Show notes
⚠️ TRIGGER WARNINGS ⚠️ This episode includes candid conversations about infertility and fertility loss, premature menopause, ovarian removal, unsuccessful IVF, hysterectomy, pregnancy and childbirth complications, loss of reproductive choice, death and grief, abortion, medical trauma, depression, and religious fear surrounding death and the afterlife. Please listen with care.
🎙️ Welcome back to The Mythic Mic Podcast, where heartbreak becomes a fatal curse, ancient towers preserve stories that empires could not erase, and healing begins when a woman finally chooses something entirely for herself.
This week, hosts Bethany Amanda and Sara Santillan sit down with author Ova Ceren to discuss her Turkish fantasy novel, The Book of Heartbreak.
Ova shares her journey from growing up under intense academic pressure in Turkey to spending nearly twenty years in mathematics, computer science, and the male-dominated technology industry. She opens up about entering premature menopause, learning that she could not have another child, and how the resulting grief and loss of identity inspired her to leave behind work she did not love and pursue writing for herself. Ova, Sara, and Bethany also have a deeply personal conversation about infertility, failed IVF, hysterectomy, pregnancy complications, reproductive healthcare, and the grief that can accompany losing the ability or the choice to expand a family.
We also dive into The Book of Heartbreak, which follows seventeen-year-old Sare, a girl cursed to die whenever her heart breaks. After learning that her mother has died, Sare moves to Istanbul to live with her estranged grandfather and discovers that everything she believed about her family may be a lie. Ova discusses drawing inspiration from the thousand-year-old Byzantine myth of Istanbul’s Maiden’s Tower, writing heartbreak beyond romantic loss, creating a hopeful and humorous afterlife, and exploring identity, family wounds, religion, grief, and the memories that can make old pain feel suddenly new again.
💔 How do you survive grief when a broken heart can literally kill you?
🗼 What secrets connect Sare’s curse to Istanbul’s ancient Maiden’s Tower?
✨ And can she reclaim her life when the deepest wounds come from the people she trusted most?
This is a must-listen for urban-fantasy readers, lovers of mythology and magical Istanbul settings, anyone drawn to stories about complicated families, and readers seeking an emotional journey that honors grief while still making room for humor, hope, and healing.
🔥 IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT:
✨ Ova’s life in Cambridge, cycling, traveling, cooking, and searching for creative inspiration.
✨ Her ducks, chickens, allergic husband, and desire to give her son a life surrounded by animals.
✨ Creating a private garden library inside a former artist’s studio.
✨ Growing up in Turkey under intense pressure to perform academically, and entering computer science because she excelled at mathematics.
✨ Premature menopause, ovarian removal, and being told she could not have another child.
✨ Grieving the loss of a possibility even when she had not decided whether she wanted another baby.
✨ Feeling dehumanized by clinical conversations about fertility and reproductive health, and why reproductive loss deserves emotional support.
✨ Reclaiming identity after years of making choices for family, culture, and financial stability.
✨ How writing The Book of Heartbreak helped Ova survive a dark period.
✨ The structural similarities between editing fiction and debugging software.
✨ Ova’s advice to remain patient and never compare one publishing journey with another.
✨ Reimagining the Byzantine legend surrounding Istanbul’s Maiden’s Tower, and why the tower represents a piece of the city’s identity that history never erased.
✨ Exploring heartbreak as an enduring wound rather than a purely romantic experience.
✨ Creating a heroine who ultimately saves herself rather than relying on romance.
✨ Bureaucratic angels, an imaginative afterlife, and comparisons to Good Omens.
✨ Reimagining the afterlife as a hopeful space rather than one governed by shame and fear.
✨ Why old heartbreaks can return through memories, music, scents, and unexpected reminders.
✨ Choosing standalones so every book can explore a completely different world.
✨ Ova’s next Ottoman-inspired dark fantasy about a magical library and dangerous books.
✨ How religion, women’s autonomy, history, and identity continue to shape her fiction.
CONNECT WITH US
🎙️ The Mythic Mic Podcast – @MythicMic
👤 Bethany Amanda – @BethanyinFantasyland
👤 Sara Santillan – @the_magical_quill
📚 Ova Ceren – @ExcuseMyReading
✨ If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review. It helps more fantasy readers and aspiring authors find their way to The Mythic Mic.
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