The Marrying Kind?

By: Michele De Winton

www.micheledewinton.com

Happy Ever After is as essential in a romance novel as conflict and sexual tension, but there’s a whole bunch of ways it can manifest. I’ve read a bunch of titles recently where everything has been going along swimmingly, hero falling in love, heroine planning out lives of togetherness with great career and financial independence assured and then, seemingly out of nowhere, the hero gets down on bended knee and pops the question. My question is, did he need to?

I like my heroines strong and sassy. Give them a sharp wit and the vocab to go with it and I’m a happy writer. So I’ve pondered whether I need to have them sign up to marriage at all sometimes?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a Mrs. myself and while our wedding was less traditional than…well, anything either set of in-laws would have liked, it was still a wedding. And I love being married. Love the certainty, the definition of togetherness, the shared experience. But reading those novels made me wonder if it’s as necessary in romance-land as it often seems to be. If the heroine has always wanted to get married. Has a scrapbook full of pictures of her ideal dress and has been planning it since she was eight‒sure. But if she’s never really thought about it and was simply looking for a Mr. Right to share her life with, does she need to get married? My beef with the books on my recently read pile, was not that the question was popped, more that the timing seemed off. That everything was heading for Happy Ever After anyways and the addition of bended knee felt a little like the author thought they had to. So, I’ll ask it again, does the hero need to?

I have a biker series where I just couldn’t see my heroine walking any sort of isle except one in a supermarket, and yet I have another series where the white dress was a non-negotiable part of the heroines Happy Ever Afters. My surf series is more about bikinis than dresses and the women support each other through thick and thin – there are happy ever afters, there is romance, there is passion and sex and hope and love, but marriage doesn’t necessarily follow in every romance. I figure that’s fine. Life is full of all sorts, I’m hoping my books will be too. But I’m keen to hear what you think? On bended knee or just a life with thee? Does your hero do de-facto?

Thanks for having me!

X Michele

Michele is a novelist based in New Zealand who loves sunshine, chardonnay, (preferably together), chocolate, beaches, trees, great vegetarian food, steamy writing and happy endings. She’s been known to be an all-round arty type, dancing and producing theatre around the globe so it's no wonder that her first romance had a little sparkle of the stage tucked into its pages.  Being a writer was not was she was supposed to be when she ‘grew up' but then neither was being a dancer. Her poor parents. They thought that when she toddled off to law school, they'd bred a responsible, useful adult and instead they got a performer and word junkie. Sometimes her performing past jumps into the dress up box and requires attention. But most of the time she’s content to stay in her PJs. All day. She writes surrounded by the whisper of trees from her home in New Zealand and with only intermittent interruptions from her two young sons and husband. (Okay more like regular interruptions, but dreaming is free.)

 She likes her heroines smart and sassy. Girls can do anything right? But the heroes have to be a match as well, so you can count on men who know just how to make a woman melt. And she always kisses and tells. To find sassy women who catch the eye of a bevy of Billionaires, and other work ranging from Motorcycle Gangs to Surf goddesses and Dream Destination Romantic Comedy, follow Michele on

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Elizabeth Peratrovich. A Strong Woman by Lynn Lovegreen

 Alaska has its share of strong women. One of the strongest is an historical icon here: Elizabeth Peratrovich.

 

Elizabeth Peratrovich (Ḵaax̱gal.aat) was of the indigenous Tlingit Lukaax.ádi clan, and the grand president of the Alaska Native Sisterhood. When the territory’s Anti-Discrimination Bill was introduced in 1945, some expressed concerns that the measure would aggravate racial tensions. Peratrovich famously approached the legislature and responded, “I would not have expected that I, who am barely out of savagery, would have to remind the gentlemen with 5,000 years of recorded civilization behind them of our Bill of Rights.” The bill was passed shortly after her speech.

 

Every February 16, Alaskans celebrate Elizabeth Peratrovich Day to honor her memory and remind us of her civil rights work. May we all use her example to be strong women in our own lives, and make the world a better place.

My friend Annie Boochever wrote Fighter In Velvet Gloves: Alaska’s Civil Rights Hero Elizabeth Peratrovich with Elizabeth’s son Roy Peratrovich Jr. Together they tell the story of Elizabeth Peratrovich and the Anti-Discrimination law of 1945. It’s a great book for young teens and adults alike.

