How Many Women Characters Are in Your Book?

March is Women’s History Month, though I actually don’t like these types of events.  They exist because history and even present doesn’t always recognize people outside of a select group.  I remember one time, when I was in the military I was talking to one of of the NCOs.  He was African-American, and he lamented that it would be a long time before he saw an African-American President of the United States.  I told him that it would happen before a woman became President.

You know how that came out.

To look at the high levels of politics and management, and even to look at books, it doesn’t look like there’s many women out there.  I find far too many books where there’s only one woman character.  Even a book with 100 characters, and 99 are men.  How exactly is this reality?  It’s like history months.  We’ll recognize one to sell the books, and everything else will be status quo.  And by the way, we’ll put in skintight leather, too, because the men are the important readers, not the women.

Okay, that may not be accurate, but that’s the impression I keep getting.  And it’s made worse when the lone woman character tends toward masculine and immature.

I want my women characters to be smart.

I want my women characters to be savvy.

I want my women characters to be mature within range of their age.

I want my women characters not to be sex objects.

And especially, I want there to be more than one woman character in the book.

Is that too much to ask?

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My short story “A Soldier’s Magic” appears in the anthology The Darkness Within, available from Indigo Mosaic Publishing.  It features two women soldiers who have to make a tough decision to save a lot of people.  There are three women in the story.

 

Guest Post: The Lone Woman, or Gender Imbalance in the Action-Adventure Genre

Today, I have a guest post from Rabia Gale, who is also one of my WANA buddies.  She’s done a lot of posts on how women are depicted in fantasy novels on her blog and has a novella out called Rainbird.  Here’s her bio:

Rabia Gale breaks fairy tales and fuses fantasy and science fiction. She loves to write about flawed heroes who never give up, transformation and redemption, and things from outer space. She grew up in Karachi, Pakistan and now lives in Northern Virginia. Check out her fantasy novella, Rainbird , or visit her online at
http://www.rabiagale.com

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A few months ago, while watching an episode of Warehouse 13, something about the show began to bug me. It wasn’t until a scene with most of the characters on-screen that I realized what had set my story senses tingling.

There were too many women in the cast. Two female field agents, one female geek, one female psychic. Add the formidable Mrs. Frederic to the women’s side, and the two men were outnumbered.

Warehouse 12 did something right, for it exposed how I’m conditioned to expect far fewer women than men in my action-adventure. If the gender imbalance had gone the other way—as is often the case—I wouldn’t have been bothered at all.

I grew up in the 80s, so I’m no stranger to the Token Woman phenomenon in many of the cartoon shows I watched. From Cheetara in ThunderCats (no, I’m not counting the prepubescent Wily Kit) to the princess (what was her name again?) in Voltron (the planet version) to Arcee in Transformers: The Movie, these characters were mostly sidekicks and/or love interests. For young girls like me, desperate to find a character to identify with, they were often the only way to live vicariously in the worlds and adventures that captivated us.

As I grew older, female characters went from supporting characters to protagonists. However, the lone woman trope still persisted. It had morphed into the Special Snowflake Woman. She was the one female who dared to do a man’s job, usually by becoming a warrior or ruling the kingdom in her own name. This Special Snowflake Woman was different from ordinary women—often because she hated embroidery, dancing, or the vapid chatter of her female companions—and inducted into the company of men. Males were her teachers, friends, and companions.

What this trope did was  to set our heroines—and by extension the female reader—apart from other women. This trope—especially in fantasy—denigrates the majority of women, painting them as weak, stupid, and boring. It reinforces a male ideal of strength, and ignores the complexities of female relationships.

When we write so few women into our stories, we miss out on the opportunities for the tough, middle-aged female veterans to mentor young, starry-eyed swordswomen, for a queen and her daughter to argue over policy, for the tomboy to befriend and value the dainty girl who loves to embroider. We miss the opportunity to take a group of very different women and send them to pull off a heist, tramp through the wilderness, defend the village, or outwit the Dark Lady (*grin*).

You know, just like the men do.

 

Readers are not stupid! A book review without honesty is pretty much meaningless

First up, I get to share some news with you. My short story, “Six Bullets” was recently released in the anthology A Princess, A Boatman, and a Lizard.  My story is about a princess who enlists in the military and then must make a deadly trip on a river to save the kingdom — with only six bullets and an army after her.

