Over the past months, I’ve had so many conversations about We Are the Fall—questions asked in messages, mused over tea, and spoken in passing that stayed with me.
I gathered them here, shaping them into a kind of dialogue: the curiosities readers have shared, and the thoughts I’ve carried with me since writing. What follows is part memory, part reflection, part answer. Welcome to the Author Q&A!
What first sparked the idea for We Are the Fall?
This book is two ideas coming together. At first, I was having a discussion with a friend about Medusa and how her story could be turned so that she chose to become a Gorgon—an act to regain the power taken from her by her assault.
The second was the poem, We Are the Fall [discussed in next question]. And then the book was born as a culmination of the two. Giving mythical women who are framed as a warning, or are only seen through someone else’s tale, a new story and finally allowing them a voice.
Why the title—what does ‘We Are the Fall ‘ mean to you?
The title comes from the first poem of the same name. It’s about the women who are framed as the wrong-doers in tales we all know. Eve, Pandora, Guinevere. These women are blamed for the fall of cities, civilisations, the whole of mankind. But what about the stories that led them there, their motivations for the things we are told they did. I haven’t erased their actions, just tried to look at them from another angle.
Yes, women can be flawed but they are also strong, resilient and rise again when they are knocked down. This poem was a celebration of that.
The book reimagines women from myth, history, legend. How did you choose who to include?
I wanted them to be a mixture of well-known and lesser-known myths. The Greeks and the literary ones will be familiar to most, but there are some Norse and Celtic ones that may be new.
There was also a good range of sources for the mythical collections I picked, so I could get a good idea of how the women’s voices could be heard and their myths altered. But there were many more I would have loved to include, so maybe another collection will be coming!
Because every woman deserves a voice, even mythical ones.
Was there a particular woman whose poem felt more personal to write?
The Banshee felt very personal as my Irish family name is O’Connor and that is one of the families that is said to have always been watched over by a Banshee. I will admit to getting a bit teary when I wrote that one.
The Morrigan was also an emotional one that I felt needed a lot of space, so she ended up with two poems. But honestly, all the Celtic ones were a great experience as my heritage is Irish and Welsh. So it was nice to step into that space.
How do you balance myth and empowerment? How have the stories changed?
I think some feminism/women empowerment can stray quite heavily into the “men suck” territory—and don’t get me wrong there are some moments in this collection where it feels deserved—but I wanted to make sure that the book didn’t just turn everything on the men in the myths.
Some are changed so the women pitted against each other out of jealousy are allies, some so that the women who were just footnotes in famous men’s myths now have a life of their own. A lot are just given autonomy, depth and a chance to tell their own side to their story. The main plot points haven’t changed, just the ‘why’. After all, they’re well-loved stories for a reason!
What do you hope readers will carry with them after reading this collection?
I hope that any women who read this collection will take some strength in seeing a new angle on these women. Because every woman deserves a voice, even mythical ones.
Also, I think that bringing these older stories to the stage in a new format may encourage more readers or lovers of myth. If there is one in there that the reader didn’t know about before, maybe they will want to know more about them and that makes the historian in me very happy!
Do you see We Are the Fall as the start of a larger tapestry of mythic or historic poetry/writing?
Absolutely! I have already envisioned so many things to go alongside this poetry collection. I am currently in the process of turning the book and the 26 women within into a tarot line of products, for witchy girls like me!
But I know it’s very early days for the book and I’m am still in the process of distributing it to all the platforms. As a self-publisher it can be a bit overwhelming but I’m taking it day by day and I am so appreciative of everybody that has read the book so far. It’s been a huge dream for a long time and I’m just so happy it’s finally out there in the world!