 

Lynn Lovegreen has lived in Alaska for most of her life. After twenty years in the classroom, she retired to make more time for writing. She enjoys her friends and family, reading, and volunteering for her local library. Her young adult historical romance is set in Alaska, a great place for drama, romance, and independent characters. See her website at www.lynnlovegreen.com. 

Strong Women in my Life (real and fictional) by Paty Jager

 

Me and Jan

As a writer, I enjoy writing strong women. I feel it has taken us much too long to be seen as an equal to men, when in fact, if you scan history, it has been the woman who helped "man" get as far as he has. 

If not for the mothers and wives, men would not be able to procreate or have someone to tend to the people they make, or make their clothes, or feed them foods that are more than a seared piece of meat. 

And while I am happy to see so many more women in political places and businesses, I also feel the women who are down in the trenches, raising children and keeping the rural areas and communities thriving are just as important. 

I tip my hat to both of my daughters. One has homeschooled all her children while also building houses and raising cattle, hogs, chickens, and hay and doing most of this while her Coast Guard husband was away. The other daughter homeschooled one of her children for many years while they were remodeling houses and her husband was going up the ranks of law enforcement. They are both strong, able-bodied women who can take care of themselves and their families. 

My mom

My mom, who passed over thirty years ago was mentally strong. She had to be to survive in the rural area where my father hauled her, their two kids(at the time), and her in-laws in 1960. She left sunny California for the long cold winters in NE Oregon. As a kid you don't know any different, but when I was older my mom said on one of my birthday's they couldn't afford to buy me anything, so she took one of her nightgowns and cut it down to make me a nightgown. She said she cried giving it to me because she felt so bad. But it was all they could afford. She said I just hugged it and thought it was wonderful. I don't remember the event, so it didn't traumatize me. ;) She was a registered nurse and worked nights at the local hospital while my dad worked the land and looked for work for himself. Mom never bought herself anything. My dad bought her new underwear and clothes. She only spent money on the household, my brothers and me, and nurse uniforms.

There are so many strong women I know. I can't name them all. Some are women I've met through my kids going to school with their children. Others are women I've met through 4-H and writing. I feel like we have all come a long way and can still rise up and make this country and this world a better place if the men would get out of the way. 

Some of the strong women characters I enjoy writing are: 

Doctor Isabella Mumphrey in the Isabella Mumphrey Adventure series. She is a highly intelligent anthropologist who gets caught up in artifact thefts and drugs in the first book Secrets of a Mayan Moon. Her upbringing wasn't normal in any sense. She was a genius child who was sent to boarding schools her whole life with little contact with her parents. She turned out to be socially awkward but is trying to fit in and learn all she can to be "normal" as an adult. When she is faced with ordeals in the jungle, she uses her wit to stay alive.

Another strong woman character is Shandra Higheagle of the Shandra Higheagle Mystery series. She is a Native American potter who begins to discover her roots when her grandmother dies. This deceased grandmother comes to her in dreams, helping Shandra and a detective solve murders. Shandra is strong in spirit and overcoming a harsh childhood at the hands of a stepfather who wasn't Native American.  

And the latest character I'm writing is Dela Alvaro. She is the main character in the Spotted Pony Casino Mystery series. She is a disabled veteran who has returned to the reservation where she grew up and is the head of security for the Native run casino. She is strong from being in the Army for seventeen years, having grown up on the reservation as a white girl in a Native environment, and not having a father or family to turn to other than her mom. She is becoming one of my favorite strong woman characters. 

I have many romance books with strong heroines. I can't write anything but a strong woman character. Growing up with brothers, I always felt that I could do as well or better than them and had to prove it. It's the same with my writing. I feel that strong female characters make better books. You can find all of my books at my website: https://www.patyjager.net

Who is the strongest woman in your life? Do you like strong women characters in books? What is the most recent book you read with a strong woman character?

Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 53 novels, 8 novellas, and numerous anthologies of murder mystery and western romance. All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. Paty and her husband raise alfalfa hay in rural eastern Oregon. Riding horses and battling rattlesnakes, she not only writes the western lifestyle, she lives it.

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Images for March by Lynn Lovegreen

 Welcome to March!

It’s a month for strong women, in literature and in real life. 

We can help our girls fight for their dreams.

And grow into strong women—as strong as some of us drink our coffee

Whether it’s fall or spring where you live, March is a good month for growth and change.

Go for it! Find your inspiration!

