Hear ye, hear ye to all mythology lovers! We know your next read – Those Fatal Flowers. Allow yourself to be convinced by our new interview with the author Shannon Ives, in which she told us about her inspiration, how she used all that she studied in college in her story (sacrifices were mentioned) and so much more!
Thank you so much for joining us! First of all, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Hi there! Thank you so much for having me! My name is Shannon Ives, and I’m a dark historical fantasy and horror writer living in the woods of Vermont. I’m a mother of two kiddos under five, work as a software project manager by day, and I’ve just started an MFA for Popular Fiction writing. So… things are a little chaotic over here, in the absolute best way.
Congratulations on the release of Those Fatal Flowers! We would love to know all about it and what inspired you to write it.
Thank you so much! The very first version of this story began in a high school creative writing class. I’d been enchanted by the idea of sirens after reading The Odyssey, but was alarmed to discover that small passage featuring them was their only appearance in the entire book. Homer doesn’t even describe how they look!
Imagine my surprise when Google returned results of monsters with the bodies of birds and the faces of women. I was completely obsessed, and ended up writing a short story where three sirens dance around a bonfire until one of them is suddenly changed forever. That image never left me, but it did go dormant until about 2017 when it re-emerged as a first draft for National Novel Writing Month. I quickly learned that 50,000 words is a lot to write, but also not an entire book. The goal then evolved to simply finish a first draft. That was the main point of the exercise–just to see if I had a book-sized amount of words in me. It wasn’t until my first child was born at the end of 2019 that I dusted off the draft and decided to see what I could do with it. I wanted to show my kiddo that I was a mother, a person, who made both dark and beautiful things, and that it was okay to want things for yourself. “Just finish a book” became “just query it” which in turn evolved into “just go on submission,” and now after almost eight years since its inception, here we are!
Can you tell us a little bit about your characters? Which, if any, do you identify with most and why?
Of course! The main character of Those Fatal Flowers is Thelia, one of Proserpina’s handmaidens. She was present when Proserpina (the Roman equivalent to Persephone) was abducted and dragged to the Underworld. Bearing witness to this act of violence, and blaming herself for its occurrence, has hardened Thelia’s heart. When she’s banished with her sisters Raidne and Pisinoe after the three are unable to find Proserpina, they only grow firmer in their resolve to become the monsters fate has set them up to be.
When I began writing this, I definitely identified most with Thelia. This was during the first year of Trump’s presidency and right as the #metoo movement was picking up traction, and I was so furious and disappointed by the world around me. There was an element of catharsis in writing a character that was powerful enough to not only protect herself from violence, but also enact it herself. There’s a lot of me that still identifies with her, especially now, though I don’t condone some of the methods she uses to process that anger, haha.
There was also an element of discovery in writing her, too. I’d understood on some level that I was bisexual since I was a little kid, but it wasn’t until I began writing Thelia in earnest that I allowed myself to process and claim that identity for myself.
Similarly, which characters do you hope readers will connect with most?
Probably Thelia as well! Again, she does a lot of terrible things, but my hope is that readers will be able to understand what led her down that path and empathize with her a bit. I think a lot of women grow up believing that it’s wrong for them to feel their anger; I hope Thelia lets them see that they’re not alone.
Your story features the Roanoke colony, which was a real British colony in North America that disappeared. How much research did you have to do and were there moments when you took creative license?
I did a lot! There’s definitely a comfort that comes with writing a story set in a real time and place, at least for me, because that means the worldbuilding details you’ll need already likely exist somewhere—you just have to find them. I studied anthropology in college, so in a way, historical research feels like flexing that muscle of excavation and cataloguing again.
But yes, Those Fatal Flowers is not strictly historical. Two main moments of creative license immediately come to mind. The first is that Roanoke doesn’t typically get much snow. This is acknowledged in the novel, but it was a surprise to me to realize. Thank goodness for the fantastical element because that meant I could make it an anomaly. I also had a really hard time finding information about what the settlement’s structures would look like. For these details, I looked to Jamestown—the next British colony that appeared on North American soil in 1607.
Did you find any challenges while writing Those Fatal Flowers? How did you overcome them?
