Book Tour Q&A: Clytemnestra's Bind by Susan C. Wilson
- Fiction Fans
- Apr 4, 2024
- 9 min read
Updated: Jun 25
Today we're taking part in the book tour organized by The Write Reads for Clytemnestra's Bind by Susan C. Wilson! Continue reading for the book blurb and a Q&A with the author.
About the book
Queen Clytemnestra's world shatters when Agamemnon, a rival to the throne of Mycenae, storms her palace, destroys her family and claims not only the throne but Clytemnestra herself.
Tormented by her loss, she vows to do all she can to protect the children born from her unhappy marriage to Agamemnon. But when her husband casts his ruthless gaze towards the wealthy citadel of Troy, his ambitions threaten, once more, to destroy the family Clytemnestra loves.
From one of Greek mythology's most reviled characters—a woman who challenged the absolute power of men—comes this fiery tale of power, family rivalry and a mother's burning love.
On to the interview...!
Thank you so much for joining us for this Q&A! We’ll start off with one of our standard podcast opening questions–tell us something great that’s happened recently.
I’m preparing for the April 9th US launch of Clytemnestra’s Bind, my debut novel, which is very exciting. I’ll be following the blog tour reviews, reposting them on X, and updating my website.
What are you currently reading or what’s up next on your TBR? What made you pick up this book?
I’m reading an advance review copy of Faith of their Fathers by Samuel Sargeant. It’s set in early 11th century Iceland during the seismic transition between the old Norse religion and Christianity. The hero must track down the perpetrator of a spate of seemingly religiously motivated murders that threaten the fragile peace of his community. I’m thoroughly enjoying the story, which includes some key historical figures of the era.
I’ve been fascinated by the Vikings since childhood. The Icelandic sagas were one of my first literary passions as a young adult, thanks to my local public library stocking an extensive collection. I couldn’t resist the chance to read Sargeant’s novel. Afterwards, I’ll be revisiting some of the sagas.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what inspired you to start writing?
I’m a native of Dunfermline, the historic former capital of Scotland in the kingdom of Fife. I have a lifelong passion for history in the broadest sense, originating from childhood trips to the local abbey and ruined palace. Though it’s something of a cliché to say this, I’ve always wanted to be a published novelist. I love slipping off into other worlds through writing and reading. I believe fiction helps us to be more empathic as individuals and to develop deeper self-awareness.
What is one book you want to shout about to the world? What about it makes you love it so much?
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark is a book I return to over and again. The titular character is a charismatic Edinburgh schoolteacher in her self-declared “prime”. She selects a group of her pupils to be her “crème de la crème”, her protégées. Brodie believes she is encouraging “her girls” to think for themselves, but in fact she imposes her own dogmatic beliefs and forbids any thinking that doesn’t meet her standards.
Brodie is a protagonist worthy of Greek tragedy: domineering, brilliant, idealistic, conceited, absurd, and utterly unable to recognise her own fatal flaws. As a child, I watched the film version and yearned to be a “Brodie girl”, to sit at Miss Brodie’s feet and absorb her romantic wisdom. Reading the book for the first time, as an adult, was a shocking eye-opener.
Spark’s writing, as always, glitters in this novel. The book is immensely quotable. Anyone who’s seen the film will find themselves hearing Jean Brodie’s catchphrases in Maggie Smith’s Morningside accent.
What are your favorite types of stories? Of characters?
My favourite genres are historical fiction and classic literature. I love Dumas, the Brontës, Hardy, Cervantes, Galsworthy, Waugh, Gaskell, Sigrid Undset, Henry Treece and Mary Renault. I’ll read fiction set during any period, in any place, but I especially enjoy settings I’m unfamiliar with.
I also love ancient, medieval and epic literature: Homer, the Greek tragedians, the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Shahnameh, the Kalevala, the Eddas, Beowulf, Chretien de Troyes, and so on. If a story has been read for centuries, I want to know why.
