A Conversation with Jordan McCaffrie, Author of From the Ashes

Jordan McCaffrie's debut novel From the Ashes doesn't read like a first book. It reads like a confession, a love letter, and a battle cry folded into one. The story follows Ava, a bartender in Seattle whose late-night life of cheap wine and cigarettes is upended when she discovers she is the forgotten daughter of Hades and Persephone. Her memories weren't lost. They were stolen. And the mythic world she's been pulled into may hold the key to who she really is, or it may burn everything down.

We sat down with Jordan to talk about the personal experience behind Ava's journey, the reimagining of Greek myth, and what it means to write a fantasy that's really about surviving your own mind.

Ava's rule is "don't look back," but the truth about her identity overturns the life she's built. What first sparked the idea of a daughter of Hades and Persephone who has forgotten who she is?

The legends don't speak about a child of Hades and Persephone; in fact, they overwhelmingly say the pair was childless. But what if they weren't? What if somewhere out there they did have a child, and that child had no idea they existed?

A child like me.

When I was about to turn nineteen, I learned the person I thought was my father? That fundamental detail about my life turned out to be a lie. A fabrication. I was told not only was that man not my biological father, but the person who'd contributed his genetics to my existence? He'd bailed as soon as my mom told him she was pregnant with me.

Learning my true identity made me feel as if my entire life, who I thought I was up to that point, was a lie, and I fought for a long time to put those pieces back together. Life kept throwing punch after punch, shoving me deeper into the depths of my own mind. At some point during all this, "Don't look back" became my motto, and I essentially forgot who I was.

I wanted to take that experience and shape it into something beautiful rather than tragic, effectively taking the idea of a daughter who's forgotten who she is and give it meaning rather than simply an unfortunate part of life. Something hopeful in the darkness.

The idea of someone forgetting who they are and refusing to look back isn't just an idea for a story or a plot point. It's my actual life, my own lived experiences that sparked the idea for Ava's story.

Her memories were stolen, rather than simply lost. How did that distinction shape the mystery and Ava's sense of agency as the truth returns?

Ava's memories weren't simply missing or repressed; someone stole them from her. They stole the life she should have been living. That distinction fundamentally shaped both the mystery of the story as well as her sense of agency as the truth returns to the light. Throughout Ava's story, she learns the answers to questions she started with open her up to even more questions about herself. By having her fight to determine who stole them and why, it adds to her evolution throughout her fight to regain her own identity.

Ava's late-shift Seattle life, cheap wine, and cigarettes give the opening a grounded, gritty texture before the hidden mythic world opens up. How did you develop that contrast?

I wanted the contrast of her two worlds, her two realities, to be both physical as well as metaphorical. For me, the grounded and gritty texture represents my life while I was trying to figure out who I was. I'm not sure I'll ever fully know who I am to be completely honest, if any of us truly will, but the hidden mythic world represents what was essentially the light at the end of the tunnel. The mythic world is a representation of the good existing in the world, opening Ava up to the ones who accept her even while she battles inner demons and dark thoughts that remain from the grounded, gritty texture she initially exists in.

In your version of the mythic world, what did you most want to reimagine about Hades and Persephone's family, and what did you choose to preserve?

I wanted to stay mostly true to the legends, to the soulmate type love we read about in the stories, however it never sat right with me how the story of Hades and Persephone unfolded. I wanted to give them something more honest and realistic, choosing to focus on the relationship they have, their love that never dies, and showcase their story, but with my own twist thrown in.

A dangerous attraction threatens to be either Ava's weakness or her chance at survival. How did you keep that relationship in tension with her larger fight to reclaim her life?

I think they go hand in hand. Ava's fight to reclaim her life is directly connected with the dangerous attraction she faces within the pages of this story. She doesn't trust herself, and now she's thrown into this tension that could make or break her. It's something we all face, really. We're all just trying to figure out who we are, and the relationships we find ourselves in on the way to do so can keep us on course as we search for our true selves, but at the same time if we choose to trust the wrong person it has the potential to throw us off track entirely.

Sometimes if we trust the wrong person, if we follow the wrong person, if we open ourselves up to love the wrong person, there's a possibility that we'll never really find out who we are. Ava isn't just trying to figure out if she can trust that relationship, she's fighting to reclaim herself.

By the end, Ava must choose whether to save the world that betrayed her or burn it down. What question about revenge, belonging, or responsibility did you want that choice to leave with readers?

I think Ava's story will drive the reader to ask themselves about all three of those things. How would you respond if the life you thought you had, the person you thought you were, was ripped away? I was always taught forgiveness was required, even for the most heinous crimes, the worst actions. Like the world can destroy everything about you and you're supposed to just turn the other cheek, shove the tears away, say thank you and accept that everyone makes mistakes.

And they do. I know I've made countless mistakes in my life, things that if I could go back and change I would. But shouldn't there be consequences for people's actions? For the maliciousness and evil that exists in the world?

I hope Ava's story allows readers to ask exactly that.

