One of my favourite parts of writing mythological retellings is discovering that the myths still have secrets left to tell.

When I started Dream Maiden, I thought I knew what Psyche's story was about: Beauty, trust and love. (How could it not be about love!?) Those things are certainly there, but as I advance in this draft, I am realizing they are only a part of the heart of the novel.
Instead, the book has become about seeing. And what it means to truly see someone and be seen.

Psyche is the most beautiful woman in Greece. Everyone looks at her. Kings, priests, strangers, even the gods. She's admired, desired, envied and worshipped... yet no one really sees her.

As she herself says on page one: "The poets will tell you beauty is truth. It’s not. Beauty is madness. It’s what men see instead of truth."

Eros also hides himself from the world. If you met him in BOUND MAIDEN, you know he lives alone in his high aerie, and he struggles with the guilt from the pain that love creates. In that book, he says: "This is my office. Every arrow creates a debt. We gods may pretend otherwise, but it is mortals who pay the cost. If love is not pain now, it is pain and grief in the end. Every love affair ends in heartbreak or death."

So I somehow am writing a love story between a woman who has never been known and a man who doesn't want to be known. I didn't really plan that – it has simply emerged as the story is unfolding. And I'm so excited to see how it is playing out.

One of the joys of writing a trilogy is watching each book find its own voice. Summer Maiden asked what happens when love demands surrender. Bound Maiden explored the demands love makes on freedom, identity, and choosing your own path.
Dream Maiden is already becoming the most intimate, and perhaps the most psychological of the three. (Though there will be cameos from all the other MMCs and FMCs.)

It also already contains some of my favourite scenes I've ever written.
So the manuscript is now well into its second half, and every time I think I know where these characters are going, they grab the reins. It's the best part of writing.
I'm looking forward to sharing Psyche and Eros with you.