Welcome historical fantasy author, Linda Bell Brighton, and her thoughts on who is the kick ass heroine.
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Who is the Kick Ass Heroine? She’s an archetype, the Goddess that appears in every mythology. And not just one goddess, but many in every mythology!
The Kick Ass Heroine is the Return of the Goddess.
So, what makes a Kick Ass Heroine? A person who is involved in a struggle, facing that fight head on, and taking action. A person who happens to be female.
But there’s the rub. The fight between “the Greeks and the Amazons” (as the ancients called the battle between the sexes) has been going on long before Zeus raped human women and expected them to accept it as a compliment. The misogynist age began eons before and exists to this day.
Men, despite the Goddess archetypes, claimed the warrior image. Women retaliated by forming goddess cults. Men wanted—needed—strong women, but not independent ones. So a new myth was created: strong women helping their men. Some ancient women grabbed onto this. And some women today have never let go. They never question the Why behind what is required of them.
So the first principle of the Kick Ass Heroine is the ability to ask Why.
But knowing the Why doesn’t do a darn twit if our Kick Ass Heroine can’t come up with How to stop it.
And the answer is by writing a new myth.
Mary Shelley¸ in 1818, started it by writing a new Adam and Eve story: Frankenstein. A new genre was born.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman joined the new myth by imagining a world of only women, Herland.
And the opposition struck back in 1920s and 1930s pulp science fiction by exaggerating masculinity and depicting the sensuality of women.
But Stella Gibbons beat them with a satiric story, Cold Comfort Farm.
Yet the first Kick Ass Heroine wasn’t reborn until the early 1940s. Wonder Woman, of course. She did a lot if kicking, but it was for justice, love, peace. And sexual equality.
There’s been no looking back since. Kick ass heroines are here. They’re going to be as plentiful as kick ass goddesses in mythology.
In the 19th century version, Sidonia von Bork was a “femme fatal.” Muse thinks the Lutheran minister was a misogynist.
The updated Sidonia von Bork doesn’t start out as much of a kick asser. She’s the sheltered daughter of a 1560 German noble. She’s taken to the regent’s castle in Wolgast. Entering the town, she’s greeted with a horrific scene: a mother and daughter being burned alive for being witches.
Knowing that she has all the signs of being a witch, who can blame her for having a panic attack when the greeting procession leaves her alone in the carriage –a huge insult in that day and place.
But then, she asks why. And how. And through WOLGAST CASTLE, she grows into her kick assness.
It sure is a good thing because she still has to grow into her power as the Returned One and save the multiverse from Annihilation.
ABOUT Wolgast Castle, Book One of the Sidonia The Sorceress Series by Linda Bell Brighton
What if witches really existed during the Burning Times?
Forced to attend the Regent’s celebration at Wolgast Castle, 1560 Germany, Sidonia von Bork, fears her magical abilities will be discovered and she’ll be burned alive as a witch. When she discovers she is actually a member of an ancient shape-shifting race and the prophesied Golden One, she must face her destiny: to save the multiverse from the daemons determined to destroy all humans, and stay alive in the process.
Giveaway Info
Linda is giving away prizes, including an e-copy of her book at each blog stop on her tour AND three Grand Prize Giveaway of one Travel Mug, one T-Shirt and one Custom Jumbo Tote Bag with your choice of fan art, chosen from here: http://www.zazzle.com/sidonia_the_sorceres, shipped to anywhere in the world!
1) To win a book: Leave a comment on this blog post about what you like about kick ass heroines to be entered to win a book. Be sure to leave your email address in the comments so we can contact you if you’re the lucky winner. This giveaway ends seven days after the post goes live.
2) To win the Travel Mug or the T-Shirt or the Custom Jumbo Tote Bag with Linda’s fan art of your choice, click the link to go to Linda’s website here http://www.lindabellbrighton.com/ and enter the Rafflecopter at the bottom of the page. The three lucky winners will be selected by October 7, 2013.
Linda Bell Brighton’s Bio:
Linda Bell Brighton fell in love with myths, magic, and monsters at an early age. On a thunder-storming day in the Keys, her father—in his bass reading voice—brought The Hound of the Baskerville to too-vivid-life. From that day forward, Greek and Roman myths merged with Wonder Woman and Super girl. After studying medieval and Renaissance literature in college, she now combines her loves by writing an alternate history of the Witch Burning Times that she calls magpunk: real history with myths, magic, monsters—and daemons, too.
Links
- Linda Bell Brighton’s website- http://www.lindabellbrighton.com/
- Linda Bell Brighton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LindaBellWriter
- Linda Bell Brighton’s Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/lindabell.brighton
- Wolgast Castle, Book One of the Sidonia The Sorceress Series Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/WolgastCastle
- Wolgast Castle, Book One of the Sidonia The Sorceress Series on Amazon: http://amzn.to/1456jFK
