Guest Author
I wanted to ask about your heroines, some of their actions have been described as TSTL (too stupid to live) or that they seem weak. I was wondering how you felt about that and how you saw your heroines?
You know, it’s an interesting question, and a lot of people have given me a hard time about “weak” heroines, but I don’t see it that way At All. I see it from my own personal point of view, as a shy, not athletic, not particularly in shape person who makes a living sitting my ass in front of a computer and who violently hates confrontation of any kind, has no training in fighting, firearms, self-defense, etc. etc. I don’t see myself as weak or stupid. I simply am who I am. If I got put up against an evil bad guy like the kind I write about, I would be flattened.
My effort every time is to figure out a way for my heroine, being a completely normal, non-commando, non-Alias type chick, to somehow not be flattened. To survive and grow and toughen up, maybe even have a chance to strike back. If she’s not as buff and macho and competent as the hero, who the fuck cares? The interesting thing is that she grows. She learns. Raine gets her shot, at the end of BCD, smashing the corrupt cop over the head with a fax machine and tying him up with duct tape. Margot makes her move, in OOC with Tam’s poisoned pin. Erin stabs the evil bad guy in the throat at the end of SHADOWS. Abby pokes the villain in the eye with a key at the end of HOT NIGHT. Liv . . . well, never mind Liv. Most of you haven’t read EOM yet.
Jeez, like, how tough do these chicks have to be?
And if I was in danger of my life and under constant, extreme stress of many kinds, not sleeping, never relaxing, and totally inexperienced in fighting for my life, I think I may well do a few too-stupid-to-live things. Hell, I do stupid things even when I’m not in danger of my life. Real people make mistakes. Only James Bond never makes mistakes.
So that’s how I see it. I’m not interested in writing about Supergirl. She just doesn’t ring my bells. I don’t see myself in her.
Does that answer the question?
Thanks for asking!
You may have noticed I am holding Shannon McKenna hostage on my blog :). You are welcome to ask her a question but I am not certain if she will be checking in today or not. Silly girl has agreed to come back though, so if she misses something I will send it to her for next time.
So who are your fave McKenna heroines? Do you have any or just suffer them for the yummy heroes? I have to admit I love Standing in the Shadows and where I can see Erin did a few bone headed things I still liked the heroine. And I like the idea of the chick being your average, everyday type of girl vs kickass can do it all without breaking a sweat.
How much is too much? What are your favorite types of heroines? Do you have a favorite heroine of all time in romanceland? I am not picking winners until tonight, so I will include comments in this thread posted up until 8pm CST 7/20/07.
I guess I like my heroines to be smart and somewhat savvy, but not really kickass in the sense that it’s physically their job or their training. To me a heroine can be kickass if she uses her brains to figure her way out of a mess. I don’t want them passive, I want them involved in the process of protecting themselves. But I like the heroines who know they’re no match physically for creepy villains and who count on the yummy heroes to help keep them safe. It’s just a lot of fun when there’s a good looking, kickass hero involved. So Shannon’s h/h pretty much fit the bill. 🙂
I like heroines who are strong, confident, intelligent and is not afraid to go after what she wants.
I think Raine is my favorite McKenna heroine. She had to be strong and confident to handle a hero like Seth!
My favorite heroine? Actually, my favorite female character of Shannon’s was not a heroine, but a side character – Cora from RETURN TO ME. LOVED her! And I have begged Shannon many, many times to do a novella about her and Brad, but she is adamant that their story was complete in that book. I disagree. I guess I’ll just have to write some fanfic in my copious spare time.
Hi Shannon,
Huge fan here!!! I would have to say I really like your heroines because I can relate to them. Raine especially and maybe that is because she was the first. What really connected me to her was the fact that she felt like she always has to please everyone else and she never voiced her real thoughts and opinions. Instead said what she thought others wanted to hear or expected her to say. I would think that a lot of women can relate to those behaviors, not just me.
I also want to mention that I just love the part in BCD when Sean tells Raine that he is house broken and she doen’t have to worry about him peeing on the rug. Great line!!
