Thanks for the response. Now I have some comments from your post above.

My internet connection has been wonky for a couple of days so forgive me for my absence.

My comment is addressed mostly to Beverley but I think it applies to anyone who writes heroines who aren’t immediately sympathetic.

Bev, put those sympathy-generating lines back in. And don’t think of it as a cop-out, it’s not. If you were going to show her going on a character journey, if the reader is going to discover something great and sympathetic about her a little later on, then you are staying perfectly true to character, just rearranging the placement of the information a bit.

It may be an unfair fact of life that romance readers don’t give their heroines a whole lot of room, but a fact it is. Don’t lessen your chance to be read.

The more your heroine is an anti-heroine, the more you need your reader’s sympathy to lie with her. And there are many creative ways to go about it–constraint is the mother of creativity, I’ve always believed.

Because you are not writing about a truly nasty, mean character. In your heart, you know who she is. You know how she came to be the way she is. Let us know too. That way we can root for her as you do.

As I said before, there is room for it all. That’s why I’m going to be watching Sherry’s novel closely when it comes out. I pray everyone out there goes out and buys it. It will really open the door for readers who want to read more beautiful prose and heroines who’ve had several lovers. It will also open the door to writers who want to write with more prose and those lovely historical descriptions.

Catherine,

I hope you like them! I too liked Pullman’s trilogy, if mostly for the different (from, say, Lewis’) take on religion. Mostly, YA is not my thing. I mean, where’s the hot sex??? *wink*

I’ll check out Neil Stephenson’s! I read Card’s Alvin Maker novels, which kind of put me off trying anything else of his, though you’re not the first to recommend Ender’s Game.

Selene

hear, hear. I’ve been on the receiving end of this from agents myself. It’s almost as if they’ve never even heard of a character arc. It’s a bias, I think, too, because a good heroine *or* anti-heroine will more often than not have–gasp–qualities that normally are attributed to men. But in a woman, it’s somehow “unsympathetic.”

Loving all the comments here!

And thanks to everyone else for commenting and good luck Beverley.

As for my own recommendations, *sigh*, I haven’t read enough fantasy to make any, I don’t think. Well, except for Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy — three of my all-time favorite books ever. Sherry loved them too, if I remember right.

I’ve got some favorite sci-fi books, if you’re interested (hey, there’s a little crossover, right??): Neil Stephenson’s The Diamond Age, which is set in Hong Kong in the future and stars a crazy-interesting, brilliant little girl; Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game, which I guess is supposedly for kids but I loved it; um… I’ll post more if I think of them! Thanks again for posting yours. And thanks to Sherry for hosting our book talk in her comments.

Oh good, a likeminded spirit.

How about:

Anne Bishop’s The Black Jewels trilogy–because it’s dark and sexy and it’s got super cool worldbuilding.

Juliet Marillier’s Daughter of the Forest–Celtic fantasy with strong characterizations, lovely immersive writing and strong romantic elements.

Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Dart–It’s about a spy who also happens to be a BDSM submissive courtesan, need I say more? ;-O

Laura Resnick’s In legend born + sequels–great characterizations, believable conflict, lots of intrigue, struggle and yes, even war, but none of it is against any “Dark Evil”.

How’s that for a start? If you have any recommendations to share yourself, let me know!

Selene

Also, I’m on Blogger too, as are my friends. So you’re not the only one here.