A collection of short stories analyzing 21st Century womanhood in North America, Pedestals in October examines the tropes, cliches, stereotypes, and harmful myths surrounding women.

Each story focuses on a Greek goddess and plaits the mythology with the real world.  Through magical realism and a touch of creative license, each goddess becomes a comment on how girls are raised into women, how women exist, and how women are treated by society.

Men are not the enemy.  Women are not the enemy.  But society, as a whole, has created traditions and identities that are exhausting, harmful, and destructive.  Pedestals in October is intended to engender change and create a thoughtful discussion on how we perceive ourselves and others.

Goddesses:

Aphrodite:  the myth of women’s sexual identities layered against the concept of “Just be yourself.”  This short story was published in Bottom Shelf Whiskey literary magazine.  The story is titled “Put On, Put Up, Put Out, Put Away.” 

Artemis:  the myth that a strong woman is a “bitch”

Athena:  the myth that women are not intelligent or capable outside the realm of domesticity or the humanities

Atropos:  the myth that women are bound by traditions and must live within the traditions

Demeter:  the motherhood myths

Hera:  the myth of the old woman, the foolish senior citizen who has no control over herself or others

Hestia:  the myth of the domestic, the working poor, and the invisible middle-aged woman

Persephone:  an analysis (not the myth of) the battered woman, the survivor of domestic abuse