Yes, it’s a new year again. A new year full of hope and chances to start over. A new year full of goals, dreams, and plans. A new year to wonder how different life might become from what we imagined it would.
The past two years have sure thrown us all for a loop. Even those who haven’t lost jobs or loved ones have had their lives changed. Many would agree that this past year, and the year before that, weren’t the best years they’ve ever had.
And 2021, also, actually
But despite two years of changes that nobody wanted, I still choose to look on the new year with hope and positive expectation. And while this past year may not have been the greatest on record, I’m so grateful that I had some pretty amazing things happen.
This is the next installment in my series about strong women characters in sci-fi and fantasy. My goal is to highlight some well-written female characters who are strong leaders, every bit equal to men, and yet still feminine.
Elisa Maza
I will begin by repeating that a strong female character is not a male character in a woman’s body. Women are inherently different in more than just biology, and those differences are important to portray well in fiction if a strong female character is to be believable. Yes, women can be warriors, leaders, and protectors (traditionally male attributes), just as men can be gentle, calming, and nurturing. But in a story, a strong female character needs to be so much more than just a gender-swapped man.
Many fantasy and sci-fi stories have an overwhelmingly male cast. All too often, the “token female” is just that—serving either as romance/sexual tension, and/or to simply say “this story is all about equality because look a woman.” In this post, I’ll be discussing the character of Elisa Maza from the 90s Disney TV cartoon Gargoyles. In this fantasy adventure story, the cast was, predictably, overwhelmingly male. Elisa may have initially stood out as the “token female,” but it was quickly apparent that she was to be a main character every bit as important as all the male humans and Gargoyles.
Elisa Maza, Police Detective
Elisa starts out as a strong woman from the get-go, because she’s a New York City police officer. One can’t be a wimp if you’re a plain-clothes cop in the Big Apple. She’s determined, smart, and doesn’t back down when she knows she’s in the right—all traits of a strong woman. She refuses to be bullied (by human criminals or fantastical monsters), and though she uses her authority as a cop to get things done, she uses violence or her gun as a last resort. She also chooses to act rationally rather than react emotionally when faced with the shock of meeting living Gargoyles for the first time.
The next installment in my Adventures of Mrs. Jones series is out–and it’s a full-length novel! Up till now, all the books I’ve published (Mrs. Jones tales and others) have been short stories or novellas.
Mrs. Jones and the Radium City is now available for Kindle on Amazon. A physical paperback version will be available soon, so stay tuned for more info about that. But in the meantime, you’d probably like to know what this book is all about! And so here we go:
Mrs. Jones and the Radium City
In 1920s Los Angeles, Cornelia Jones moves in the top circles of society, thanks to her privileged upbringing as well as her marriage to the brilliant scientist and inventor, John Jones. But when John, on the verge of completing his latest invention that has the potential to usher in a new technological age, is critically injured in a laboratory accident, it’s up to Cornelia to investigate what happened and bring the perpetrators to justice.
Good thing she knows magic.
Aided by Adelaide, a young society debutante eager to learn the ways of both science and magic, Cornelia embarks on a journey to discover who’s responsible for these nefarious deeds. But the deeper she dives into John’s world, Cornelia realizes that evil is alive and well in this bright new age of progress. A secret organization moving in the shadows seems to have mysterious and sinister plans for her husband’s altruistic creation.
The world is changing as the Twenties begin to roar, and if Cornelia and Adelaide fail to stop the villains, then both Cornelia’s world and the rest of the planet will change more horrifically than anyone could imagine.
Some time ago I wrote a post sharing some writerly jargon: terms that writers use that you may or may not be familiar with. To follow up on that post, here are a few more terms that you’ll likely encounter in the author world:
In Medias Res
Latin for “in the middle of things.” It means to start a scene or a story in the middle of the action. Not necessarily in the middle of a heated battle, but for example, in the middle of a conversation or the middle of some other activity that matters to the story. Stories that begin with the main character waking up, getting out of bed, eating breakfast, and so forth can get things off to a very slow start and you risk boring your reader with unimportant actions.
Welcome to my guide on how to write technobabble! Every post will start with one letter of the alphabet, from A to Z, and cover tips and ideas for all you writers of sci-fi. Whether you’re writing about near-future science fiction, far-flung alien worlds, or historical steampunk adventures filled with advanced technology that never was – these posts are designed to help you write convincing and unique tech for your story!
Z is for Zathras
So what does Zathras mean? Zathras is a character from the TV show Babylon 5. He is an alien who helps to maintain the Great Machine—an ancient and advanced piece of tech on the otherwise-desolate planet that the Babylon 5 space station orbits.
For this particular A to Z Challenge about technobabble, what Zathras represents goes along with the “X” and “Y” posts. He represents something “other” and strange, and he represents the author just plain having fun with worldbuilding. Zathras is a comical yet enigmatic character who is not very good at explaining how his tech works (or explaining anything, really); but he is wise, intelligent in his own way, and masterful at building and fixing advanced tech, even if he can’t explain how it works.
Welcome to my guide on how to write technobabble! Every post will start with one letter of the alphabet, from A to Z, and cover tips and ideas for all you writers of sci-fi. Whether you’re writing about near-future science fiction, far-flung alien worlds, or historical steampunk adventures filled with advanced technology that never was – these posts are designed to help you write convincing and unique tech for your story!
Y is for You’re in Charge
As we come to the end of this blogging challenge, and all of the tips, tricks, and advice I’ve given, this is perhaps the most important: you’re the author, so you’re in charge.
Yes, there are guidelines and expectations for the different sub-genres of science fiction. Yes, you should read some writing craft books to get good at basic storytelling techniques. Yes, you should write and re-write, get feedback from critique partners and beta readers, and get an editor for your story—not just hit “publish” on Amazon after cranking out a first draft of your first attempt at a sci-fi novel.
StorytellerGirl 