Action Heroine Fans discussion

Wow, we've had a growth spurt recently! Welcome to everybody who's recently joined, as well as those who've been around for awhile. Some other groups I'm part of have a thread where people can introduce themselves (if they want to). So I thought I'd start one here, where you can tell us a little bit about yourself, and your interest in this type of heroine.

I'm a librarian in a Southern Baptist college in the mountains of Virginia, and married to a wonderful lady who was raised to hunt at an early age, and who could function very nicely as an action heroine if she needed to! We have three grown daughters; the oldest one is a green belt in karate (and I wouldn't advise anybody to pick on the younger two, either :-)). My interest in the kick-butt type of heroine goes back at least to my teens; I was a fan of both Charlie's Angels --especially of Kate Jackson's Sabrina-- and Diana Rigg as Emma Peel on The Avengers. (I confess that I had a crush on both of them; but what guy my age didn't? :-)) I haven't actually read that much of the literature, scattered across the various genres, that features heroines of this type, but I've read what I could; and I enjoy this group for the suggestions it provides for further reading. (Now if I could just get the to-read list I already have whittled down....)

Hi Werner,

I love the role of strong females, they motivate and inspire me. When I was younger, I was one of those kick butt kind of gals (Tom Boy). Even when I was in the military I was always the leader and take control type of gal.

I loved Charlie's Angels. I think what hooked me was reading the book called Ravens of Avalon by Diana L. Paxson - the story of Boudica.

I love to read paranormal, romance, and fantacy and always love reading about the hero's and heroine and always want more.

Hi, I'm Danielle. I love action and adventure. Although romance is my favorite type of literature, a good action/adventure plot gets my interest. I've always loved strong women (strong in various ways), and I like the idea that a woman can defend herself and others physically. I was glad that Werner started this group!

Hi, Werner! Thanks again for letting me know about these groups about women heroines! In my books, the "Gastar" series, The first book "Act of Redemption" begins with a teen assassin named Shevata who successfully rescues hostages from hell, then is cursed for killing an evil priest without a death order. She helps protect the people of the falling city, Gastar, and is known to the demon lord who seeks to destroy the city. She is a most-competent adversary; book 2 "Children of Discord" in edit now! 4 books in all! Check it out!

Welcome to our group, C., and a warm welcome as well to anyone else who's joined in the last few months! Make yourselves at home on our group site, and don't feel bashful about joining in a discussion, or starting one.

Welcome to all of our new members! Our group is 70 strong now (a couple of new people have just joined this week), so evidentally the motif of woman as warrior/fighter is one that resonates with quite a few readers.

We've had this thread since March, but other threads had more recent posts and there wasn't room for it to show up on the group homepage, so it sort of got buried. :-) I've fixed it now so it's designated as "important" and will always show at the top of the discussion board. So, if anyone wants to introduce himself/herself to the group, this is the place to do it --though it's certainly not required!

Hi folks, I've been here a little while, even commented on a thread or two, but am just now getting around to introing myself. I've been on Goodreads a little while now to and enjoy reviewing and discussing books. I am a long time fan of action adventure. My reading habits are fairly eclectic, fantasy, science fiction, history, theology, philosophy, general fiction and many "sub-genres". There are techno-thrillers, alternate history, and old favorite from my youth "spy-fi". All of these now and then have the female protagonist. I've never worried about whether a protagonist in a book was male or female but whether I enjoyed the book.

The book we are reading this month (1-11) is among my favorite novels...I'd list it as among at least my top 5 favorites. It is (in my opinion) the best modern depiction of a paladin.

So I hope we can enjoy some (at least marginally) mature discussion on the subject.

By the way, if you are curious about more than I've said here, my profile is public and I've reviewed a "few" books. Or...just ask. :)

Hi Mike!

Nods...hi.

