Out February 1, 2024, this fantastic new novel chronicles the sisters Roxy and Coco, two glamorous harpies—mythical bird women—attempting to outrun extinction and fix the planet by preventing child abuse, one child at a time. Action figure–worthy, for readers of Neil Gaiman and Karen Russell, this modern take on these fabled women touches on mental illness, racism, animal rights, and the rights of children. Justin Hargett recently caught up briefly with the author.
WVUP: The novel’s protagonists, Roxy and Coco, are a pair of harpies—mythical bird-women—and sisters, living in the modern world and taking revenge on child abusers. What drew you to that particular Greek and Roman myth?
TS: The origins of my obsession are over twenty years old, given that I published a poem titled “Harpies” in Treason, my fourth book of poetry, in 2002, and have a short story in draft from about the same time. The epigraph of both quote the Aeneid that mentions harpies befouling the food of Phineus, a Greek soothsayer, because he abused his children. Always looking for female muses, I was curious about these powerful creatures who were always said to be ugly and frightening and concluded that such denigration was the result of Greek patriarchy, men frightened of vengeful women.
WVUP: You’ve got social workers, an Interpol surveillance agent, and a bipolar skateboarding truant. What kind of research did you do to bring this world to life?
TS: I cornered many a social worker, even the head of an university social work department, to bring that world some verisimilitude, and scoured the internet for stories, many of which were too violent to include in the book. With regard to security, a professional walked his dog in the park near our float home in Victoria and I had the privilege of grilling him about what went on in those kitted-out vans. An ex-student who had been in security told me about the gypsy encampment she had to contend with in New Jersey. The preteen in the novel who presents as an early onset bipolar sufferer is patterned after my friend’s stepson who did, in fact, kick out their windshield while driving the LA freeway.
“Do the harpies make decisions that are unfathomable to us? Why do dogs bark?”
WVUP: As far as we know, there are no harpies. What are the challenges you’ve found when writing speculative fiction?
TS: World-building is always a challenge for me because I mostly just love sentences and want the reader to bring his own experiences to the locale, the interaction, and the point of view. Changing the world just a tad by introducing a whole race of flying humans contained all kinds of traps with regard to back story and abilities. I have to say though, when I wrote my first novel about a woman trapped in Sudan, I had a somewhat similar problem of immediately immersing readers into a way of life and culture that was even more unfamiliar. Do the harpies make decisions that are unfathomable to us? Why do dogs bark?
WVUP: The novel touches on so many real life issues today—mental illness, racism, animal rights, and the rights of children, to name a few. What do you hope readers will take away from Roxy and Coco?
TS: I’m especially interested in difference in this novel. Harpies are persecuted just because they have wings, despite their improving life on the planet. Anyone with difference, especially invisible differences like those of mental illness, faces prejudice. Animals start in the wrong pew to begin with, faced with either exploitation or extinction. I’m hoping for compassion.
WVUP: You’ve written more than twenty books and have even more on the near horizon. How do you do it?
TS: Ha! I take a long time to write a book and when I get frustrated, I turn to another – but I always turn back. Then I keep thinking I’m finished and send it. Once in a while I get lucky. I’d like to virtue-signal and say that I don’t look at social media and I work all weekend and I never watch movies but hey, sin is 24/7.