Jennifer Derrick
People often ask where the idea behind Broken Fate came from. What logical part of my brain came up with the idea to write about the Greek goddess who kills every human being on Earth? Worse (or better, depending on your perspective), why did I decide to make her into a snarky cog in the mythological business of death who has to kill her own boyfriend? Where do I get these ideas?
At a funeral.
I’m not kidding.
I was at a family funeral and I was thinking how sucky everything about death is. Out of nowhere, I remembered my ninth grade English class and the unit we had to do on Greek mythology. I remembered the part about the three Fates and how one spun out the lifeline, one measured the length, and one cut the line, resulting in death.
My grief addled brain seized on this last part and started thinking about how awful that job must be. I mean, even if you’re a goddess, you’ve got to have some feelings, right? How crappy would it be to have to kill people day after day for thousands of years?
Worse, you’re doing this job knowing that everyone hates you. No human is going to embrace the being that kills them. Even the other gods are going to be a little bit leery of someone who is nothing but a killer. The person who has this job of cutting lifelines is going to be very lonely and probably more than a little bitter.
I knew that her coping mechanism would be to spend her days in isolation, just doing her job and trying to keep out of the affairs of humans. But then I wondered: What if, against all odds, she did fall in love? With a human. That she has to kill. Wouldn’t that just suck even more? Oh, yes, it would.
And that’s how Broken Fate came to be.
It’s also how I managed to get through one entire funeral without losing my mind and sobbing hysterically, which is what usually happens to me. I spent all my time thinking about how crappy it would be to actually be in the business of death that I managed to distract myself from, you know, actual death. For a little while, at least.
At a funeral.
I’m not kidding.
I was at a family funeral and I was thinking how sucky everything about death is. Out of nowhere, I remembered my ninth grade English class and the unit we had to do on Greek mythology. I remembered the part about the three Fates and how one spun out the lifeline, one measured the length, and one cut the line, resulting in death.
My grief addled brain seized on this last part and started thinking about how awful that job must be. I mean, even if you’re a goddess, you’ve got to have some feelings, right? How crappy would it be to have to kill people day after day for thousands of years?
Worse, you’re doing this job knowing that everyone hates you. No human is going to embrace the being that kills them. Even the other gods are going to be a little bit leery of someone who is nothing but a killer. The person who has this job of cutting lifelines is going to be very lonely and probably more than a little bitter.
I knew that her coping mechanism would be to spend her days in isolation, just doing her job and trying to keep out of the affairs of humans. But then I wondered: What if, against all odds, she did fall in love? With a human. That she has to kill. Wouldn’t that just suck even more? Oh, yes, it would.
And that’s how Broken Fate came to be.
It’s also how I managed to get through one entire funeral without losing my mind and sobbing hysterically, which is what usually happens to me. I spent all my time thinking about how crappy it would be to actually be in the business of death that I managed to distract myself from, you know, actual death. For a little while, at least.
More Answered Questions
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more