:)

Mike, glad to see you introduce yourself! I should probably correct an apparent misunderstanding. The Deed of Paksenarion IS listed on our "currently reading" shelf; but that just means I knew one person in the group was reading it! Some Goodreads groups reserve that shelf for their common reads, but we don't here --I just like to have something up there at any given time, so the group page doesn't look barren. :-) I figure that our "read" and "to read" shelves are collective bibliographies of things any of us have read, or might want to read; so the "currently reading" shelf can work the same way. (Also, we're not among the groups that only allow the moderator to add books to the shelves; any of us can do that, so don't be shy about doing so!)

We've never actually done a common read in this group, though I'm in some other groups that occasionally do, or have done, that. If there's any interest in exploring that idea, I'm not averse to it sometime --though right now, I've got reading commitments of my own running probably through April (a couple of them common reads in other groups! :-) ).

That's cool. I happen to be re-reading it anyway, if you count "audios" as a read (I generally do). My daughter knows how much I loved this book (actually a trilogy of course) and got me all 3 of them in audio for Christmas. Once I finish a library audio I'm finishing I'm restarting the third in the series (Oath of Gold).

Mike (the Paladin) wrote: "That's cool. I happen to be re-reading it anyway, if you count "audios" as a read (I generally do). My daughter knows how much I loved this book (actually a trilogy of course) and got me all 3 of t..."

Hi Mike, I was reading Paksanarrion again (and so is my 10-year-old daughter). I even used it as the basis of a blog post, although, in this case as a negative example. Sorry. I like the book, but there are a few things that irk me about it.

My name is Dennis McDonald and I'm a horror fantasy author. I love strong women in my books and wrote a rough draft fantasy novel with a seventeen year old witch as the heroine. Right now I have a horror novel with a strong female lead. How about a fightening werewolf novel with an abused woman and her five-year-old daughter as the main characters?



You can find more about the book and its reviews at:

http://www.dennismcdonaldhorrorauthor...

Your book has a really intriguing premise, Dennis! (I'm into supernatural fiction, too; and I see we're both members of the Supernatural Fiction Readers group, as well as of this one.) Best wishes with your writing!

Wow.. great to find this group! I do love warrior women and write about them.

My novel, Beloved Pilgrim, about a woman who goes to the doomed Crusade of 1101 disguised as her own late twin brother will be out in a couple months. My profile pibture is the cover.

I had someone criticize the concept saying that women's wrists are not strong enough to hold a sword. I like a friend's answer.. what was that Joan of Arc was wielding? An embroidery needle?

So I look forward to talking over our facvorite books.. ihope mine will b a mong them.

Nan Hawthorne

Nan, a warm welcome to you, and to anyone else who's joined since my last general welcome! It sounds like Beloved Pilgrim has a great premise. When it comes out, be sure to add it to our "written-by-group-members" shelf.

Yes, quite a few women historically have found their wrists strong enough to handle a sword quite well! :-)

Hi everyone, I'm R.H. Watson, author, and yes, I wrote a book with an action heroine: Gladiator Girl: An Alternate Reality Action-sports Love Story. I'd like to introduce it to this group, and if anyone reads it, I'd love to find out what you think, but unless someone else wants to discuss it, I won't bring it up again.

I added it to the written-by-group-members book shelf. It's not historical; it's science-fiction. A discovery in genetic engineering intimately tied to the female reproductive system allows women to fully recover from devastating injuries. There are lots of ramifications, but for this story, the big one is a new team sport played with swords that can only be played by women.

It's available on Kindle, Nook, from the Google ebook store, and in a pricey trade paperback through Amazon. If you want to read a sample online, rather than downloading one to a Kindle or Nook, the Google store sample covers the first 20% of the story.

I'll shut up about it now, and talk about other action heroines.

Glad to have you in this group, R. H. And best wishes with your book; that sounds like a really original premise!

