Cradledby Christina Bauer
(Beholder #4.5)
Publication date: July 31st 2018
Genres: Paranormal, Young Adult
An Epilogue NovellaAt last, Elea and Rowan are settling in to their new lives. Trouble is, Rowan is spending a lot of time cleaning up messes from his childhood. And considering the nightmare that was his mother, those are some ugly messes indeed. In fact, the experience is enough to make Rowan vow that he never wants children of his own.Oops.BEHOLDER
• Cursed
• Concealed
• Cherished
• Crowned
• Cradled
Eight Rules For Writing Kickass Heroines
By Christina Bauer, author
I’ve written more than a dozen YA fantasy books with kickass heroines, most recentlyCRADLED(the epilogue to my Beholder series.) Over time, I’ve developed a list of rules for writing kickass heroines. Mostly, I have a ton of tropes I work hard to avoid. Take a look below and you’ll see what I mean…
RULE ONE.
No whining, hiding, or mopingfor heroines. Whining characters are really easy to write, but they are annoying as hell to read.
RULE TWO.
Heroinesdon’t run away from troubleunless there is no other choice. And if they do run, heroines never trip and fall over branches and dumb crap like that. Sure, they can have other complications—like running out of ammo, for example—but tripping is just stupidpants.
RULE THREE.
Warrior heroines always give people a chance before killing them. This is what I call the Bugs Bunny rule. Bugs always gave his antagonists a chance before declaring “Of course you realize this means war.”
RULE FOUR.
Heroines have a reaction to the taking of any life. It’s just creepy to kill and walk away without having any feels about it.
RULE FIVE.
The heroine must always have a plan. When there are setbacks, she regroups, thinks it over, and comes up with another strategy. NOTE: This one is really hard to me. In my first drafts, I tend to have a very passive heroine. Then I go back and give her action.
RULE SIX.
Heroines have a life goal other than getting a significant other. Romance is important, but it’s not the only thing going on.
RULE SEVEN.
Heroines who have a life goal outside of getting their significant other, still get to have romance in their lives. In other words, no one gets stripped of their femininity just because they have an atypical life goal for a romance novel.
RULE EIGHT.
Super-heroines make a conscious choice to develop their powers. It really bugs me when people get gifted super powers, don’t do much work, and yet can wield those energies forever like a pro. At some point, we all need to buckle down and do our homework. IN the Beholder series, the heroine works for five years to develop her mage skills. BOOM.
So there you have it, my eight rules for writing kickass heroines. And in my books, kicking ass doesn’t just mean fighting with fists or swords. It means having a moral center to what you do and sticking to that, no matter what.
Author Bio:
Christina Bauer thinks that fantasy books are like bacon: they just make life better. All of which is why she writes romance novels that feature demons, dragons, wizards, witches, elves, elementals, and a bunch of random stuff that she brainstorms while riding the Boston T. Oh, and she includes lots of humor and kick-ass chicks, too.
Christina graduated from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School with BA’s in English along with Television, Radio, and Film Production. She lives in Newton, MA with her husband, son, and semi-insane golden retriever, Ruby.
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Thanks for being on the tour! :)
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