My Favorite Fictional Heroines
I’m a
female reader and author with broad taste in fiction. I grew up reading
mysteries because that was what my Dad read, so we had plenty of them around. I
cut my teeth on Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, and Rex Stout. In my early teens
I discovered fantasy and science fiction when a friend lent me a stack of books
by Heinlein, Poul Anderson, Arthur C. Clarke, Andre Norton, and James Tiptree.
I tore through them, bowled over by all the new worlds opening up to me on
those pages. (And just as an aside, it wasn’t until years later that I
discovered the last two were both female authors writing under male names.)
In my later
teens I began reading gothic romances and enjoyed the combination of
interesting relationships and eerie suspense. Somewhere in there I picked up a
couple of books by Mary Stewart and landed in the thrilling territory of
romantic suspense. By my twenties I was dipping into a lot of genres but
beginning to get more discriminating in my taste.
One of the
things I found I wanted, even craved, in my stories was a strong, capable
heroine. In too many of the mysteries or gothic romances I read, the heroine
was a wilting flower, wimpy and far too dependent on the hero to rescue her
from all her troubles. Those books always annoyed me. I wanted smart, capable,
strong heroines who might share danger with a man but didn’t depend on him. I
liked heroines who could make their own decisions, didn’t do stupid things, and
didn’t rely on others to get them out of trouble.
Heroines
that could be strong, smart, competent, capable, and still likeable aren’t as
common as I would like, although the trend is going my way in this. With that
in mind, I picked out a few of my favorite fictional heroines to talk about.
Most are from ongoing series, just because I’ve had more exposure to them as a
result. They’re very different characters but all fit my criteria and I always
enjoy reading about them.
Kinsey Milhone – The
private detective lead in Sue Grafton’s Alphabet mystery series that started
with A is for Alibi. She’s smart and
tough in many ways and has faced some of the deepest darkness in people, but
she hasn’t let it destroy her humanity. Her independence is hard-won but the
struggle has given her tremendous insight. There are other female detectives
who also fit the profile but Kinsey is the one I relate to most closely. I
loved her from the moment she mentioned that she cut her own hair with nail
scissors.
Sookie Stackhouse – The
heroine of Charlaine Harris’s Southern Vampire Mysteries. Some people are more
familiar with the stories in their television incarnation as “True Blood,” but
I like the books better. Sookie has fae blood but her human side dominates for
the most part. Growing up with the ability to hear other peoples’ thoughts has
caused her to be a bit withdrawn and nervous, but she is drawn into the world
of vampires and shapeshifters when she discovers she can’t hear them, making
them easier for her to deal with. Though the supernatural politics are rough
and tumble, her abilities make her a very capable detective, able to maneuver
in both worlds.
Kate Daniels – The protagonist
of Ilona Andrews’ Magic series, Kate is a mercenary with a bad-ass attitude and
some super-human powers. Independent, strong, and mouthy, she is willing to
work with her lover Curran and his pack of shifters, but she still goes her own
way and makes her own decisions, particularly when it comes to her complicated
family entanglements.
Eowyn – One of the few
female characters in The Lord of the
Rings, Eowyn is one of the strongest and most honorable in its cast. The
niece of the king has been frustrated watching her uncle waste away, unable to
do anything about it. And when the troops muster for battle, she’s there, even
though she has to disguise herself in armor to go along. Not really a spoiler:
she acquits herself well in battle, winning an important victory.
Diana Prince (Wonder Woman) – So maybe this one is too easy because she is a goddess
and superhero, and my choice is certainly influenced by the recent, wonderful
movie. She’s almost the archetype of the strong, capable heroine. If you
haven’t seen the movie, give yourself a treat and go. The scene where Diana
walks across a no-man’s land (love the very deliberate irony of that!),
deflecting bullets, is absolutely stunning.
Heather McNeill – You’ve
probably never heard of her, but I hope you will eventually. Heather is the
heroine/amateur detective in my ongoing series of Market Center Mysteries.
She’s the assistant to the director of the market center and the person who
handles complaints from and disagreements among the exhibitors and attendees at
the events held there. I introduced her in A
Gift for Murder, which was first published by Five Star/Cengage before they
cut their mystery line, picked up by Harlequin’s Worldwide Mystery line for
mass market paperback, and finally also released as an ebook. Her adventures
continued in Wired for Murder, which
I initially self-published, but which will also be published in paperback by
Harlequin. And I’m now in the midst of writing the third book.
Most
of the time, Heather McNeil loves her job as assistant to the director of the
Washington DC Market Show Center. Because she’s a good listener and even better
at solving problems, her boss assigns her to handle a lot of the day to day
issues that arise during the shows, exhibits, and conferences being held there.
When Heather becomes an unwilling audience to murder during the Business
Technology Expo and later finds the body, she’s willing to let the police take
care of it. But she soon learns more than she wanted to know about the victim
and all the people who really didn’t like him very much.
Buy Links
1 comment:
Thank you for inviting me and letting me talk about my favorite heroines.
Post a Comment