Now that we have more than a dozen Heroine Question interviews in the can, I feel as though an index would be a nice thing to have. If you prefer to simply browse the most recent interviews, they are here for the squeezing. If not, I present the following list of authors, with interview links and a link to one of their books:
- Ada Hoffman (Monsters in My Mind)
- Kari Maaren (Weave a Circle Round)
- S.B. Divya (Runtime)
- Karina Sumner-Smith (Towers Fall)
- J. Kathleen Cheney (Dreaming Death)
- Linda Nagata (The Red: First Light)
- Kay Kenyon (Bright of the Sky)
- Louise Marley (The Child Goddess
)
- Juliet McKenna (Aldabreshin Compass Series)
- Brit McGinnis (Smugglers: Maskheads Trilogy
)
- Leah Bobet ( An Inheritance of Ashes
)
- Loren Rhoads (The Dangerous Type)
- Alex Bledsoe (Long Black Curl)
- Marie Brennan ( A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent
)
- Alma Alexander (Changer of Days
)
- A.C. Wise (The Ultra Fabulous Glitter Squadron Saves the World Again.)
- Alexandra Renwick (Push of the Sky)
- Kelly Robson, (Waters of Versailles
)
- Tina Connolly (The Ironskin
trilogy).
- Karen Miller (The Falcon Throne
).
- Charlene Challenger (The Voices in Between).
- Jessica Reisman (The Z Radiant
).
- Caitlin Sweet (The Flame in the Maze
).
- Gemma Files (Experimental Film
).
- Jane Lindskold (Artemis Invaded).
- Martha Wells (
Stories of the Raksura: Volume Two
)
The first time I did an interview series on my blog, I asked long, complicated questions. Though the Journeys series–which is about how established SF writers like Jack Dann and Walter Jon Williams got to that point–is really interesting, the essays are lengthy. I like a good chewy read as much as the next human, and I’m a little appalled by the tl;dr phenomenon. Still, after I’d done a blog tour or two, I felt a little as though the incredibly long interview was an imposition on my guests.
So this series is meant to keep it simple. Initially, I’ve been asking three things:
- Is there a literary heroine on whom you imprinted as a child? A first love, a person you wanted to become as an adult, a heroic girl or woman you pretended to be on the playground at recess?
- Can you remember what it was she did or what qualities she had that captured your affections and your imagination so strongly?
- How does she compare to the female characters in your work? Is she their literary ancestor? Do they rebel against all she stands for? What might your creations owe her?
- How do you feel about the word heroine? In these posts, I am specifically looking for female authors’ female influences, whether those women they looked up to were other writers or Anne of Green Gables. Does the word heroine have a purpose that isn’t served by equally well by hero?
The idea is to give the interviewee the option to keep it short and sweet, if they choose–to shoot me three quick answers and a biography/book cover, and to hopefully give us all something to think about in the process.