This is the perfect group for me. I started writing because I couldn't find enough strong female characters in the genre of fantasy, so I started to write my series, Royal Blood Chronicles. Vampire royalty that become the protectors of all the peace loving races of the world. Not easy, swords yes. Whinning no. Great to be here I so look forward to it.

Elizabeth, welcome to the group; glad to have you join us! Your series sounds right up my alley --some fans (including some of our members) prefer their vamps evil and bloodthirsty, but I'm most drawn to the ones who use their powers for good. Best wishes with your writing career!

Your profile page doesn't show any of your books in the series. Are any of them published yet? If so, are you aware of the Goodreads Authors Program? If you sign up as a Goodreads Author, your books will be featured on your profile; and that will let you do other things, such as post notices of events like book signings, etc., as well. And don't forget to post your books to our group bookshelf (we have a "Written by group members" shelf). We also have a "Group members who write" folder on our discussion board; you can start a thread for the Royal Blood Chronicles there, if you'd like to, and tell us more!

I'm all about strong female characters. There's one who is a reporter for a TV station in my crime novel, "Cleansing Eden." She toughs it out against management types, who keep pressing her to do unethical stories.

I gotta think that's more fun to read than someone who's as much a prop as a person. That's a tired trope. The thing is, crime fiction is still (mostly) a boy's club, going back to the pulp and noir heydays.

Benjamin, welcome to the group! Glad to have you with us. (And if any of your heroines fit the action heroine mold, be sure to add the book to our "written by group members" shelf.) Cleansing Eden sounds like it has a great premise!

I tried to add A Warrior Made to the 'written by group members' shelf and got nowhere. The women in that book outnumber the men three to two. My latest novel, St. Martin's Moon, also has several strong women, but that was just released, so it isn't on Amazon yet, just places like OmniLit.
I've never tried to write strong female characters, though, just strong characters who happen to be female.

Marc, I double-checked just now, and that book IS on both our read and written-by-group-members shelves. It's evidently been on there awhile; so if you tried just recently to add it, the problem was probably that it was already there! :-) Best wishes for good success with that series.

Werner wrote: "Marc, I double-checked just now, and that book IS on both our read and written-by-group-members shelves. It's evidently been on there awhile; so if you tried just recently to add it, the problem wa..."

Thank you. We're getting the cover of the first book redone so the two books will look like parts of a series. My publisher called the cover for Unbinding the Stone the 'second-worst cover' in the whole line-up. Most of the women in A Warrior Made are actually introduced there, but their roles are less so I couldn't really bring it up in this group.

Hi I'm Fabia, a reader & a writer, I live in NC & grew up with basically 0 action heroines in books. Emma Peel to me is one of the coolest then Xena!
Nan your book sounds fab, of course there are tons of women soldiers & fighters all throughout history. Nene Adams has a new ghost/horror novel outFlowers of Edo: A Ghost Story with a woman samurai as the main protagonist.

Fabia, welcome to the group, and best wishes with your writing! (I was a fan of both Emma Peel and Xena myself, and I know that some others in the group were too.)

Also, welcome to anyone else who's joined in the last few months, whether you've introduced yourself or not! (There are 90 of us now -wow!) Hope you'll make yourselves right at home. (And if you haven't voted in our current poll, you can still do that today and tomorrow.)

I gamble (slots), shoot guns, race stand up paddle boards, have a black belt in karate and love reading books without wimpy heroines. Being tall and fit, I only identify with heroines that walk, talk and act like me. Being 6' tall and blond, I was blessed with a body that can take a lot of punishment in physical ports.

I just read this great novel called Wayward Son by Tom Pollack that has a heroine I can really identify with.

Hi group. My name is Laura. I came here from the Supernatural Fiction group after Werner astutely noticed I like action books and action heros/heroines.

I live in Alberta Canada. I worked for many years as an analytical chemist and now am a stay at home mom. Because for many years my reading was all about science, organizations, work processes and other riveting stuff, I've kind of rebounded into reading mostly entertaining and escapist fiction. Love it! I still read a fair bit of non fiction but its mostly on interesting topics like 'how to drywall' or 'how to invest'.

