Happy Monday my bookish friends and welcome to my first ‘Under the Cover’ of 2024! Today I am welcoming, Dr Jean Menzies author of Live Like a Goddess: Life Lessons from Legends and Lore which I reviewed at the beginning of the year and finished 2023 feeling inspired and ready for 2024 because of this book.
Under the Cover is where I interview some of favourite authors and authors I’ve recently read and discovered. I’m trying to refresh my blog and I love interviewing authors and getting an insight into their storytelling, hence Under the Cover was born.
I felt so inspired that I needed to know more about the book and behind the scenes of how this book came to life.
INTERVIEW WITH JEAN MENZIES
Can you pick a quote to summarise your book Live Like a Goddess?
‘You don’t have to be a goddess to live like one!’
It’s the final line and probably the most important one.
t’s a classic question, but as someone who was inspired by this book, what was your motivation for writing Live Like a Goddess?
I think with every book I write I am at least partly writing for a version of myself – in this case teenage me. I’ve always found history and mythology fascinating and would watch or read anything even vaguely related to either growing up. I also struggled, like many teenagers do, with figuring myself out, expressing myself, peer pressure, etc. etc. So, a lot of the lessons in there are ones I either learned as a teenager OR wish I had figured out earlier, and I hope they can be as useful to others as they have to me (although some are still an ongoing process).
How did you structure your writing for LLAG? I wonder if you knew which life lessons to include and then research the goddesses.
It was a bit of both. Some women in the book I’ve always seen as role models myself. Demeter for example is someone I’ve always admired for her determination. Similarly, other women I’ve read about just seemed so naturally to tell/teach me something when I first encountered them. After I had the first batch though I realised there were some important life lessons I hadn’t included that I really wanted to, that I thought would balance out the book or had meant a lot to me, personally. So for those last few I had to go hunting. I reread various women’s stories, and I also read a bunch I’d never read before, to see if anyone could, not necessarily teach a specific lesson, but teach us something about a specific area like grief, and what exactly that lesson was. In terms of writing the actual content, I took one woman at a time, trying to give her the all she deserved. The three sections meanwhile just seemed to naturally happen as I wrote each chapter.
A huge amount of research must have been done to write this, what were the highlights and challenges? How did you condense that research into 21 mythical and legendary women?
Aha there were a few women who didn’t make the cut that’s for sure – even though they have important things to say. I think in the end though, despite having a long list of candidates to include, it wasn’t as difficult to narrow down as you might think. I wanted a book that felt balanced, after I’d written fifteen or so women, the three sections – looking inward, looking around you, and looking to others – just seemed to naturally come together, and that helped me figure out who else to include.
I found that I really resonated with the stories, were there any that you were particularly inspired by or found likeness to? I think Hina is probably my favourite.
Oh absolutely! I love Hina too.
The Sun’s advice was one of the most personal sections I think I wrote as it resonated with my own experiences of grief, but so did Brigid’s. Then there was Ame-no-Uzume’s reminder to enjoy life, and Durga’s example of fighting for what’s right, those are lessons I learned as much from the mortal women in my life, like my mum, growing up and which I treasure to this day!
Were there any stories that you didn’t include but wished you could, would there be room for a Vol 2 of this book?
Definitely, like I mentioned some women didn’t make the cut either because I simply didn’t have the space, or because they had similar stories to ones I’d already included – like the Scottish Selkie and the Australian Karukany, I felt they shared a lot of parallels and I took away very similar things from both stories. Then again, the more I’ve thought about it since, even those who I thought similar at the time could still teach slightly different lessons. Then of course, as soon as project is out there in the world you start thinking of more you could have included aha. So, yes, I don’t see why a volume two couldn’t exist, but I’d also love to maybe share the stories of some mortal, historical women too.
The illustrations by Taylor Dolan are stunning, did you have any input in the creative process of how the book would come together? Do you have a favourite illustration?
Aren’t they!? They’re so unique and I think they really bring each woman to life. The process generally went like: I write the stories, Taylor illustrated the women, I had a look and fed back any changes, and then Taylor made the revisions. Although, I will say, I had very little notes. Taylor clearly did a lot of her own research and poured a lot of thought and care into each woman’s image from the get go. If I had to pick though I think my favourites are Nüwa and Brigid.
If you could advise younger teens three life lessons from your books, what would they be?
Oh that’s hard but three that I might consider kind of ‘foundational’ lessons, one from each section, would be Let it Out like Rhiannon, Show Kindness like Leutogi, and Enjoy Yourself like Ame-no-Uzume. I think these would make excellent building blocks for the other lessons included.
This is my first YA Non-Fiction book, I feel there needs to be more like this, do you have any recommendations?
YES! I thoroughly agree – it’s a sub-genre I’d love to see more in but I do have some recommendations in the meantime:
Aren’t they!? They’re so unique and I think they really bring each woman to life. The process generally went like: I write the stories, Taylor illustrated the women, I had a look and fed back any changes, and then Taylor made the revisions. Although, I will say, I had very little notes. Taylor clearly did a lot of her own research and poured a lot of thought and care into each woman’s image from the get go. If I had to pick though I think my favourites are Nüwa and Brigid.
If you could advise younger teens three life lessons from your books, what would they be?
Oh that’s hard but three that I might consider kind of ‘foundational’ lessons, one from each section, would be Let it Out like Rhiannon, Show Kindness like Leutogi, and Enjoy Yourself like Ame-no-Uzume. I think these would make excellent building blocks for the other lessons included.
This is my first YA Non-Fiction book, I feel there needs to be more like this, do you have any recommendations?
YES! I thoroughly agree – it’s a sub-genre I’d love to see more in but I do have some recommendations in the meantime:
Here and Queer by Rowan Ellis
This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson
Revolution in Our Time by Kekla Magoon
I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai (there is a teen and adult version of this book)
