Today’s guest post is from one of my favorite authors. Jeffe Kennedy is the author of both the Covenant of Thorns paranormal romance series and the fantasy-with-romance The Twelve Kingdoms. She is the author of today’s featured book, The Talon of the Hawk, which stars a marvelously portrayed warrior woman, Ursula of the Twelve Kingdoms, and concludes the series. I asked Jeffe to give us her take on writing a warrior woman heroine, and here’s what she had to say.
The Joy of Writing Warrior Women
by Jeffe Kennedy
One of my favorite parts of having THE TALON OF THE HAWK be live in the world is seeing how readers react to the amazing cover. Not just any readers, but women – especially younger ones.
I mean, there’s my very tough warrior princess with her steely gaze, a leather bustier with studs, vambraces and a great big, gleaming sword. Seriously, one after another, I saw women’s eyes light up with unholy joy.
I’m hearing about it, too, with the new Mad Max movie. I even reposted this great gif on my Tumblr of Charlize Theron answering questions at Cannes. (Fair Warning: there’s a lot of very sexy stuff on my Tumblr, very NSFW (not safe for work) pics, so know that if you go exploring there. :)) Someone asked her where the anger came from in the movie’s women warriors and she answers “Women have that.” And clearly the crowd cheers because she adds that she’s not the only one.
Yes. Women have rage like men have rage. Because people have anger when things don’t go our way – and rage gives us the energy to make the necessary changes so things DO go our way.
Sometimes I think women might have more anger because we have fewer acceptable outlets. And not the same number and quality of escapist images. We go to the movies and the guys get the whole trip of the awesome hero defeating everything and everyone, while the woman helps in some feminine way or is simply rescued.
This is why I *loved* writing a woman warrior! I got to live the fantasy of being Ursula – blazingly fast, able to defeat even a much bigger man. She’s smart, tough, strong and a hero to those around her. No, she’s not perfect. She’s also incredibly stubborn, prickly and doesn’t trust easily. Much like any number of male action heroes. Some readers have said she reminds them of Brienne of Tarth in Game of Thrones and I can totally see that.
I would love to see more women warriors in all genres. One of my long time favorites is Kerowyn in BY THE SWORD, by Mercedes Lackey. What are some others you can think of? Hit me!
Jeffe Kennedy is an award-winning author with a writing career that spans decades. Her works include non-fiction, poetry, short fiction, and novels. She has been a Ucross Foundation Fellow, received the Wyoming Arts Council Fellowship for Poetry, and was awarded a Frank Nelson Doubleday Memorial Award. Her essays have appeared in many publications, including Redbook. Her most recent works include a number of fiction series: the fantasy romance novels of A Covenant of Thorns; the contemporary BDSM novellas of the Facets of Passion, and an erotic contemporary serial novel, Master of the Opera, which released beginning January 2, 2014. A fourth series, the fantasy trilogy The Twelve Kingdoms, hit the shelves starting in May 2014 and a fifth, the highly anticipated erotic romance trilogy, Falling Under, will release starting in July.
She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with two Maine coon cats, plentiful free-range lizards and a very handsome Doctor of Oriental Medicine.
Jeffe can be found online at her website: JeffeKennedy.com, every Sunday at the popular Word Whores blog, on Facebook, and pretty much constantly on Twitter @jeffekennedy. She is represented by Foreword Literary.
To learn about Jeffe, visit her website or blog or follow her on Facebook or Twitter.
~~~~~~GIVEAWAY~~~~~~
I loved this series so much that I can’t resist sharing it. Therefore, I’m giving away a copy of any book in the Twelve Kingdoms series to one lucky winner. So that’s a choice of either The Mark of the Tala, The Tears of the Rose or The Talon of the Hawk.
This is an international giveaway. If you are located anywhere that The Book Depository ships, you’re welcome to enter. For U.S. winners, you can choose between ebook and paperback.
My favorite woman warrior is Joan of Arc.
Oh yes – she is SO interesting!
My favorite woman warrior is Hannah Senesh.
I don’t know her – who is she??
She’s not a warrior exactly but I like her strength, Buffy the vampire slayer. Thank you for the giveaway!
Oh, I think Buffy totally counts! LOVE her. 🙂
My favorite warrior is Katniss Everdeen!
Ooh, yes. Katniss is an awesome choice.
I tried replying to everyone, but my comments never showed up 🙁
They have now. And thank you so much for coming by to answer everyone!
Oh, yay – moderation ftw!
Absolutely!
And my current favorite woman warrior is Cassandra Pentaghast from the video game Dragon Age Inquisition. Ursula reminded me SO MUCH of Cassandra!
Ooh – cool! I’ve never played, but I know lots of people (including my agent) who love it. Now I kind of want to see it…
Xena
LOVE Xena!
I don’t know if it counts,but my favorite is Tabitha Devereaux from Seize The Night,strong heroine 🙂
Thanks for the great post 🙂
If you think she counts, she counts!
But I don’t know this show – should I??
My favorite is a toss up of either Katniss or Buffy!
Both fine choices – hard to choose there!