Home » Q&A with Kim Imas Author of Beast Mom

Q&A with Kim Imas Author of Beast Mom

August 29, 2023 | By Women Writers Women Books | Reply More

Q&A with Kim Imas

Author of Beast Mom

What if angry Moms didn’t turn into figurative mama bears, but into something that was truly menacing? Like a scary, hairy monster with a mouthful of hyena teeth and a feminist streak? This is the premise of the powerhouse speculative fiction debut from author Kim Imas – Beast Mom. The book tackles the medical establishment’s lack of research and attention to the bodies of people with uteruses, feminine rage and how it’s a feature, not a bug, and parenting topics like equal distribution of labor.

Question: Beast Mom talks a lot about female rage – both overtly and through metaphor – why is this a topic you wanted to tackle?

Kim Imas: I was frustrated and upset throughout most the 2016 election cycle – by the rampant misogyny being hurled at a serious, qualified female candidate and toward women in general. To say I was crushed by the results of that election is a massive understatement. By the time news broke of Harvey Weinstein’s many accusers and the MeToo movement took hold in late 2017 I felt like I was living with a constant baseline of seething anger. Worse, it seemed like all of the women I talked to were similarly pissed-off.

Some of my anger was related to the injustice and inequality related to being a woman in our society, and some was related to being a mom. So, I decided to come up with a story about a mom who’s been putting up with a lot of bullshit for a long time, and when she finally “loses her shit” she transforms into a genuine, bona fide monster. And she—and her community—have to deal with the aftermath of that.

It raised a lot of interesting questions for me. For example: What do we (women) fear will happen if we let our anger rip, publicly? Is our anger ugly? Is it useless? Harmful? What if we end up liking the person/creature we become when we let ourselves truly feel our most intense rage?

Q: Where else did you draw inspiration for Beast Mom?

KI: Other seeds for Beast Mom came from modern life in general. For example, two decades ago, the non-fiction book “Bowling Alone” had a profound effect on me. It’s an enormous tome, and it compiles decades of sociological research into how Americans spend their time. It specifically chronicles the key trend of Americans spending less time together than they did in the years following the second world war, and the many repercussions of that one fact. We don’t have as many dinner parties, for example, and bowling leagues are scarce. Television keeps us company in the absence of robust human connection.

Today, we’re more disconnected than ever, what with so much of our lives being conducted on and through a variety of technological devices and with the lingering realties of COVID-19 preventing some gatherings. Beast Mom wants to point out that this unprecedented level of fracture in our society is one of the reasons why things are so difficult for moms (and others) in this country.

Q: Why was it important to you to celebrate female friendships?

KI: Pop culture is better about this than it used to be, but growing up I too often found the interactions of girls and women in popular entertainment to be nothing like what I experienced in real life. When there were two or more female characters—which wasn’t always the case—they tended to be written as competitive, and seemed one-dimensional and stereotypical.

Beast Mom doesn’t shy away from talking about conflicts that occur between women friends and associates, but it takes pains to demonstrate the many ways we have each other’s backs and how much we enjoy (and benefit from!!!) our time together.

The patriarchy is a depressing topic, and can seem abstract at times. But when you have two or more funny, irrepressible women taking it on—together—in a series of over-the-top adventures, it’s a lot more fun to pick apart.

Q: You’re very frank about the physical realities of the bodies of people with uteruses, was this intentional?

KI: Yes. Discussing the physicality of menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, the post-partum period and other biological processes still carries a stigma. These social norms that keep us from being frank about medical realities have some harmful effects: newly pregnant people are too often shocked at what happens to their bodies. The surprises just keep on coming through and after childbirth. Widespread ignorance on these issues enables the efforts of those who try to legislate the bodies of people with uteruses.

Q: What do you hope readers take away from Beast Mom?

KI: I hope readers feel like Harry—the protagonist—is someone they’d really like to be friends with. I really hope readers enjoy this book on multiple levels, beyond the story itself. The process of crafting sentences and paragraphs is enjoyable to me and I take great pride in my “smooth prose and witty dialogue” (which is how Publishers Weekly described my first book, a romance under a pen name).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kim Imas received degrees in engineering and urban planning before deciding to pursue a career as a writer. Her pieces appeared in the likes of Boston Magazine and The Boston Globe Magazine before she transitioned to long form fiction. Her first novel, a romance, was initially published under a pen name and earned praise from Publishers Weekly for its “smooth prose and witty dialogue.” A former Oregonian, she now lives with her family outside New York and tries to accomplish in her writing what Dolly Parton does in the song “9 to 5”: deliver stories of women’s struggles in a way that’s too damn delightful to ignore.