In Honor of International Women's Day: Strong Heroines

It's a great day to talk about strong heroines in fiction.

It's especially pertinent as I watched this great video yesterday about the Damsel in Distress trope in video games (thanks to punkerplus on the r/GirlGamers subreddit for sharing).

This video reinforced for me why it's so important that I'm doing what I'm doing. It's easy to think, "Well, I suppose there are enough strong heroines out there, I don't really need to add to the pantheon." But the truth is, there's a huge empty space waiting to be filled by a vibrant cast of multi-layered, determined, interesting and flawed female characters. The more women we add to our fictional lexicon, the more role models new generations will have to choose from. Sure, writers like me may not necessarily create someone meant to be a shining emblem of modern feminist virtue; but simply adding to the variety of options has a huge impact.

Here, in anticipation of Kiellen's upcoming induction to the small but growing crowd, are some of the invented women who have inspired me.

Terminator 2's Sarah Connor

My love of Sarah Connor is no secret (I did, after all, dress up as her for Halloween one year and create a site detailing how to follow my lead).

Tamora Pierce Coming To Northern Maryland

Stop the presses! This is one of the best birthday presents ever! I just looked on the events calendar for my local library (a great way to find book groups and writer's critique groups, by the way) and what did I see but Author Visit: Tamora Pierce in big, bold letters.

For those of you who don't know, Tamora Pierce is an author of fantasy books for children, teenagers, and adults like me who aren't sure about the whole 'growing up' thing. Her books include the Song of the Lioness quartet (starting with Alanna: The First Adventure), Trickster's Choice, the Immortals (starting with Wild Magic), and many, many others. Her words have been a constant companion for me through the years, and I'd just like to thank her for being one of the inspirations for my current quest to become a published author.

If you're interested in seeing Tamora, here's a list of her upcoming appearances.