Less Than Three
Press put out a call for submissions for their Damsel in Distress anthology
last year. The brief; to write about strong women in a dangerous (physical or
emotional) situation who step up and fight their way out, or at least don't
have to be rescued. (That's why I love the movie Ever After, because Danielle (aka Cinderella) fights back and gets
away from her captive (the landowner Pierre le Pieu) and doesn't have to be rescued, but she
still has the chance to fall in love with her Prince)
I was
immediately up for the challenge.
What would be
better than not just one strong woman on the page but two?
An image burst
into my mind of a woman falling onto cushions then getting back up not wanting
to give up. The character Libby came into existence and it was Helen training
her in self-defense – my second strong woman.
These characters
suddenly took over and I followed their lead and the story flowed onto my
computer. Without planning it suddenly I had another female; an antagonist,
Scarlett, and Libby and Helen were going to be in for a hell of a ride, along
with myself because I now had to balance three strong women.
But it wasn't
easy having three strong women on the page at once or at least two, there's a
lot of emotion and its no good if they are all standing their ground getting no
where. I know what it can be like in real life with sisters and we are all
strong women and sometimes that leaves an explosive hole in the room that ends
up creating a black hole.
I didn't want
that to happen in my story, or at least I didn't want the characters to over
power the story and I wanted them all to get along (some what in a twisted
interesting read sort of way), after all sometimes it's fun to have a nemesis
that has haunted a character for a long time.
Then there was
the opposite problem. I didn't want to tone down the characters strength and
determination because then they wouldn't be strong female leads.
It was like
being on a seesaw!
To keep things
balanced I mixed up the three-way relationships, and set up events for Libby
and Helen to endure to get them to choose to stand up and defended themselves.
(I can't give too much away or I'll spoil the read!)
Editing
certainly played a big role and I kept adjusting the balance until these
characters could all play together in the same story and there were three
strong women fighting it out.
The Clockwork
Heart is available now with Less
Than Three Press. It's a short steampunk novella.
Let me know if
you would like to hear more of the adventures that Libby and Helen! Connect
with me at my blog, Goodreads,
Facebook
or Twitter. And if you have any
sexy looking steampunk outfits please share them with me on Pinterest!
The Clockwork
Heart
Haunted
by a past lover and left with scars so deep Libby gave up her life as an
explorer, she spends her day trying to avoid bad memories and training
ruthlessly with Helen, the woman she hired to teach her self-defense. Helen is
beautiful, appealing, and could be what Libby needs to climb out of her past
once and for all.
Leave a post
below for a chance to win an e-copy of The Clockwork Heart.
The title brings all sorts of images to mind. Adding to my list.
ReplyDeletedebby236 at gmail dot com
Thanks Debby :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Debbie for commenting. You have won an e-copy of The Clockwork Heart ~ enjoy :)
ReplyDelete