From The Author

Thank you for exploring my Divine Masquerade! I am so pleased to spend time with you.

I wrote these books for my daughters. Not only did I want to share with them my love of mythology, but also to bolster their self esteem. I wanted them to understand that there are many paths they can choose. But to avail themselves of these paths, they needed two things: a thorough education and confidence in themselves.

Because I wrote this for my daughters, I wanted the novels to be wholesome and true. The temptation to “sauce up” the prose was curbed by a scene I witnessed of an exasperated mother in a bookshop asking if there were any teen novels that weren’t dripping with sex. That conversation led me to create a world where lewdness and danger were tempered by charm and nobility. C.S. Lewis put it best, hoping his readers would, “feel pleasure in works that are delightful and hate the ugly with just distaste.”

My writing was also inspired by Mary Pipher’s Reviving Ophelia and her powerful expose about our ‘girl poisoning’ culture. Guiding my daughters through adolescence, I sought sturdy yet realistic role models.

I found a modern protagonist in ancient mythology. Having lived three years in the Mediterranean, wandering through the blossoms that caught Persephone’s eye, the grave yet uniquely female Athena captured my imagination.

Today’s woman is more empowered than she’s ever been. Scores of female presidents and prime ministers rule around the world. Women are rising to the highest pinnacles of every career-field. Why then do we see so much anorexia, depression, and self mutilation amongst our teenage girls? Why are a quarter of US women on anti-depression medicine?

Women in the past were shackled to a very narrow road. Yet they were comforted by a received wisdom of what that road was supposed to look like. Thus, they knew when they’d achieved that goal.

Today’s women enjoy infinite possibilities. But new freedoms raise new questions. What does satisfaction look like? When can I claim success?

I believe this is the cultural struggle that today’s generation of women must deal with. It’s a difficult challenge to surmount – much less label – because it speaks to the soul rather than the head. How do you capture happiness? How do you define joy?

I hope that Pallas will embolden girls to brave the barriers set before them; not only to conquer the paths they choose, but to calmly put to rest the ones they didn’t. I hope they’ll learn to listen to their souls, in a wholesome way that gives them peace and satisfaction.

DC