Since I have a Nook, here’s the link to Barnes and Noble for the book.  Ebook only right now, but a paperback version will be coming out probably later this month.

Onto the the topic of the post …

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This seal of approval is better than the gold kind!

Let’s start this by saying that I do give 1-star reviews if I don’t like a book.   I also give 5-star reviews, but a book has to be really, really, really good to get the Linda seal of approval.  I’m spending money on the book so I’m thinking about the value I got.  I also have the right to express my opinion about something I liked or didn’t.  And, yeah, I know there are people are there who are probably horrified, because there are those who fear even a single 1-star review, as if it puts a knife through the sales.

But it’s a part of the experience of books and doesn’t automatically doom a book to failure as Kelly Medling notes:

Bad reviews don’t necessarily mean they’ll negatively affect sales. I’ve seen readers say they like reading 1 and 2 star reviews, because it gives them a more balanced opinion to go along with the 4 and 5 star reviews. It’s impossible for all readers to love one book. No single book is so amazing that it actually has nothing but 5 star reviews, and if it does, I’ll probably skip reading it.

That describes how I use reviews.  I know the 5-star ones are going to say the book is good, but the lower reviews give me different perspectives.  The differing opinions make them valuable:

Yet book reviews are not science; they are, by definition, a matter of opinion. They can be negative or positive or somewhere in the middle, but the thing that makes them right—the thing that makes them valuable—is honesty, conveying a point of view deeply felt by the reader.

I had to do a review for an indie anthology, which turned out to be not ready for publication.  When I posted my review, I discovered it had all 5-stars of glowing praise.  Did it make me change my opinion or wonder if I was wrong?  No!  It made me wonder if anyone had actually read the book.  That’s not a type of review anyone wants associated with their book.   Remember the paid book reviews scandal?

But let’s get onto the big question:

Do negative or middle of the road reviews influence whether I buy the book?

With non-fiction,  I do look at the reviews to see if the book’s going to work for me or not.   I was thinking of buying a cookbook for 2 that cost $40.  Reviews identified it as “Cooking for two with lots of leftovers.”  It was a 4-6 serving book.  I was glad for those reviews because they kept me from wasting money on a misrepresented book.

Do you know how hard it was to find an image of bad cooking?

Then another cookbook popped up on my radar.  Reviewers commented that recipes in the book were too simple and not challenging.  Ah ha!  That was what I was looking for.  I don’t like to cook, and I’m not very good at it.  I have trouble hard-boiling eggs, so simple works.  Ka-ching!

A layman’s book on physics looked somewhat interesting, at least enough for me to read the reviews.  A 1-star review pointed out it was more suitable as a science journal article.  That review established it wasn’t for me, but I knew someone who would probably enjoy it, so I passed the title and the link along.

With fiction, if I chose not to purchase another novel by a particular author, it has nothing to do with the reviews.  It has everything to do with the promises they broke in the book that I just read.  Fiction is very subjective, and I’ve enjoyed plenty of books that lots of people hated (Da Vinci Code anyone?).

By the way, 50 Shades of Gray has over 3,600 one-star reviews.  Just putting things into perspective.

How do you use reviews in the purchase of books?

 

Books are better than chocolate. Maybe.

There’s a great scene in Tamora Pierce’s Page.  The story is about Kel, who is attending school to become the first female knight.  She declares war on other pages who bully students under the guise of “hazing” — and it’s kept the pages away from the library.  But after Kel and another page, Owen, survive a fight with the bully, the other pages realize: why not study in the library?  They head out as a group, with Owen happily chanting, “Books!  Books!”

Mmmm.  Books.

Definitely better than chocolate.

I go to the bookstore probably more than I should, and that’s in addition to what I get online.  I went into withdrawal when Border’s closed down and still wistfully stare at the building where an Ashley’s Furniture is now and wish for more places for books.

The one thing I really like about a bookstore is simply being able to walk through and scan the shelves for a book that catches my eye.  I’ve been known to sit on the floor to get at those delectable chocolates books on the bottom shelf. When Borders was still around, they had a new paperback table that was always my first stop.  The books were face up on the table, so I could see the covers and the titles.

* Whimper * No more Borders.

But I have my own frustrations with the bookstores, too.  Barnes and Noble is it, and they just throw thriller into the general fiction section.  But it depends on the thriller because if it has a crime, it’s probably in the mystery section.  And that isn’t helped by publishers who recategorize books in different genres because the genres are popular, not because the book actually fits.  Like the publisher who labeled a book as a thriller for someone like moi to pick — and discover that it was actually a romance novel!