What are you planning to do in March?

 

Thanks to Pam Cowan for her help with the images.

Re-Defining Strong Women

 By Robin Weaver

My crocodile brain had an issue with this month’s theme—strong women.  In an unbiased, diversity-accepting world, wouldn’t the theme be “Strong People?” Since we don’t inhabit that unbiased, diversity-accepting world, we unfortunately must promote the idea that women are strong.

The dictionary defines strong first as physical strength, but the second definition is: the capacity of an object to withstand great force or pressure. By that definition, women are the strongest creatures in the universe. I mean we have babies, for Goddess’s sake. Even the most fit he-man would crack with the first contraction.  This isn’t my opinion, it’s fact. How do I know? Because I cracked with the first contraction.

“Give me something for this pain!” I screamed.

In that moment, I grew even stronger because had I not been restrained (to be fair, I was only restrained by my
inability to get out of the fetal position), I would have crushed the windpipe of the man responsible for the black hole tearing my pelvis apart.

My point is, I was strong, not because I’m a woman, but because I had to be. That doesn’t give me a warm-fuzzy. But neither does it mean I’m not strong. IMO, it means we need to re-define the definition of strong.

Instead of withstanding that great force, maybe we need to become the force. Become a force for acceptance. Become a force that is intolerant only of bad behavior.

We celebrate Maggie Thatcher, Rosa Parks, and Jessie Diggins. (Note: for those of you without internet or who had no interest in the recent Olympics, Jessie Diggins and her teammate won the first ever U.S. gold medal in cross-country skiing.  If you’ve tried cross-country skiing, you know it ranks only a few places behind childbirth in physical torture.) It’s easy to celebrate the Maggies and the Rosas, i.e. women with newsworthy accomplishments, but perhaps it’s time we gave a shout-out to women, uh…I mean people with less glamorous strength. The hospice volunteers; the working mom who stays up late to bake cookies even though she has an important meeting the next morning; the woman who buys new shoes to help stimulate the economy (okay, maybe we’ll scratch this one); and, the friend who patiently listens to you complain, without judgment, even when you’re full of caca.

Perhaps the greatest definition of strength is being able to say, “Hey, I’m wrong.” Not only say it, but fix the wrong.

But, hey. I could be wrong about that.

May the force be with you.

Redefining Strong Women

By Robin Weaver

My crocodile brain had an issue with this month’s theme—strong women.  In an unbiased, diversity-accepting world, wouldn’t the theme be “Strong People?” Since we don’t inhabit that unbiased, diversity-accepting world, we unfortunately must promote the idea that women are strong.

The dictionary defines strong first as physical strength, but the second definition is: the capacity of an object to withstand great force or pressure. By that definition, women are the strongest creatures in the universe. I mean we have babies, for Goddess's sake. Even the most fit he-man would crack with the first contraction. This isn’t my opinion, it’s fact. How do I know? Because I cracked with the first contraction.

“Give me something for this pain!” I screamed.

In that moment, I grew even stronger because had I not been restrained (to be fair, I was only restrained by my inability to get out of the fetal position), I would have crushed the windpipe of the man responsible for creating the black hole currently tearing my pelvis apart.

My point is, I was strong, not because I’m a woman, but because I had to be. That doesn’t give me a warm-fuzzy. But neither does it mean I’m not strong. IMO, it means we need to re-define the definition of strong.

Instead of withstanding that great force, we need to become the force. Become a force for acceptance. Become a force that is intolerant only of bad behavior.

We celebrate Maggie Thatcher, Rosa Parks, and Jessie Diggins. (Note: for those of you without internet or who had no interest in the recent Olympics, Jessie Diggins and her teammate won the first ever U.S. gold medal in cross-country skiing. If you’ve tried cross-country skiing, you know it ranks only a few places behind childbirth in physical torture.) It’s easy to celebrate the Maggies and the Rosas, i.e. women with newsworthy accomplishments, but perhaps it’s time we gave a shout-out to women, uh...I mean people with less glamorous strength. The hospice volunteers; the working mom who stays up late to bake cookies even though she has an important meeting the next morning; the woman who buys new shoes to help stimulate the economy (okay, maybe we’ll scratch this one); and, the friend who patiently listens to you complain, without judgment, even when you’re full of caca.

Perhaps the greatest definition of strength is being able to say, “Hey, I’m wrong.” Not only say it, but fix the wrong.