I have two elementary aged children, a wonderful husband, a lively Standard poodle and an acreage in the country to look after. I still manage to read a lot and really enjoy the types of books this group is discussing. I'm hoping to branch out. Most of my action heros have been in Urban Fantasy, Paranormal and Romance books. I am interested in more Sci-fi and just plain modern, western, or historical fiction. Pretty much everything.

Tiffany and Laura, welcome to the group! It's great to have both of you with us.

You ladies illustrate a fact I've long been aware of: contrary to popular stereotypes, the fan base for action heroines is not exclusively male. In fact, I've just counted, and of our 93 members, 56 (or well over half) are female. That's a statistic that ought to interest the publishing industry and other media moguls!

Thanks for the welcome Werner. I guess I mostly talk to women about books so wasn't aware of the perception that mostly men admire action heroines. That's an interesting point!

Actually, how widespread that perception is, I don't really know; probably the majority of the population never even heard of "action heroines" as a specific motif, let alone formed any stereotypes about their fans. :-) But I've run into it occasionally, and I think movie producers especially slant the marketing of action heroine films (and action films in general) towards males, though that may not be as true of books.

Hi all! Thad pointed me to this group and it looks like a lot of fun.

Yes, I'm a fan of action heroines, from Xena to Buffy, from Red Sonja to Jirel of Joiry.

I also write a web fiction series about a pair of "girls with guns" called KAT AND MOUSE, GUNS FOR HIRE. The "first season" of the series is now collected and available for Kindle.

Looking forward to chatting with everyone.

Welcome, Abner. Make sure you post a topic with links to your writing. Sounds like fun.

Abner, glad you've joined us! I really admire all four of the heroines you mentioned --and it's neat to hear from another Jirel fan. She's not as well known nowadays as she deserves to be.

It's great to see that you joined the group, Abner! Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Wow, our group is 100 strong now! (When I started it, I wasn't sure if it would appeal to anybody but me; I'm glad to find that I'm not alone. :-) ) It's been a few months since my last general welcome; so I just want to say to everyone who's joined since then that we're glad to have you with us! I hope you make yourselves right at home, join in the discussions, and enjoy browsing our bookshelves (and adding to them --I hope to build up a really good action-heroine bibliography here).

I haven't been over here in a while, although this is a great group. Hello to any new members!

Hello to one and all - my name is Mark and I've just joined following a prompt from Werner from a message board we both frequent.

I've written a couple of e-books that have been mentioned on the site - "How I Met Your Mother" and it's follow up "First Date" - which feature a strong female lead in the shape of Leah Hargreaves, former British Intelligence officer.

Hopefully my third series, "Sexy & Dangerous" may see the light of day soon... :)

Hi Mark!

Welcome Mark.

Mark, glad to see another fellow Trestle Press author joining this group! And for those group members who aren't familiar with his "How I Met Your Mother" story cycle, I highly recommend it.

Hi everyone,
My name is Jeannette and I had no idea there were so many "Tough Gal" fans! Nice to see and very nice to meet you all.Josephine the Outlaw King

Jeanette, welcome to the group; we're glad to have you aboard! Don't forget to add your book to our bookshelves (we have a "written-by-group-members" shelf); and if you want to tell us more about it, you can start a thread in the Group Members Who Write folder.

Welcome Jeanette.

Hi there. Very cool idea for a group. My name is Ryan and I love literature w/ strong, complex female characters. Thought i'd join this group to find out more exciting titles from other fans. Thanks.

Welcome.

Glad to have you in the group, Ryan. Hope it leads you to some more good reading!

Nice to meet everyone. May I introduce myself?
http://youtu.be/t-FT3Bvoodw

Impressive trailer, Jeannette! (I wish I had one for my vampire novel, but I'm not that technologically adept. :-) )