I felt like I needed to get the cross and garlic.  I do not care for romance.  If I did, I could easily find the section in the bookstore.  I don’t need publishers to try to sneak it past me.  Puh-lease!  Respect the reader with the money!

This time, I picked up manga, because Mary Sue recommended some feminist books.  Yeah, yeah, feminist is kind of a dirty word, but in this case, it refers to books that present women as great characters and avoid sexism.   I picked up Sailor Moon, though I’ll admit it’s been a challenge reading it.  Manga is done from right to left, so I had to start at the BACK of the book, on the last page, with the upper right hand corner.  Grrr!  I keep catching myself flipping left to right!

What new books are you trying to for the fall?  Anything that’s not what you would normally read?  Tell!  Tell!

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My story “A Soldier’s Magic” has been accepted by Mosaic Indigo Publishing for their anthology The Darkness Within.  It’s a contemporary fantasy set after Desert Storm.  Two female soldiers have to make the difficult decision to kill a friend to keep a parasite from infecting the military world-wide.  The anthology is due out in September, so I will post more information when it is available.

Also, check out my article “Critiquing for Omniscient Viewpoint” published in Vision: A Resource for Writers.  The reason I did this article was because I’ve found hard to get anything in omniscient viewpoint critiqued.

 

The Secret Journey of a Book

Books can sometimes go on adventures themselves.  When I was in Desert Storm, strangers back in the U.S. sent us paperbacks that could be carried anywhere, so the books traveled to foreign locations, and even witnessed war.  One came back with me, and I still have it.

And sometimes there’s something special in the book that makes it stand out on its journey.  Perhaps it’s something the last reader left inside.  I’ve found receipts, theater tickets, checks, notes, and cards.  But my most interesting book took a journey and came back, curiously, to the right person.

My uncle, Ernie Rydberg, was a writer, along with his wife Louisa Hampton Rydberg (my grandmother’s sister).  During the 1940s and 1950s, he wrote short stories and children’s books.  Then, they were called children’s fiction, but would probably range range from middle grade to young adult.  Ernie tried to make a living at it, writing over 400 shorts and reprinting them.  A writer could do that then because so many short story magazines were available.

I always remember seeing copies of the books at my grandparents house, copies from the author.   Lou, as we knew my aunt, was less prolific, primarily focusing on short stories and working with the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

Lou died first, and Ernie died in 1990.  With the internet, Ernie’s publications became available to me, so I started looked for them.  I bought some short stories in both magazines and anthologies — not sure we would ever have an accurate list of what he wrote — and his books.  Then I ran across a bookseller who had a book I’d never seen and described an inscription from Ernie.  No big deal.  I’d run into autographed books before, and had one to me.

But this one was different.  Ernie had signed to Wade and Maye Hampton.  My great-grandparents.  Wade had died in the mid-60s, and Maye in the early 70s– both in California.  The book ended up on the East Coast, with a sticky glued over the name part of the inscription.  The only thing I can imagine how it got there was that when Maye died, all her belongings were given away, including this book.  It probably looked unimportant and not a family heirloom.  Someone bought it and perhaps moved to the East Coast.  Or perhaps they gave it away and someone else bought it, and maybe it traveled.  And eventually it came right back to a family member because I bought it right away!

Things that Happen to Books

Twice a year, we have a book sale at the library.  I usually go through my personal library and donate books I don’t want to keep.  Any books that are damaged end up on the free shelf.  I was surprised to see a recent best seller I’d contributed end up on that shelf.  It was because the joint at the spine was slightly frayed, probably because I’d put it in my my bag while I was reading it.

On the New York Times, Reading Life discusses What We Do to Books:

Other than that mark the book should be in near-mint condition when I start reading it, but I am not obsessive about keeping it that way. On the contrary, I like the way it gradually and subtly shows signs of wear and tear, of having been lived in (by me), like a pair of favorite jeans.

I usually have books that come in different stages of wear.

No wear at all.  Which means either I haven’t read the book, or I’ve read it once.  These are books I usually look at to donate because they aren’t re-readers.

There’s the accidental wear, which is like the above book.  The cover gets a bit frayed, or maybe it gets bent.  The latter always horrifies me.   I pull it out of my bag, and the cover is folded, and I didn’t mean to do that.