Woops, in my previous post I meant to say Seth, not Sean. Sorry about that.
I like my heroine’s to be real, and sometimes that includes doing stupid things! If it’s someone I can relate to and find believable, then I like her.
The only thing that really gets me frustrated is when the hero has experience in something and tells the heroine what to do/not do and she doesn’t listen for whatever reason. I’m smart enough to listen to the person with experience!!
I haven’t found Shannon’s heroine’s to be TSTL, just normal women that do stupid things sometimes. A TSTL character for me, is someone that doesn’t learn and does stupid things throughout the whole book, not just one or two stupid things.
I love a heroine who can take what ever life handles her and if the hero feels like pushing her around, well she will give him an earful. I do like to read about the sweeter women and the men who come along and are powerful and just god darn sexy as all get out!
TSTL heroines? Eh not a big fan.
i like them strong and sexy and with a little vulnerabity
Unless the Heroine just act helpless throughout the book, I don’t think the storyline would be that strong.
I definitely like a strong, intelligent, caring heroine.
I don’t find anything wrong with Shannon’s heroine because I have enjoyed all her books and like her writing style.
My ideal heroine isn’t necessarily gung-ho, in fact, with the exception of La Nora’s Eve Dallas, the most gung-ho thing about a lot of the heroines I’ve loved have been their manicures.
What I look for in a heroine is just plain old common sense, and I get mighty frustrated when I read books where the heroine displays an abject lack of the above.
Anne Stuart’s Cold As Ice was totally ruined for me because the heroine was dumb as a box of rocks. She was a lawyer who couldn’t tell when somebody was blatantly lying to her, and didn’t have the common sense to know when she was in danger.
I found myself questioning how the hell she’d passed her bar exams in the first place. That’s never a good thing methinks
I really don´t have a favorite type of heroine. I like variety, and to tell you the truth I pay more attention to the heroes *g*. I just don´t like the too perfect heroines. So far, I like the heroines from Shannon´s books. I think my favorite is Raine, maybe because she was the first one I met and I love everything about BCD.
I’m going to be the oddball, here, because I haven’t read a Shannon McKenna book, yet. :^( I’m definitely going to soon, though. I’ve loved reading the posts, here. I figure if the heroines sound anything like the author herself they should work for me. (Ewww, sounds cheesy… but I’m sticking by it.)
I don’t necessarily connect with K-A heroines. I don’t care for the type who sneak out to go after the bad guys herself because she can’t stand to be left out of anything. But I can’t say a heroine can’t make a dumb mistake. Like you said above, I do it too often myself. I love For the Roses by Garwood and the heroine is kind of mistake prone.
I like variety too but can’t stand the wimpy TSTL heroines. 🙂
Hi Shannon. I’m not fighter-trained either and would definitely be one who would be flattened, lol. Heroines don’t have to be K-A for me either, and I do agree that we all do stupid things at times in certain confrontations. I do like to see heroines who use their intelligence and wits, and sometimes, yes, those who look to that K-A hero to protect them.
Strong and smart heroines. Don’t like a whiny heroine.
I’m like Alecia, I haven’t read any of your books yet, Shannon, but I have a good many of them in the TBR pile, along with a couple of thousand other books. And now after reading your interview here and all the other info, I’m going to be searching them out quickly!
I very rarely find myself questioning a heroine in a book. I figure the author has a reason for making both the hero and heroine a certain way, and there’s always room for improvement for either one of them throughout the book. I do like heroines to have or at least find self-confidence by the end of a book, but she doesn’t have to be kick ass for me to like her. Of course, intelligence is nice to have! The only time a heroine (or hero for that matter) ever really bothers me is when an author just rehashes and rehashes and rehashes the same old thing until the very end. Then I hate them both, the book and the author too. Thank goodness there’s not too many authors out there that do that!
Thanks for such an honest look at things with us today!
Hey, thanks, ladies, for all your thoughtful and honest opinions about heroines and what-all–it’s been wonderful listening to you all and sharing.
Have a great summer!
Best,
Shannon