Every book comes with its own challenges. Those Fatal Flowers has had a fair share more than the other books I’ve written because it was my first attempt at writing a novel. The very first draft was told chronologically, which didn’t feel right. That meant the second draft became an effort in weaving the past and present scenes together. It took me forever to figure out how and where to open the book. But the entire journey of this book taught me a very important lesson: that it’s best to simply focus on the phase you’re in, and each step of writing a book is worth celebrating. When you’re surrounded by other writers, it’s so easy to forget that most people don’t sit around in their spare time and write a hundred thousand words for fun. So even that messy first draft was an amazing achievement in its own right.
The book also features a sapphic love story (yay!). Why was it important to you to include this diversity?
When I embarked on this journey, I don’t think I sat down with the explicit intent to write a sapphic book. Thelia’s bisexuality was always simply part of her story. From the very beginning of her character's inception, I knew she was haunted by the loss of Proserpina because she loved her so deeply. That being said, it was a conscious choice to not have Cora ignore her feelings because of societal expectations. There are certainly references to the beliefs of the time throughout the novel, but it was important for me to write a sapphic love story where neither party feels guilty for loving each other. Queer people have existed since the dawn of humanity, and it was important to me that my book include them.
Now more than ever, it’s so necessary to write and share diverse stories. Storytelling has always been a vehicle for empathy, and if someone walks away from reading Those Fatal Flowers with an understanding that love is beautiful in all its forms, that would be beyond my wildest dreams.
You studied anthropology and Latin in college. Do you make use of that knowledge in your writing?
I did! I actually found inspiration for Thelia’s backstory from Ovid. Unlike Homer, he gives us a little more information about the sirens’ history: how they were Proserpina’s handmaidens, and the gods gave them their wings so that they could scour the earth to try and find her. I also took a class on Human and Animal Sacrifices, much to my parents’ dismay at the time, haha. Now I can confidently tell them I did put that knowledge to good use.
What would be your advice to writers wanting to create stories inspired by mythology or retellings?
If there’s a certain myth or story that’s lodged itself in your brain, explore it. Like I said earlier, the first whispers of Those Fatal Flowers began for me in high school. I couldn’t shake it, and I wasted a lot of time not writing because I thought I wasn’t good enough.
For more traditional Greco-Roman mythological retellings, I’d say find a story that inspires you and add a twist to it. There are a handful of authors who already write stunning strict retellings, and most of them are not only incredible writers but also Classicists to boot. That said, I am hopeful that we’ll see more retellings from other mythological canons in the coming years.
What’s next for you? Are you planning to write more books inspired by Greco-Roman mythology? Or are you perhaps thinking of trying a different genre altogether?
I’m not exactly sure! Those Fatal Flowers obviously has a very large Greco-Roman component, but it’s not a strict retelling. I’m really interested in writing almost mythic/folkloric tales juxtaposed against American history, and that interest has led me down a path where my current projects seem to have more of a horror bent.
Have any shows, movies, books, or games influenced your own work at all?
I think it’s safe to say the first seeds of Those Fatal Flowers can be attributed to watching the film The Last Unicorn (which features a pretty grotesque harpy) at a pretty young age, and the book Sirena by Diana Napoli. There’s also definitely an element of Robert Egger’s The Witch that inspired the settings in Those Fatal Flowers and has continued to ripple throughout my current projects.
Our podcast focuses on media we’re currently loving. Are there any books, shows, movies, or games you’re enjoying at the moment? Any recommendations for our audience? Bonus points if it includes sapphics!
These are not recent, but as far as historical sapphics go, I will always, always, always sing the praises for the films Portrait of a Lady on Fire and The Handmaiden. The pitch for Those Fatal Flowers that landed me my agent actually used Portrait of a Lady on Fire as a comp.
More recently, I really adored the novel Grey Dog by Elliott Gish, which is a literary horror novel written in an epistolary format and done so well. I also finally read This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, and it’s as incredible of a ride as everyone says.
About Shannon
Shannon Ives writes from the deep, dark woods of Vermont. She graduated with honors from the University of Iowa with a BA in anthropology and a minor in Latin. Her studies focused on myth, religion, and magic—themes that she continues to explore in her writing. Her work strives to capture the beauty in the grotesque and how traditional power structures perpetuate violence. More often than not, you’ll find her characters behaving badly; they are monsters, after all. Those Fatal Flowers is her debut novel.
More about Those Fatal Flowers here.
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