In terms of characters, if I find myself caring about a morally ambiguous hero or heroine, that’s the mark of a brilliant creation.
How much do you plan when you write? What’s your writing process like?
Initially, I think about the beginning and ending. It’s vital to know where the story is going, otherwise it can meander, with superfluous scenes and inconsistent themes. A lack of plotting makes for a lot of editing.
Once I know the ending, I’ll write a detailed synopsis that advances the story each step of the way towards its conclusion. I love plotting. It feels organic and creative. Before I begin writing the actual story, I don’t necessarily know where every scene will take place or even which characters, besides the key players, will be in it, but I do know what it needs to achieve in terms of plot. During the writing process, I’ll add unplanned scenes and remove, combine or reorder scenes as needs be. It’s essential to listen to the unfolding story as you write.
Can you tell us a little bit about your characters? What are your favorite kinds of characters to write?
I’m intrigued by characters who, in my opinion, have been unfairly judged, such as Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. I love depicting realistic, flawed characters, who are shaped by the world around them.
Until very recently, Clytemnestra was depicted as patriarchy’s worst nightmare: an unfaithful wife who killed her husband. But she was also a woman whose husband killed at least one of her children (and, in some versions of her story, murdered her first husband, too). I wanted to show her being shaped by, and reacting to, the culture she lived in and the tragedies she experienced. In my novel, she tells her story in the first person, narrating her development from hopeful young mother, to the woman who avenged her murdered children on her husband.
With Agamemnon, I’ve endeavored to show how tumultuous life-events hardened him: his frightening childhood filled with uncertainty, the violent deaths of his mother and father, the usurpation of his throne. My Agamemnon is on a quest for security and believes himself justified in doing whatever it takes to achieve this ambition.
I’ve focused primarily on the relationships between Clytemnestra and her children to show how Electra and Orestes became the kind of adults who, in the third novel of the trilogy, are capable of such shocking repercussions against their mother. I’ve always felt that their absence of empathy for Clytemnestra, and grief for their sacrificed sister, wasn’t sufficiently explored by the ancient storytellers. But it has to come from somewhere, and that’s what I’ve explored.
What was your favorite part of writing Clytemnestra’s Bind?
Openings come more easily to me than any other part of a novel. An opening line must encapsulate the story: everything should flow from that first sentence or first few sentences. While plotting Clytemnestra’s Bind, I knew that the bloody history of the House of Atreus would haunt the current-day characters, but I hadn’t realised just how heavily its shadow would fall until Clytemnestra spoke the opening line: “Sometimes I hear murdered children in the corridors of the palace.”
Although I carry out extensive character development and plotting before beginning a novel, the story voice only truly comes alive when I start writing. At this point, I discover whether the main characters want to speak in the first person, or whether the novel should be told in the third person.
What comes first to you when you’re writing, the world, the characters, or the storyline?
The world. I wanted to write novels drawn from Greek myths and set them in the Mycenaean Age, where they have their roots, rather than the Classical period of most retellings. I researched the Late Greek Bronze Age for years before deciding which myths to focus on. The Greek tragedies and Homer provided the bones of my plots, which I fleshed out, creating events and characters, as necessary. I concentrated on how these events would have shaped the characters’ personalities and actions.
Talk to us about your book cover! Can you tell us about the idea behind it?
The cover artist is James Jones. He’s included lots of symbolism in his design. The three key symbols are the snake, the double-axe and the dagger. The snake is of course a traditional emblem of rebirth. A house snake appears at several important moments in Clytemnestra’s Bind, including one where Clytemnestra makes a life-changing decision. The double-axe is a prominent symbol in Minoan-Mycenaean iconography. It one scene of my book, Clytemnestra pursues Agamemnon through the Corridor of the Double Axes in the palace after he vows to remove their young son from her care. And the dagger appears in scenes between Clytemnestra and Aegisthus, and later between Clytemnestra and Agamemnon. It also reappears in the third novel of the trilogy, Electra’s Fury!