Books to be written in.  There are some books that I do write it.  I don’t do that to novels mind you, and definitely not library books — I find it terribly annoying to find that someone has corrected the punctuation or commented on the author’s writing.  But in my personal copies of non-fiction, writing in a book helps me to learn better.  In fact, I wish I’d known that while I was in school.  I would have done that to the textbooks as well.

And then there’s the old friends.  These are the books that are so good that I read them over and over.  They get wet, the covers get frayed and worn, the covers start to tear, or come off entirely.  There’s a couple I have to pay attention to because I can’t get the book any more if

What this happen to books when you read them?

 

Do you skip pages when you read?

Some people read every single word of a book, even if they don’t like it.  Me?  I’m a page-skipper.  If the story starts to become uninteresting for me, I skip ahead to the place where it becomes interesting again.  The culprit is nearly always a subplot that isn’t woven well into the book, or one that doesn’t fit the type of book.   It does usually mean though that the main storyline is interesting enough to keep me reading and it’s a misfire on the subplot.

 

Omniscient Point of View–The Golden Compass

Dropping in with a look at another book that’s done in omniscient point of view (OPOV), The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman.   This is a story about a destiny for the main character that lies in her ignorance of her role, and is one of a series.   If you search for interviews with the author, he often discusses using OPOV for the story like in this interview from the Guardian.

‘I’d never written in that tone before. It was sombre, it was cold, and there was a sense of spaciousness. I much prefer to be the omniscient narrator, which is part of the old fairytale tradition and the 19th-century novel tradition: the thing Modernism got away from. Suddenly I had enormous freedom. I didn’t expect that. You see, I’m not a fantasy fan. I’m uneasy to think I write fantasy.’

He notes also that he found his voice with OPOV.  In the story with Lyra, the OPOV is wonderful and magical–it brings a comforting sense of the story that could not be done in third point of view.  I particularly like the way the narrator handles the descriptions of the people and places–they’re vivid and distinctive and include details that we probably wouldn’t see if it came from another point of view.  Other points of view are limited to what the viewpoint character knows, but in OPOV, the narrator doesn’t have this limitation (both a plus and a minus).

I’ve also run across comments from other writers stating that Pullman does a lot of telling.  This particular comment turns up a lot for OPOV writers because the narrator is telling us the story.  Despite the “show vs. tell” guideline, there isn’t anything wrong with this–it’s a merely a different techique and approach in writing a story.

 

Omniscient POV–Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

The best way to learn about omniscient POV (OPOV) is to read the many different books that use the viewpoint and observe how authors use it.   One of the things OPOV can do is use distance to keep from overwhelming the reader.  In Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, by Patrick Suskind,  a man is born with an exceptional sense of smell.  In his quest to create the perfect perfume, he turns into a serial killer, thinking of people as objects.

Frankly, the book is not for the faint-hearted.  To me, it was like witnessing a car accident–you want to look away, but you can’t do it.  The main character doesn’t relate to the rest of the world in the way we all do, and he doesn’t have any boundaries.  This would be an impossible read in third person–getting inside the head of a person like this would be too intimate, too disturbing.  This is where OPOV shines.  The OPOV narrator follows the murderer for most of the story and keeps its distance, barely.  It makes the book horrifying, shocking, and readable.

 

Library Book Sale Spoils

Twice a year, our local library holds a book sale.  Quite a large one–for weeks before, I could see the area over the parking lot looking like it was about to bust.  Lots and lots of books.  I usually troll the sale for reference books, since it’s easy to check out the novels at the library.  The spoils:

• Descriptionary, A Theamatic Dictionary.  It takes a topic like firefighting and defines some of the common buzzwords. 
• Illustrated Reverse Dictionary: Find the Words on the Tip of Your Tongue.  This is a dictionary that helps you if you can’t remember a word.
• National Geographic Traveler San Diego.  Full color, lots of photos!  Even a spiffy section called “Tide-pooling” with a pretty good description of a tide -pool’s features.  That’ll be useful for SAND DOLLAR MAGIC.
• Compass American Guides: Santa Fe .  I like this series because it’s not just a tour guide but gives a lot of information about the place. 
• Underwater Wonders of the National Parks.  It’s a tour book for divers, with awesome color photos.
• The Ultimate Kaua’i Guidebook, Third Edition.   It’s Hawai’i.  Need I say more?