Sunday, April 18, 2010

Where have all the bad girls gone?

Hi, my name is D L Jackson. I write urban fantasy, science fiction romance and erotic romance. I have two recently released novels this year with Liquid Silver Books, Slipping the Past and Last Flight of the Ark.

I recently posted about the bad boys of fiction over at Paranormal Romantics, http://paranormalromantics.blogspot.com, and as I say bad boy, I’m sure a few came right to you. Anakin Skywalker, Hannibal Lector, Dracula and the list probably goes on and on. You’re thinking yeah, he was yummy but boy was he bad, or that guy was a sociopath and scary. There are a ton of them.

*****WARNING. RANT FOLLOWS*****

Now, name some bad girls. Main characters. Villains. Go ahead, name them. Give me ten off the top of your head.

Not easy, is it?

Now, think Disney. That’s right, Disney. Now how many can you name? How about the wicked stepmothers in Cinderella and Snow White, or maybe the sea witch in The Little Mermaid. How about a villain that wants a dog coat and who was it that cursed the beauty in Sleeping Beauty? Why are bad boys who bend the rules and break the laws, abundant in adult fiction, in movies and on television? But when you’re looking for strong women who march to the beat of a different drummer, who don’t think twice about adding another notch to their bedposts or live outside of society’s expectations of what proper women should be, you can’t find them unless they’re in children’s stories targeted toward little girls?

Why?

I want more bad girls in fiction. More Faiths, like in Buffy the Vampire Slayer or more of Sampson's Delilah. They break the rules, their morals are questionable and they just don't care. That’s right. I want to read about them and the men who think they can tame them. I want to see an honest to goodness bad girl that can draw on our sympathies and still do inapproriate things. When they do, they’re not labeled as whores, bimbos, or be-atches for doing the same things men do and I don’t want them in a Disney movie.

In my recently released erotic e-novel, Last Flight of the Ark, published with Liquid Silver Books, my villain is the last female of a dying species and is willing to do anything to save her people. She’s anti-social, tricky and she feeds the command crew of the Ark’s sister ship, the Genesis II, to her babies.

Oh my. Gruesome. Well, through whose eyes? Does the lion think the lamb is anything but a buffet? Is my enemy female wrong to want to ensure the survival of her kind? Does one species have any more right to live than another? Hence the dilemma Colonel Kaleb Titan finds himself in. When faced with a decision that will deeply impact the lives of over two thousand and possibly change the fate of mankind, Kaleb must choose between two evils. He must either use biological warfare on his own people and genetically change them or let the enemy survive and keep the world Earth wants to settle at the cost of his life and that of over two thousand.

My bad girl doesn’t have the spotlight here, but she does have her reasons to do what she does. Can you name some main female characters in romance novels that are bad girls or be-atches? Women who stretch boundries and do questionable things. Give me some heroines. Where have all the bad girls gone?

I’m going to give away an e-copy of my erotic romance, Last Flight of the Ark. All you have to do is comment on my post before Monday at midnight. I’ll draw one lucky winner from the hat on Tuesday and announce.

Good luck.
D L Jackson

4 comments:

Arlene said...

Here's to strong, nasty heroines stomping the pages in every universe. I had to grab a copy of LF of the A on release day, and yes, it's one exciting read.

Rebecca Leigh said...

YES! I agree -- more bad girls!! Faith was so much cooler than Buffy :)

Barbara Elsborg said...

Lori Foster's paranormal books - The Servant series etc have a badass female lead - Gabby Cody. Sadly - much as love her other books, this series doesn't do it for me BECAUSE of the heroine. I just don't like her. And I wonder if that is the fine line that has to be trodden. We don't mind the guys being bad because that's just guys but Gabby is rude, pushes everyone away, has a huge attitude problem and is just really unlikeable.

D L Jackson said...

Good point, Barbara. But there are strong female heroines that got a little bitch in them. They don't have to be rude to be a bad girl. My question is why do we forgive the male hero for being, well, a dick, but the female heroine can't be forgiven. Heaven forbid she speak her mind or have a one night stand. Or even worse, go out looking to hook up and love em and leave em.
Here are some real life bad girls that might make a good template for a character in a book.

Mata Hari--executed by firing squad for espionage. She was both a courtesan and exotic dancer. The original Femme Fatale. What's interesting is 32 years after her execution, the files were brought out and reviewed on her case and they determined she was innocent.

Ellen Watson--Cattle Kate. She stood up to the powerful cattleman's association and lost her life in the process, but not before she claimed her ranch fenced it in and ran the spread as well as any man. She was lynched by a mob associated with the nefarious Wyoming Stock Growers Association. They were known to employ hired guns to take care of who they deemed trouble makers and anyone who stood in their way.

Tomoe Gozen--female, a general, swords woman, master archer and described as extremely beautiful. How many Japanese woman have you heard of that were considered worth a thousand warriors?

Bonnie Parker--Bank robber, beautiful and a woman who captured the American public's attention with her wild romance with Clyde Barrow. I still have a photograph of my grandparents posing like Bonnie and Clyde with his foot up on his cars running board and my grandmother with a rose in her mouth. Bad to the bone, but the public couldn't get enough of the sassy red-head. She supplied the sex appeal, Clyde backed her with the gunpower. True outlaws.

Anyone else got any to add???