Does the Modern-Day Amazon Exist?

Please welcome guest blogger Marcia Colette

This question was part of a panel discussion at LunaCon this year and I was sorry I wasn’t able to attend. However, it has been a question that has been on my mind for ages.

If you think about it, we had our action-oriented heroines like Wonder Woman, the Bionic Woman, Ripley from Aliens, and most recently Sarah Conner. When I think about today, I have a hard time coming up with one. I guess the most recent ones have been Sarah Connor again, from The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Sydney Bristow from Alias. I guess I could add Kate from Lost and some of the female cast members from Heroes, too.

There are plenty of kick-ass heroines out there right now. And by kick-ass, I don’t mean they have to have an attitude that grates on your nerves twenty-four-seven or they have to kill someone every other chapter to make sure the reader knows their a bad-ass. I’m taking about an action-oriented woman who is normal in all respects, but has to make a move every now and then that will blow your mind or leave your jaw hanging in awe. I love reading about characters like this. Also, it’s probably why I feel like there are a lot of kick-ass women on the market and can’t get enough of them.

But the questions—worry—remain. Will those champions stand the test of time? Will our little girls today remember them when they’re in their twenties?

This is one moment where I wish I could fast-forward in time to know the answer to that. I’d like to think that whoever leaps onto the scene these days will have long-lasting effects like Buffy had. Better yet, define a whole new genre.

In the mean time, the only kick-ass heroines I can think of today are all in books. You have Anita Blake by Laurell K. Hamilton, Elena by Kelley Armstrong, and the ever-loving Sookie Stackhouse. If only Hollywood would take a chance on more than just Charlaine Harris’s books, would I feel confident enough to say “Yes!” our Amazonian heroines of today can stand the test of time be memorable for all-time.

Are there any action-oriented females in recent years (book or film) who you think we’ll remember in the next ten or twenty years?

Paranormal author Marcia Colette was born and raised in a single-parent household in upstate New York. She holds a bachelors degree in biomedical engineering and a masters degree in information technology. After a couple of moves from north to south to north, she is now living in the south again in the lovely state of North Carolina.

Unlike many authors, Marcia hadn’t discovered her love for reading until later in life. As it turned out, her tastes were very selective and different than most of the stuff her English teachers tried to shove down her throat. She has been a lover of the paranormal from her first horror movie and has never looked back.

Marcia is a member of the Horror Writers Association, Paranormal Mystery Writers, and Romance Writers of America.

The best place to find her is on her blog where she loves connecting with readers and other writers. Conferences/conventions where sci-fi, fantasy, and horror reign supreme are a good bet, too, along with the occasional romance conference.

Visit me at www.marciacolette.com or http://marciacolette.wordpress.com.

STRIPPED

Someone wants their perfect weapon back, only she’s not coming quietly.

Alexa Wells wants her life back. She’s just not sure what that life was. The memories inside her head—a stripper’s—aren’t hers, and before she humiliates herself onstage one more time, she sets out to collect the scattered pieces of her mind. The trail leads to Boston, charges of identity theft and murder, and the real bombshell: a forgotten werewolf lover who insists she’s a werewolf hybrid.

Matt York doesn’t care that she looks at him like he’s been smoking crack between court cases. Now that he has her back he’s not about to let her go it alone, even if she can easily kick ass and take names all by herself. Amnesia only scratches the surface of her problems, and like it or not, she’s stuck with him.

She’s also stuck with Robert Gamboldt, a venture capitalist who’s not above murdering his way to the top. He’s not about to lose his prize possession without playing dirty. It’s a simple enough offer. Be his personal assassin, or go to jail.

With options like that, it’s enough to make a hybrid go full-blood.