But, hey. I could be wrong about that.

May the force be with you.

Remembering My Mother—Strong, Stubborn, Smart

We had a creepy basement. Our oil furnace alternately growled like a bear and clanked like Scrooge dragging his chains. The coal bin the furnace replaced seemed equally forbidding—ready to swallow you up or hide monsters in its inky recesses. What looked like hair from buried creatures mysteriously poked through nooks and crannies. Shelves lined with old Mason jars hid unidentifiable slime.

Sometimes at night when the basement began to belch a series of terrifying creaks and groans, my sister and I would freeze, certain some boogeyman was about to creep up the stairs. Mom’s reply? “It’s just Casper the Friendly Ghost. Nothing to worry about. I’ll go check.” I don’t recall if Mom grabbed any weapon (her choices would have been a baseball bat, umbrella, or cast-iron frying pan—no guns). But she would descend to the basement, check things out, and return with a smile. “Like I said, just Casper the Friendly Ghost.”

As an adult, I asked Mom about Casper, and she laughed. Mom admitted the noises often seemed as scary to her as they did to us, but she didn’t want her daughters to grow up fearful. Mom was brave.

Funny thing. I don’t ever remember seeing Mom in her bed. I’m certain I did, but it’s not among my memories. I grew up in a single-parent household, and Mom worked fulltime—our all female household’s sole support. When we were little, a great aunt stayed with us during the week. Still Mom did all the laundry, a lot of the cooking, and she cleaned the house on Saturdays (a family affair when my sisters and I were old enough to participate).

For years, if I happened to wake around five a.m., I’d find Mom either ironing clothes or studying. After she graduated high school during the Depression (early since she skipped two grades), Mom immediately went to work to help support her family so her younger brother could stay in school. Later, when we were kids, Mom took accounting correspondence courses so she could get a better job. She did. Of course, it didn’t pay the same as the man she replaced, but that’s another story. Mom was smart, determined, hard-working, and fiercely loyal to her family.

Like any teenager, I had my share of rows with my mother since I inherited her stubborn streak. But I never doubted her love, and I always, always admired her character. Though she’s been gone many years, I still miss her.  Yet I often hear what I like to think is her voice, sharing the mantra she ingrained in me when I was young—“You can do anything you set your mind to.”

I have yet to dedicate one of my books to Mom. I’ve been waiting for the perfect fit, a novel with a heroine who demonstrates all her qualities. That book is my work in progress, a 1938 romantic suspense set in my mother’s era. However, while I’ve yet to make an official dedication, every novel I write is influenced by my mother. Thank you.  

Mom, Grandma, and Jane Austen

by Christy Carlyle

Strong women? Women who've influenced me? So many spring to mind, from my personal life, from history, and from the literary pantheon. But if I'm honest, there are three that stand out and impact who I am, what I love, and how I live my life more than any others.

Grandma

My grandmother, Phyllis, took care of me when I was little while my mother, Linda, worked. Those two women, one who worked inside the home and one who worked outside of it, are an integral part of who I am today. I still struggle to balance those two identities within myself, with a deep yearning to be a homemaker and a real necessity to be a wage earner. Despite all their other responsibilities, my mom and grandma taught me, loved me, and prepared me for how I should interact with the world.

My grandmother gave me one of the greatest gifts of all. She taught me the alphabet and helped me learn to read. Later, she indulged my love of books and bought them for me regularly. My mother also encouraged my love of reading and let me fill our house with more books than anyone believed I would ever be able to read. Okay, there might still be a few back in Indiana that I have yet to read from cover to cover.

Mom wrote stories. She wrote them out in a steno notebook, but she never made any fuss about them or mentioned a desire to be published. Still, I can’t help thinking that seeing her write had something to do with the young girl I became, a child who spent an inordinate amount of time banging out stories on her mother’s green Hermes typewriter.

Somewhere amidst typed up stories and reading my way through the pile of books I’d found at the library or Goodwill, I came across Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I was in my early teens. I wanted to be Elizabeth Bennet and I wanted her to fall in love with Mr. Darcy. While reading his first proposal scene, I remember feeling a burning in my chest, as if my own heart was breaking rather than his. That was the moment I knew I had to become a romance writer.

