Jennifer Saint, author of 'Hera' - Sunday Times Bestseller discusses writing what you know YOUR readers will love, teasing yourself into work, and the point of mythology

Writer's Routine

Dan Simpson

Arts, Hobbies, Books, Leisure

4.9 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 10 April 2025

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jennifer Saint worked as an English teacher in a secondary school for thirteen years, when all of a sudden, with an unexpected confidence, she felt the urge to write a novel. It wasn't just the confidence she could do it that surprised her, but the belief that it would do well.

She was inspired by Greek mythology, and wanted to emphasise their relevance for the 21st Century. Her debut was 'Ariadne', which tells the legend of Theseus and the Minotaur from a female prespective. It was a Sunday Times Bestseller, a Waterstones Book of the Month, and was nominated for as their Book of the Year. She's also published 'Elektra' and 'Atalanta', also Sunday Times Bestsellers.

Jennifer's new novel is 'Hera', who is Zeus' brother. Together, they overthrow their tyrannical father Titan Cronos... only Hera becomes confused with thoughts of power and leading. She is often portrayed as the jealous wife and wicked stepmother - Jennifer explains why she decided to spend a year with one of Greek mythology's most hated figures.

We discuss how she picks her next retelling, also why as a teacher she wouldn't have liked how she gets to work as a writer, and what the point of Greek mythology is in 2025.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, welcome along to a brand new episode of writer's routine, where this week we're chatting to Jennifer Saint, whose new novel, Heara, is out right now.
0:18.5	It's her fourth retelling of a classic Greek myth. And you can hear why she
0:23.8	chose to spend a year with one of the most hated characters in mythology. Also, if these have
0:29.9	been told before, but told for centuries, why does Jennifer feel the need to retell them?
0:35.5	So I think that mythology has always served the same
0:38.6	purpose in human life. The fact that mythology is still a popular subject, the fact that people
0:45.6	still want to learn about it, to study it, to read about it, to write about it, is testament to the
0:50.5	fact that it's doing something important in our lives, it's serving a purpose for us.
0:57.1	I think that their main function, I guess, of mythology, that what draws us back to it over and over again
1:04.0	is that mythology is really how we make sense of our lives and the world around us.
1:09.2	And you can hear why she finds it hard to get things finished every day.
1:13.2	Yeah, terrible at finishing, honestly.
1:16.3	So, because I still find, you know, you might get to the end of the day and having felt like,
1:21.9	oh God, all of the, all of the creativity is completely drained out of me.
1:26.1	And then it's that thing of, well, I've stepped away from it and I've shut down the laptop.
1:30.4	And now I know exactly what I should have done or I know exactly what was wrong with that scene.
1:35.6	And I'll have to go back and write it down again.
1:37.6	It's all on the way in a brand new episode of writer's routine.
1:44.4	Yes.
1:45.4	Welcome along to the show.
1:47.0	My name's Dan.
1:47.6	This is Writers Routine.
	...

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