The blood drops refer to the brutal history of the House of Atreus, the family members sacrificed to the ambitions of power-hungry men. The stars remind me of an early scene in the novel, where Clytemnestra gazes out from her window and prays to the mother goddess to keep her family safe.
Can you give us an elevator pitch for Clytemnestra’s Bind?
Forced into marriage with the murderer of her family, Queen Clytemnestra fights to protect the children she bears him.
Describe Clytemnestra’s Bind in 3 adjectives.
Unflinching, dark, emotional.
How different is the final version of this book from the first draft?
This is the only story I’ve drafted during National Novel Writing Month, a creative writing event encouraging people to write a novel during November. I plotted it beforehand, but writing a first draft in thirty days resulted in some very sparse scenes, often little more than stage directions, with footnotes on how to flesh them out later. Some people swear by NaNoWriMo, but it’s not for me. I prefer to polish as I go. I’d rather have a first draft that I can look at without blushing.
In your opinion, what kind of reader would like this book?
Clytemnestra’s Bind should appeal to readers who enjoy Greek Mythology or historical fiction, or both.
What would you like readers to take away from this book?
I’d prefer readers to make up their own minds about whether Clytemnestra, Agamemnon and Aegisthus were justified in their responses to the dilemmas they faced. Obviously, I’m biased towards Clytemnestra, but the novel presents a dilemma bigger than her story alone. The early Greeks had an obligation to avenge their dead, which left the internally warring House of Atreus facing a disastrous quandary: to avenge the murdered members of their family, they must kill living members. The family was faced with self-annihilation. How can the cycle of vengeance be resolved in such a scenario? Can we really say Clytemnestra made the right choice, even if we sympathise with her motives?
Do you have a favorite quote from Clytemnestra’s Bind that you can share with us? What about this quote in particular makes it your favorite?
It appears on the cover of the hardback edition: “I need no coronation. I have always been queen.” Clytemnestra says this while seated on the Mycenaean throne, which she has decided Agamemnon will never again occupy. It encapsulates her sense of self-worth and her lack of need for other people’s approval.
Is there anything you can tell us about any current projects you’re working on?
The second novel in The House of Atreus trilogy, Helen’s Judgement, is currently with my editor. It tells the interlinked stories of Helen of Troy (Clytemnestra’s sister) and the warrior Achilles. Helen’s elopement with Paris gave the pretext for the Trojan War. The novel explores such themes as the fear of being forgotten and the conflict between personal desires and duty to family.
I’m working on the third novel, Electra’s Fury, which is told from the perspectives of Electra and Hermione, daughters of Clytemnestra and Helen. It continues the theme of fractious family relationships. The cycle of internal blood vengeance will reach its tragic conclusion.
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer a few questions for us! Do you have any parting thoughts or comments you’d like to leave for our readers?
Thank you for interviewing me. For those of your readers who might be aspiring writers, the best advice I can give is to pluck up the courage to share your work with other people. It took me a while to overcome that initial fear, but it’s a necessary step towards growing as a writer. Find or form a critique group with people you can trust to deliver constructive feedback. Remember to return the favour: you can learn so much from critiquing other people’s work.
And finally, where can you be found on the internet if our readers want to hear more from you?
You can connect with me on X (@BronzeAgeWummin) and Instagram (susancwilsonauthor), follow me on Amazon and Goodreads, and find out more at www.susancwilson.co.uk.
About the author
Susan C Wilson is a working-class Scottish writer. Her lifelong passion for ancient Greece was ignited as a child by stumbling across stories of gods and heroes in the dictionary. She loves to explore what makes us human: the eternal motivations, desires and instincts that cross time and place.
She has a degree in journalism from Napier University and, in preparation for writing her novels, gained a diploma in classical studies from the Open University. Clytemnestra’s Bind, her debut novel, was long-listed for the Mslexia Novel Competition 2019. It is the first in The House of Atreus trilogy and will be published by Neem Tree Press in June 2023.
