Rewriting Myths - Clémentine Beauvais

I will be starting work soon on a commissioned book for a French publisher as part of a series of novels that rewrite Greek myths, Histoires Noires de la Mythologie (Dark stories from mythology).

Some examples below (there are dozens)

 They look great, don't they? Gotta love Icarus's fit bum.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes. It's a pretty great series, one of those collections of books that are widely read in schools and primarily have an educational purpose, but nonetheless manage to be very literary and interesting.

The challenge with that book, as I'm discovering, is that it has to be quite long (90 000 characters) (I mean characters as in letters and punctuation, not 90 000 dramatis personae, though that's doubtlessly achievable with Greek mythology). And Greek myths aren't that long to tell - so you really need to spin them quite a bit.

The myth I chose is that of Io, which has always been a favourite of mine, and miraculously wasn't already taken.

The need to stretch it means that, essentially, you have to get into the heads of the characters very much, and be quite psychological about it all; give them distinctive voices, personalities, desires, and therefore probably break down their archetypal 'nature'. 

Of course, great writers who retell Greek mythology or other legends and myths do that all the time. But they don't have the constraint of keeping it school-focused. It still needs to be educational, a good 'parascolaire' product, as we say in French. We can't stray far from the 'accepted' versions of the myths, so that they stay in tune with the curriculum ('founding texts of world civilisations' is on the Year 7 programme).

And also, we can't only delve into pure psychology and internal monologue, because the readers probably don't really care very much about Zeus's midlife crisis. So things need to happen.

But it does give us space for interesting questions. What does it feel like to be a cow? What is it like to gallop freely through Mediterranean landscapes? Why would a young woman fall in love with a god?

More evidence, if it was ever needed, that commissioned work can be extremely satisfying and give birth to (hopefully) high-quality stuff. I'll keep you updated.

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Clémentine Beauvais is a writer in French and English and a lecturer in Education at the University of York. Her published work in English includes the Sesame Seade mysteries (Hachette, 2013-2015), the Royal Babysitters series (Bloomsbury, 2015-2016), and Piglettes, a translation of her French YA novel Les petites reines (Pushkin Press, July 2017).

How was summer for you? by Miriam Halahmy

1. Weather..... plenty of that. I'm writing this on Tuesday September 13th and the temperature outside in my London garden is 32C. Since May we have had wet June, windy July, the hottest August on record and now another heatwave in September. I have not been short of weather this summer.

Writing at Selsey Bill in windy July

2. Health : without divulging much, this was a tricky summer with family health going up and down like a yoyo. The interface with the NHS was frankly scary - which the consultant finally admitted when presented with my timeline of ghastliness. The news on this front is not hopeful. Note to self - get even more canny.

3. The book festival : I was invited for the very first time to the Edinburgh Book Festival and nearly didn't make it ( see 2). In the end whizzed up for two nights, had a great event with 150 kids on The Emergency Zoo and the weather was boiling hot.

4, Amnesty International : I volunteered to read the work of an executed writer at the Book Festival. There were four readers and each one more poignant than the next. My writer, Delara Derabi, was only 22 when she was executed in Iran. Her poem began, 'Prison/ I want to give you a different name/ Who called you this the first time...There was hardly a dry eye - but most amazing was the audience were 40 or more people and these readings go on for every single night of the festival. A lot of people reached - wonderful initiative.

5. Writing : the summer is not a great time to write a book but I was in the middle of the WIP all summer as life veered to and fro like a storm-tossed boat. So whatever, I had to finish the book. I started on my beloved Hayling Island in windy July and at times it felt like I was walking through mud. Also, despite the wind, the sea and the beach kept beckoning me outside and away from my desk. Note to self - do not have a new novel on the go in summer time.

6. Writing - after Hayling all work ground to a complete halt c/o NHS. That was fun.

7. Then the book festival - still no writing.

8. Finally the last minute flight to a writing retreat in Greece! Yes, it was a bit far to go but I was on Methana in a centre on the side of the cliff and there was nowhere to go and nothing to do. Except write. I finished the WIP.

9. So to summarise - summer is not the best time for me to be writing a book. I like to be out of the city, travelling or by the sea or in the countryside. Beware the NHS - boy can it bite. And if you go to a book festival, be prepared to sing...???...I taught the kids a WW2 song. ( shrugs and grins). But now I'm ready to go back to school, settle down at my computer for the autumn writing projects, enjoy the world of writing and writers - well, anyway, when it cools down a bit.

Hope you had a good summer!

www,miriamhalahmy,com