What is the title of your latest release?
APHRODITE IN PIECES
What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
This is Aphrodite in her “one night only!” big reveal. As she poses for her likeness, she tells her scintillating life story to the artist memorializing her in stone.
How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
Writing about Aphrodite, I knew I’d be spending a lot of time in Greece, but I didn’t anticipate how much would be set in Troy. Her tumultuous relationships with Ares and Aeneas (and Paris!) are a big part of the war.
Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?
Absolutely! Aphrodite is so funny; she’d be a blast in the happy hour girl group. She’d spill the hottest tea.
What are three words that describe your hero?
Witty, irreverent, fearless.
What’s something you learned while writing this book?
So much about the Venus de Milo! For instance, in 1916, women’s colleges Wellesley and Swarthmore held a competition to determine whose student body had the most Venus-like proportions. Wild!
Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
A mixture of both. I like to save a read over as a reward for making a certain word count. While I love to revise and edit as I go, I know I can get bogged down in the details and don’t want to lose momentum. I can easily add another 10k words every time I re-read a manuscript!
What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Oysters! An appropriate aphrodisiac.
Describe your writing space/office!
I write at the dining room table, even though I have an upstairs office. I like being in the chaos of my family – the eye of the storm. I cannot separate my art and my life; I like them all mixed up together.
Who is an author you admire?
Picking just one is so difficult! Ursula K. Le Guin for her advocacy of genre fiction, Ta-Nehisi Coates for his intelligence, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah for his creativity. (Yes, that is three. I cheated.)
Is there a book that changed your life?
THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS by Arundhati Roy and THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY by Henry James. These novels confirmed my decision to study literature in college.
Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published). Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
I am a mom of three so when my agent, Jane Dystel called, I was driving the ballet carpool. Though I begged them to be quiet, that didn’t stop the tutu-clad 4-year-old girls from chirping, “Hi Jane! Hi Jane!” in the backseat. Honestly, there is nothing sacred when you have little kids!
What’s your favorite genre to read?
Speculative fiction. I love the sense of possibility in a hybrid narrative. Destabilizing reality is so good for the imagination!
What’s your favorite movie?
Mamma Mia. It’s an instant endorphin boost.
What is your favorite season?
Fall. In Seattle, the colors are everything. And I adore a chunky knit.
How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
Cocktails and Taco Bell with my family and girlfriends.
What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
I love The Traitors! I would be such a good Faithful. I thought Sinners was brilliant. And I will read anything Stephen Graham Jones writes.
What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Italian. I have no boundaries when it comes to a good pasta bolognese.
What do you do when you have free time?
Ride horses. Watch everything on Bravo. Cuddle my family. Nap as often as possible.
What can readers expect from you next?
I’m not sure how much my agent would want me to share, but I am working on another feminist retelling of an entirely different type of classic. And at some point, I would love to write a western!
APHRODITE IN PIECES by Lauren J. A. Bear
Narrator: Zura Johnson
Experience the myth and magic of antiquity’s most alluring—and provocative—goddess as never witnessed before, in this gorgeously rendered, unflinching, and deeply vulnerable retelling from the author of Mother of Rome and Medusa’s Sisters.
Two hundred years before the common era, Aphrodite surprises an itinerant sculptor with a shocking request: Hear my story, see me for who I truly am, and carve it into stone. Never before has the goddess posed for her likeness, and as the artist works, she shares pieces of herself.
Her greatest triumphs and most grievous mistakes. The truth behind the tales of her beneficence and vengeance. And the one epic romance that slips through her perfect fingers, time and time again.
Part memoir, part fantasy, and all heart, Aphrodite in Pieces begs the eternal, essential questions: what do love and beauty truly mean? And can they last?
Women’s Fiction | Fantasy [ Penguin, On Sale: April 21, 2026, Hardcover / e-Book / audiobook, ISBN: 9780593638972 / eISBN: 9780593638989 ]
Buy APHRODITE IN PIECES: Amazon.com | Kindle | BN.com | Apple Books | Kobo | Google Play | Books-A-Million | Indie BookShops | Ripped Bodice | Libro.fm | Audible | Walmart.com | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | Amazon DE | Amazon FR
About Lauren J. A. Bear
Lauren was born in Boston and raised in Long Beach, CA. After studying English at UCLA and Education at LMU, she taught middle-school Humanities for over a decade — and survived! She is a teaching fellow for the Holocaust Center for Humanity, and lives in Seattle with her husband and three young children. She likes crossword puzzles and being on or near the water without getting wet.
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