Hello and welcome to the next stop on the blog tour for Under The Moon: A Catwoman Tale by Lauren Myracle, illustrated by Isaac Goodhart. I was totally engrossed in this graphic novel (check out my review soon!) It was such a privilege to get to ask Lauren Myracle a few questions about the story. Read on to learn more about the book and what Lauren had to say…
About the Book:
When fifteen-year-old Selina Kyle, aka the future Catwoman, becomes homeless, she must confront questions of who she is and who she will become.
She rejects human cruelty, but sometimes it seems as though brute force is the only way to “win.” And if Selina is to survive on the streets, she must be tough. Can she find her humanity and reconcile toughness with her desire for community … and love?
From Lauren Myracle, the New York Times best-selling author of books like ttfn and ttyl, comes the story of a teenage Catwoman, as she struggles to find her own identity while living on the streets of Gotham.
Goodreads * Amazon * IndieBound
Author: Interview:
Under the Moon is a tale of Catwoman’s beginnings. What made you want to write a Catwoman story?
You know, Selina Kyle has always called out to me, as I know she has to many, many others. She’s a dark horse – or rather, a dark cat. She keeps to herself, always watching, and yet like all of us, she wants to step out of the dark and be seen. She’s had a rough life, and she’s wounded, and some of her scars are visible to those she encounters. But she doesn’t let her scars define her. She’s a survivor, and that makes me admire the hell out of her.
Selina is an incredible character. Like too many teens, she has had to deal with some pretty heavy things in her life. I really appreciated how authentic her story read. As the author, how did you decide what issues to include? How did you balance them with the rest of her story?
Oh, thank you!!! Selina faces abuse and self-harm, as well as abject poverty. Well, homelessness, to be blunt. Real live kids experience these real live problems, and I wanted to write Selina’s story with respect for the challenges many teens face. I included self-harm for a personal reason; I’ve struggled with cutting, as have two of my children. And we lived through it, as does Selina, as will, I hope, readers who share this experience. The take-away I hope I communicated in the story is that external scars don’t indicate permanent internal harm, and that’s the theme of the overall book for sure.
I’m loving how many of the upcoming DC Ink titles feature female superheroes written by female authors. As an adult woman telling a teen girls story, were there any specific things you wanted to make sure to include in or exclude from Selina’s story?
Ha! Yes! Selina needed to be independent and fierce, that was a given, but I also wanted very much to make sure she doesn’t have enormous superhero boobs. Because most fifteen-year-old girls do not! I shared my thoughts with brilliant artist Isaac Goodhart, and he gave me the most perfect Selina Kyle I could have imagined, with the imperfectly perfect body of an actual teen.
Thanks so much to Lauren for answering my questions. More importantly, my thanks to her and Isaac for handling this amazing teen girl character with such care and intention. Girls deserve that and I appreciate it!
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