Following yesterday's "Oskar Awards" for my best heroes for my 2019 novels, today I am featuring five heroines in my books that I think are my best characters in that role:
Diantha Ames in Diantha:
A sweet Southern lady widowed when her husband was killed in the same mine disaster that took the lives of most of the men in Wildcat Ridge, she is fortunate that she still has her husband's hotel and postmaster position for financial support. Her sorrow has been that she was never able to have children, a condition her husband suggested was due to so many intermarriages among cousins over the years. Even though she is one of the few in town who own her own property, that does not stop Mortimer Crane, the owner of the mine and most of the buildings, from trying to get a hold on her. She must learn to ward him off and stand up for herself.
Virginia Atwell in Virginia's Vocation:
A woman ahead of her times in 1858 Missouri, Virginia secretly writes for a political magazine of her time. An orphan, when her brother decides to move his family to Kansas Territory, she defies tradition and chooses a different path that will lead to greater education. She faces a crisis when her editor calls her into his office and discovered that his star writer is a woman.
Ling Loi in Escape from Gold Mountain:
Sold by her brother in Canton, Ling Loi comes to the United States believing that she will marry a well-do-do Chinatown merchant. Instead, she is sold to a tong that specializes in brothels where she becomes "wife to one hundred men." Originally sent to the gold mining town of Lundy by her owner, he calls for her and her earnings to be returned to Chinatown. Only, barely outside Lundy, she is abducted off of the stagecoach and held for ransom for eight days.
Annie Flanagan in Two Sisters and the Christmas Groom:
Annie was first introduced in an earlier Sweethearts of Jubilee Springs book. It is through the request of the heroine of that book that she is requested to come to town to work as a maid. Freed from the oppression of New York's elite society, she comes into her own as a spunky woman who goes after what she believes is right. Desperate for Michael O'Hare, one of two men to whom her sister, Kate, is writing, to ask her sister to be his wife, she befriends him to encourage him toward her sister. She also encourages her sister to choose to marry Michael so they can live in the same town.
Dahlia Greenleaf in Nathan's Nurse:
Dahlia fills the traditional role of the youngest daughter who stays home to nurse her father still suffering from his wounds from the Civil War. Once her father passes, she knows she needs to leave the home that now belongs to her brother. She chooses to marry Nathan, only to learn he has been injured in a mining accident and is in a coma. Unsure of what the future holds for the two of them, she makes the commitment to nurse him through his difficulties.
And my choice for best heroine is...
Ling Loi
This was a tough decision. I liked all my heroines, particularly Virginia and Dahlia. Diantha was in two of my books and so easy for me to feel close to. I also loved my Irish-American sisters, Annie and Kate Flanagan.
For the character of Ling Loi, I
did more research for her than I have for any other character I
have developed to date. I did my best to portray accurately for the time the history of Chinese women brought to America. Her story depicted the life so many Cantonese Chinese women faced when they were brought to any port in America, but particularly San Francisco. In China, many were sold to "snake heads" who put them on ships, many were tricked into believing they were going to husbands, and many were abducted. Because there were so many more Chinese men than women in America (Gold Mountain), all but a fortunate few were bought as slaves and forced into prostitution. Most of their lives did not end well.
Ling Loi's character is based on a real person. The stagecoach abduction and being held for ransom for eight days actually took place. Unfortunately, to give her a happily ever after ending, I created a fictional hero for her.
For the full book description and purchase link,
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.