Later, in studying all of Austen’s works and her life, I came to admire the woman as much as her writing. She was a diligent writer who believed in her work. She made sacrifices for her writing; some might say too many. She was a brilliant writer who has taught me more about characterization than any craft book I have ever read. And most importantly, her stories always have a happy ending.

If my writing life and my personal life have a happy ending, I know it will be because of the choices I make and the work I do. However, there are three women who influence those choices and my drive to tell stories. My gratitude goes to Mom, Grandma, and Jane Austen.

Who taught you to read or to write? Did they influence you to become a book lover or a writer?

What Makes a Strong Woman?

By Opal Carew

What makes a strong woman?  Everyone will have their own idea of what defines a strong woman, but we know one when we see one.  Most of us want the heroine of the romance books we read to be a strong woman, and each author also has their own idea of what that means.

For me, I believe a strong woman is one who is true to herself.  It’s easy to allow ourselves to be defined by our roles—mother, teacher, artist, friend—or by how others view us.  If others disapprove of what we do, we might think less of ourselves.

I write erotic romance and just doing that I have stepped out of the normal, acceptable roles and into the realm of disapproval by many.  But I don’t feel the need to defend myself.  I’m happy with my choice to write stories that empower women by helping them embrace their sexuality.  And my heroines are strong women, by my own definition.  They are always put into positions where they are drawn down a path where they must defy societal norms.  Each must decide to take a risk, and in the end, they find happiness and love.  That’s the romance part.  The growth part, is that they find they can defy what others might define as acceptable and do what makes them happy.

That to me is a strong woman.

In my book Secret Weapon, my heroine was already a free spirit who flew in the face of convention.  When a man from her past—a close friend of her brother’s who had taken on a protective role over her when her brother died—showed up professing his love.  She knew he would never accept her lifestyle and she told him so.  He insisted he could handle it, and finally convinced her to date him.  She agreed, but only on her terms.  Her intent was to show him that he could never accept her lifestyle no matter how much he wanted her.

To me, Janine is a very strong woman.  She loved Sloan deeply, but she believed a relationship between them  would never work.  She didn’t want to hurt him, and she knew words would never convince him, so she did everything she could to push him to the limit and convince him he could never be happy with her.  Because his happiness as well as her own was at stake.

All of my heroines learn to take risks and by doing so find what makes them happy.  That is their strength and what allows them to succeed.

How do you define a strong woman?

Secret Weapon

There’s only one thing hotter than a man in uniform…when he takes it off.

Threesomes and men of the law have always been two of Janine’s biggest turn-ons. So when her boyfriend offers to invite one of his buddies from the police force into their bedroom, it’s an offer she can’t refuse. But when the extra man shows up, the last thing she expects is for it to be Sloan Granger—a man from her past.

Janine is the one woman who Sloan’s never been able to forget, and now that their worlds have collided, he has a second chance to win her back. Even though she refuses to let him back into her life, he’s determined to change her mind—no matter what the cost. His love for her has always been his greatest weakness, but this time, it’s also his most powerful weapon…

 

http://www.OpalCarew.com
http://www.facebook.com/OpalCarewRomanceAuthor

Strong ,but unique creations

Every nationality has had it's share of strong women. Immigrants who traveled across the ocean and further on to start over in a new land. It was women who kept the families together, who worked at what ever they had to do to support their families. Many of them working in the garment industry or as servants,not only supporting families here but maybe sending money to families across the ocean as well.
Some packed their families up and moved west in covered wagons to farm new lands. Is there any wonder that strong women are the norm rather then the exception in romance fiction these days. We can look back and see generations of strong women to base our characters on. Not just in the past, but here and now as well.
I was blessed to have strong women all through my life who set examples for me. My mother raised 6 children. the youngest born three years before her death. Not bad considering she had been told she would never have children. My grandmother ran a houseful of men, until my aunt was born she was the only female in the house with her husband, four sons and a brother in law who came to live with them when his own wife kicked him out. Both these women taught me the gift of family. While telling me stories of family I never knew existed,they taught me the art of story telling.  I know I put a part of them in every mother or grandmother I create in my books.
A single mother of two who showed me how women can survive, even when they think they can't. The woman who defied her parents and not only graduated from high school but went on to attend college and gain not one but three degrees.
A woman who traveled from Russia to join her brother in the US and is stranded in England for six years due to a mistake made by the immigration doctor. All of their strength and their courage go into each of my female characters. Along with other characteristics which make them each strong, but still uniquely their own women.