fi Mythology world.
Book you’re currently reading: Curses and Smoke by Vicki Alvear Schecter (It is set in Pompeii just before the eruption of Mt Vesuvius. COOL)
What’s your favorite sci-fi movie? Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan
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The Gods of Arcadia trilogy is available through Amazon.
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An excerpt from CHOSEN OF HERA
Eons ago the gods ruled over the dawning of ancient Greece. From the heights of Mt. Olympus, they bent mankind to their will. But Olympians are immortal and too easily distracted. One day they looked away from their children and in the blink of an eye the Earth changed. Mankind forgot the gods and instead called them myths. To their regret the Olympians discovered no amount of manipulation of human history could bring mankind back into the fold, and so they took the only option left to them—they started over.
Transplanting a small group of humas to the distant world of Arcadia, they created a new and perfect Utopia—at least for the gods. Each Olympian reigns over a cult of followers in a personal city-state where their word is law. To promote harmony, the Great Law of the Olympians forbids war on Arcadia. Except for one tragic battle between the followers of Artemis and Hera, it has sustained the peace for two thousand years.
The Queen of the Amazons is a loyal servant of the Olympians and their grand design until the Fates see to it that she discovers the truth. Will that truth strengthen her faith or turn her against the Gods of Arcadia.
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You can follow Andrea on social media here:
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