How would you react if someone intentionally destroyed everything that makes you, you? Would you be able to forgive, or would you burn it all to the ground? Revenge, belonging, responsibility, and accountability are all questions I hope the readers will be able to ask by the end of From the Ashes.

What is it about Hades and Persephone's story that keeps pulling writers back, and what does your version do that no one else's has?

I can't speak for other writers, but I find myself reflected in their stories. To me, it seemed as if Hades was misunderstood, cast in this haunting, nightmare-inducing light while the other gods were shown as bright lights up in the clouds, regardless of the atrocities they committed. The way I've come to interpret the myths was that it seemed like he really just wanted his space, he wanted justice and even more so that he wanted to help souls in the afterlife.

Unfortunately, his isolation mixed with the judgement he sentences the dead to is portrayed by anger. Terror. Violence. The King of Hell we all should fear. But really, all he's doing is requiring consequences for the actions people carry out. Persephone on the other hand seems to be portrayed as this docile, gentle, beautiful goddess who gets taken advantage of by this evil malevolent being who rules the Underworld. But was she? Was she simply a victim of some magical version of Stockholm Syndrome, or is there more to her story than we've been told over the years?

I hope my version will allow readers to view both Hades and Persephone in a different light. It keeps some of the main features of the myths, but I think my adaptation is something readers can relate to their own lived experiences.

Why a bar? What does mixology give your heroine that a throne in the underworld couldn't?

It's less the mixology, rather who she is when she's behind the bar. She's in this place where she has to wear a mask, pretending to be someone she isn't. In reality, all Ava wants is to be alone, away from the persona she's forced to slip on when she's in public. Not knowing where she came from or who she is, working at a bar was a way for her to slide on her anonymity and blend into the world as best she could.

Seattle is a specific, misty, coffee-fueled city. How much of a character is it in the book?

The backdrop of Seattle fits the mood of who Ava is in the time she lives there. It's also where I lived when I was learning who I was and holds an incredibly special place in my heart (as does the exorbitant amount of coffee Ava drinks on a daily basis). My husband and I actually lived in Seattle early on in our relationship, so the location isn't just symbolic in nature.

I write about the streets I walked, the bars I went to, the neighborhood we lived in, the life I had as I was learning who I was in a similar way Ava does, minus the literal myth and magic (although my personal opinion is that Seattle truly is a magical place in this world).

Which mythological rule did you most enjoy breaking?

As many of them as I could! It seems as if there's this unspoken rule in Fantasy, where readers have to choose between stories that focus on mythology and retellings, or you can pick up a book with all the other supernatural elements. I wanted to create a world where there weren't any limits on the beings and creatures you have the potential to encounter, and create a place filled with different aspects of both magic and myth. I also had a blast bending the lore told about the various beings throughout the pages and putting my own spin on their stories.

From gods and goddesses, to dragons, fae, vampires, demons, and so many others, I wanted to bring together creatures from every corner of the magical worlds as well as our own rather than sticking with the unspoken mythological rule or putting them in their own box. It shows even though we're all different, we can come together to create something beautiful.

What do you hope readers feel when they meet her?

It really comes down to recognition. While it is a fantasy novel, mine deals with the human experience, issues faced both internally and externally. Rather than magically "fixing" my main character, this story deals with the struggle of self-acceptance as Ava learns who she truly is, and beyond that, accepts that there are those not only willing to, but are excited to, love the pieces of her she thinks are broken. Fragmented. Not good enough.

I wrote this story for others like me, people who think they're "broken" but in reality? We're just different, and it's ok to be that way. I hope readers are able to see at least a little bit of themselves in Ava, and it allows them to feel like maybe they're less alone in the world before they started reading her story.

From the Ashes arrives November 17. What are you most excited for readers to see in launch week?

I honestly can't wait for readers to see Ava's story unfold! From the Ashes harnesses issues with mental health, relationships and family dynamics (both positive and horribly, horribly negative), aspects I and so many others like me face in our own realities. However, it also brings with it the love I've found along the way with my partner and chosen family, and I hope the underlying symbolism will resonate with readers. I'm also beyond excited for readers to see how I've reimagined the story of Hades and Persephone, because it's a wild ride to say the least. I stayed close to the general stories we've been told, but I think readers will enjoy the modern twist I added to it.

While her story may be a fictional one, Ava's struggles are similar to those many of us face on a daily basis. The mental battle she goes through is something that is extremely human in nature, and I think her story is one that will resonate with people in different ways. This story doesn't just deal with magic, fantasy, or battling literal monsters. It's a story about surviving yourself.

Surviving your own mind.

I hope readers are able to see parts of themselves the world tells us constitutes being "broken", and instead of thinking that way, are able to embrace even the darkest parts of themselves. Because at the end of the day? All those broken pieces make us who we truly are, and it's okay for us to be different than society expects us to be. To be unique. That we don't have to fit inside the boxes we've been told to force ourselves into.

Overall, I hope From the Ashes shows readers we can all rewrite our own story, even if society tells us we're too damaged to do so.

From the Ashes by Jordan McCaffrie arrives November 17, 2026 from Library Tales Publishing. Preorder or learn more here.