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| Sappho and Alcaeus |
As we all learned in elementary school (and had repeated throughout our formal educations), all stories are propelled by a major conflict and perhaps by a series of lesser ones. You remember: man v. man, man v. nature, man v. society, man v. himself.
The novel I have already written (Temple of Love -- due for re-release in January 2014), as well as the several that I am planning within the same loose series, are all historical fictions based on Greek mythology and history. They are romances, to be sure; but they are also re-tellings or re-imaginings of famous lives or well-known legends.
For me, this means that the conflicts that propel the stories forward are already built in. In most cases, they are well-known conflicts -- Sappho's tempestuous emotional state and numerous lovers, Helen's love triangle that ignites the Trojan War, Psyche's attempts to prove herself to her immortal mother-in-law.
So, in my case, the conflicts were written 2500 years ago, but the "mysteries" are left to me to sort. Providing understandable motivations, fresh interpretations, and characters that are approachable to modern readers -- those are the mysteries my readers get to unlock.
I'm polishing up Sappho's story now -- Temple of Love (excerpts available behind the link). It will be available again VERY SOON, with a big marketing push to bring it into the public eye. After that, I will be continuing my work on Helen's tale -- Temple of Beauty (more excerpts). Beyond that, I'm not sure who will follow. Psyche? Medusa? Pandora? Ariadne?
