Suvudu Universe

The Importance of Heroic Heroines
Once upon a time, women and girls didn't do much of anything in most science fiction and fantasy novels. That probably seems weird to many of today's readers, but it's true. Female characters were shuffled off into the roles of damsel in distress, the tomboy girl sidekick, or the girlfriend/wife/sister/daughter who always needed rescue. Women were left behind when the action started.

Almost any part a woman played in the story was passive. The lone woman on the spaceship crew was never the captain, the head of the science department, or the leader of the away team. And if she did actually attempt to take independent action or be heroic, it ended badly. The role of hero or leader was reserved for the men in the story.

Women might as well have been potted plants for all the importance they held in the story. That always seemed odd and strange, and really, really wrong.

One of the easy decisions I made when I started Delia's Shadow was to have the women in this book be the center and the heart of the story. Gabe and Jack do important things, don't get me wrong, but in my eyes this really is Delia, Sadie and Dora's story.

And all the women in this book are heroes, in the way that real women of all ages have always been brave and heroic. They solve the puzzles, think things through, and save the day. This was important to me. Women don't have to do physical battle with villains or monsters to be heroes.

They can, but they don't have to.

My favorite definition of a hero is an ordinary person who finds herself in extraordinary circumstances and faces them head on. A hero not only survives, but does so with as much grace as she can muster. A hero might be tired, scared, and unsure, but she doesn't quit. A hero does what needs to be done.

The women in Delia's Shadow don't quit. They make the smartest choices they can and do what they have to do.

Delia, the title character, finds herself haunted by the ghost of a woman murdered thirty years before. She's seen ghosts since she was a child, but this ghost is different. Shadow, as she comes to call this spirit, demands things of her, shows her horrific things, and opens the gates for more and more ghosts to enter her life. Instead of running from Shadow, or finding a way to send the ghost away forever, Delia learns to cope and solve the mystery of how Shadow died. In the process she discovers how strong she is.

Sadie Larkin, Delia's best friend since childhood, is forced to watch her strong, vibrant mother, Esther, become increasingly childlike as death approaches. As Delia gets drawn deeper and deeper into the mystery of Shadow, so does Sadie. In many ways, Sadie might be the bravest of all.

Dealing with the aftermath of death and spirits causes Isadora Bobet, society medium and closet witch, real physical agony. Dora doesn't have a real stake in Delia's plight and could walk away from the whole mess unscathed. She doesn't. She stays.

Esther's memory fades a bit more each day, her body grows weaker, but her need to protect "her girls" never wavers. Annie is the glue that holds them all together.

Writers make a thousand different decisions on plot and character, on tone and style, and a myriad of things that go into making a book come "alive". All of them are important.

Focusing on women characters, and making them loving, supportive friends, was important to me.

It just felt right.