Photo Content from Lauren
Lauren was born in Boston and raised in Long Beach, CA. After studying English at UCLA and Education at LMU, she taught middle-school Humanities for over a decade — and survived! She is a teaching fellow for the Holocaust Center for Humanity, and lives in Seattle with her husband and three young children. She likes crossword puzzles and being on or near the water without getting wet.
Greatest thing you learned at school.
Brevity and clarity! My eleventh-grade teacher at Long Beach Poly lived by this credo, and I passed it on to my own students when I was teaching middle school Humanities. It’s on par with the Ernest Hemingway/iceberg theory of writing, and it has always served me well.
Tell us your most rewarding experience since being published.
Absolutely every single note, post, email, fan art, handwritten letter I’ve received for Medusa’s Sisters. I read them all. Each one is beautiful and humbling (even the criticisms, lol). One reader told me of her plans to get a Stheno tattoo, and I was so touched I couldn’t stop crying!
Also, being invited to Comic-Cons has made me kinda cool with my kids and their friends. I have met the nicest people there!
What advice would you give to someone who wanted to have a life in writing?
Read poetry. Take classes with poets. Stand near them and soak up their lyrical genius through osmosis. A poet’s attention to every word on the page – and the blank spaces, as well – will change the way you put together sentences as a prose writer. And collect words like Pokémon. I love discovering unusual, archaic, esoteric words. I keep a list on my phone.
Why is storytelling so important for all of us?
Connection! I think the pandemic reinforced the truth that we need each other. Especially in this world of screens and AI, genuine human communion is essential. And what is a story if not, what Kazuo Ishiguro says, a conversation between two humans saying, “Does it feel like this to you, too?”
Brevity and clarity! My eleventh-grade teacher at Long Beach Poly lived by this credo, and I passed it on to my own students when I was teaching middle school Humanities. It’s on par with the Ernest Hemingway/iceberg theory of writing, and it has always served me well.
Tell us your most rewarding experience since being published.
Absolutely every single note, post, email, fan art, handwritten letter I’ve received for Medusa’s Sisters. I read them all. Each one is beautiful and humbling (even the criticisms, lol). One reader told me of her plans to get a Stheno tattoo, and I was so touched I couldn’t stop crying!
Also, being invited to Comic-Cons has made me kinda cool with my kids and their friends. I have met the nicest people there!
What advice would you give to someone who wanted to have a life in writing?
Read poetry. Take classes with poets. Stand near them and soak up their lyrical genius through osmosis. A poet’s attention to every word on the page – and the blank spaces, as well – will change the way you put together sentences as a prose writer. And collect words like Pokémon. I love discovering unusual, archaic, esoteric words. I keep a list on my phone.
Why is storytelling so important for all of us?
Connection! I think the pandemic reinforced the truth that we need each other. Especially in this world of screens and AI, genuine human communion is essential. And what is a story if not, what Kazuo Ishiguro says, a conversation between two humans saying, “Does it feel like this to you, too?”
What was the single worst distraction that kept you from writing this book?
I wrote a book about motherhood, but being a mother was definitely the greatest day-to-day distraction. I have three children, (currently) nine years old and younger, so every day is laundry and lunches, homework and tears and cuddles and sports.
They are my inspiration, but my goodness, they require a lot of attention!
TEN RANDOM FACTS ABOUT MOTHER OF ROME
I wrote a book about motherhood, but being a mother was definitely the greatest day-to-day distraction. I have three children, (currently) nine years old and younger, so every day is laundry and lunches, homework and tears and cuddles and sports.
They are my inspiration, but my goodness, they require a lot of attention!
TEN RANDOM FACTS ABOUT MOTHER OF ROME
- ⦁ I am mortified to admit this now, but the original inspiration for Antho was Raquel from Vanderpump Rules. After Scandoval, I could no longer abide a doe-eyed passive character. She kept the physical characteristics, but otherwise evolved into a woman of independence and agency.
- Numitor’s three royal children are loosely based on my own. My daughter rests in the middle of the two boys, and I call her my “middle diamond.” Also, like Rhea, she has amazing hair.
- There is a Jane Eyre/”Reader, I married him” allusion hidden in the text. See if you can find it!
- I also included a Medusa’s Sisters/Gorgon reference.
- While the relationship between Numitor and Amulius is Hamlet-esque, I began to picture Amulius as Professor Snape because I was reading the Harry Potter books aloud to my kids while drafting the novel.
- I spent way too long calculating the distance/times a wolf could run on my ancient map of Latium to ensure my plotting was accurate.
- I would cast Pedro Pascal in every male role if I could – Leandros, Mars, and Tiberinus!
- I grew up on sword and sandal epics, but always felt the female characters were too one dimensional (whores or virgins). Writing Mother of Rome was my response to this egregious oversight.
- When Leandros tells Antho, “I will always love you more,” I was referencing the vows from my best friend’s wedding.
- Just like Antho and Rhea, my cousin and I are a year and days apart and our sons are a year and days apart.
In high school, I worked afterschool at a French/German bakery in the Bixby Knolls/Cal Heights neighborhood of Long Beach, California. I used to help design wedding cakes! I highly recommend anything and everything with cream cheese frosting.
What is your happiest childhood memory?
Family reunions on Martha’s Vineyard with my mom and brother. Watching classic Hollywood movies after everyone else went to bed with my dad.
If you had to go back in time and change one thing, if you HAD to, even if you had “no regrets” what would it be?
Oh, I would have loved myself far earlier! Girls are too hard on themselves in every way. Am I smart enough, am I capable, skinny, pretty? Bullsh*t. We are all enough, exactly the way we are.
First Love?
My college sweetheart, Dan Bear. He’s my husband now, my North Star and lifeline. I feel super lucky.
What is one unique thing are you afraid of?
I hate being in water where I can’t see the ground. My imagination is way too vivid. The oceans are terrifying. Squids? Sharks? Nope. Over 80% of the ocean is unexplored. That’s gonna be a no from me, dawg.
What is the weirdest thing you have seen in someone else’s home?
I think taxidermy is *so* weird. My best friend from childhood and I used to hang our bras from the antlers of her dad’s taxidermized deer head.
The names Romulus and Remus may be immortalized in map and stone and chronicle, but their mother exists only as a preface to her sons’ journey, the princess turned oath-breaking priestess, condemned to death alongside her children.
But she did not die; she survived. And so does her story.
Beautiful, royal, rich: Rhea has it all—until her father loses his kingdom in a treacherous coup, and she is sent to the order of the Vestal Virgins to ensure she will never produce an heir.
Except when mortals scheme, gods laugh.
Rhea becomes pregnant, and human society turns against her. Abandoned, ostracized, and facing the gravest punishment, Rhea forges a dangerous deal with the divine, one that will forever change the trajectory of her life…and her beloved land.
To save her sons and reclaim their birthright, Rhea must summon nature’s mightiest force – a mother’s love – and fight.
All roads may lead to Rome, but they began with Rhea Silvia.
You can purchase Mother of Rome at the following Retailers:
And now, The Giveaways.
Thank you LAUREN for making this giveaway possible.
Winner will receive a Copy of Mother of Rome by Lauren J.A. Bear.
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