various and sundry are thoughtful tonight....

[lagilman]

Had an interesting reader comment this weekend that got me thinking, about the fact that none of my heroines fall into the now-perceived-as-classic UF model. They don't wear leather pants or have tats or vampiric/psychotic/were boyfriends, they don't kick ass in a fight [Wren did, once, but it took a massive toll on her psyche], and although they have moments of snark, it's not their defining vocal tick.

In fact, Wren's real strength is her ability to be overlooked, and Bonnie's is the way her mind works - her weapons are magic and logic, not swords or guns.

Do I think this makes my heroines any less strong, or any less fascinating/sexy? Seriously, I don't worry about it. They are who they are, making the most use out of the gifts they were given, and learning to grow into that. Personally, I find that strong and sexy as hell. If I lose readers because I'm not using some of the most popular tropes.... y'know, I do worry about that. But not enough to put my heroines in anything that bares the midriff. That's just asking to get your gut sliced open.
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Saw "Gnomeo and Juliet" yesterday. The Kid thought it was "weird" (which I think translates to "it was funny but I didn't understand all of it."). The adults laughed far more than expected, as the writers let themselves be snarky and witty in quick, subtle ways that didn't interfere with the bright colors and silly action of the gnomes themselves. Much of the humor is totally aimed at someone who has had to read/sit through R&J one too many times.
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In other news, the bathroom is painted...well, there's one coat of paint on the walls, the ceiling waiting for He Who Is Taller to lend a hand. I also painted the shelves, and acquired towel racks and a TP holder. Tomorrow there will be final grouting and (hopefully) Installation of Things, Part 1.....
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And for those of you who are only here for the food: my survived-the-weekend treat is slices of caciocavallo (a dry, slightly salty cheese) wrapped around chunks of ripe pear, and a glass of port. Nom.

Comments

[chaoticgoodnik.livejournal.com]

I may be the only one, but I'm kind of tired of the classic UF heroine. I prefer to refer to series that feature that sort of heroine as paranormal romance rather than urban fantasy, but that probably goes against the received wisdom from marketing and others, as well as general usage.

So, kudos to you for doing something different.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I am grateful for your heroines: the feisty kick-ass leather clad gal is done to death. And she's kind of anti-woman: there is the whole context of masculisation as a prerequisite of agency. Plus I am squicked by how many of them have abusive backgrounds: the latter is almost becoming a kind of romance trope and I hate it. It's belittling.

[jslinder.livejournal.com]

Personally, this is one of the reasons that the Retrievers and PUPI books jump to the top of my reading pile when released. They're different and that's a good thing..

[fakefrenchie.livejournal.com]

"slices of caciocavallo (a dry, slightly salty cheese) wrapped around chunks of ripe pear, and a glass of port"

That sounds delicious.

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

I have recommended your novels to people for very similar reasons to the first two comments above. I have not yet met Bonnie, but Wren is not a stereotype and that's why she works so well.

[lagilman]

Wren is decidedly Her Own Person. She was actually originally envisioned as a jeans-and-blazer sort, but the cover artist took offense at that. *rolls eyes*

[lagilman]

Different, I'm good at. Mainly because I get bored too easily, otherwise.

[paulliver.livejournal.com]

It's hard to parse apart what you wrote. I understand and I suppose I agree, but thinking about what you wrote leaves me on strange grounds.

For example, masculisation as a prerequisite of agency probably comes from the assumption of violent villains, and therefore the assumption of violent resolutions, and the assumption of violence as a masculine trait. Somewhere, one of these assumptions would have to be turned on its head while maintaining a dramatic tension equal to violence typical of UF. Which publishers might find strange to not have the threat of death be the driving force of the novel.

The abusive background is probably the answer to the assumed question of why would a woman be so unfeminine as to be violent, which leads to an assumption that women do not have a spectrum of feelings about the use of violence, and a question: if abuse is the cause of violence among women, why isn't it just as likely a cause of violence among men? Isn't the way men are "toughened up" a kind of abuse?

Anyway, these are just my first reactions. It is a puzzling subject, and I tend to stick to women I know as models when writing about women. Fortunately, they fit in nicely with the UF, PR, Horror genres.