-Stephanie Osborn
http://www.stephanie-osborn.com
~~~
Have you ever wondered what makes fantasy heroines real?
I do.
All the time. Perhaps it's because I write fantasy. But I also read a lot of
fantasy and I really appreciate a heroine who is powerful not because she's
magical but rather because she's real.
Lusielle,
the heroine in my latest novel, The Curse
Giver (Twilight Times Books, July
2013), turned out to be a remarkably "real" fantasy heroine. In
hindsight, I really liked her and I wanted to learn more from the very
character I created. I wondered what made her so compelling.
But
first, let me tell you a little bit about Lusielle. In the novel, she's a
powerful healer, on the run, accused of a crime she didn't commit. She's about
to be burned for her crimes when the Lord of Laonia saves her from the pyre. He's
not her savior. On the contrary, he's deadly to her. A mysterious curse giver
has cast a virulent curse that can't be defused or defeated. The curse requires
the Lord of Laonia to murder Lusielle in order to save his people from
destruction. So this is how the story begins, with Lusielle wondering if she
should help the bitter lord pledged to kill her and the Lord of Laonia set to
kill the only woman who can heal more than his body—his soul.
One of
the reasons Lusielle comes across so real in the story is that her passion for
her occupation is very tangible. Practicing her craft lends her authority and,
perhaps more importantly, many opportunities to grow and learn throughout the
story. She takes her trade very seriously
and so did I. All of the healing practices and ingredients that Lusielle uses
in The Curse Giver are based on
authentic medieval practices. Most of her potions' components come from
historical sources. I think that the concrete elements of her practice make her
more real to the reader, more credible and therefore more compelling.
Another important aspect to Lusielle's
realism is that she's not perfect and she knows it. She works hard but things
don't always go her way. She's made mistakes—a marriage without love that led
to years of abuse and slavery, years that, by her own admission, she won't get
back. And yet she's also resilient, capable of looking forward, able to dream a
different life and willing to pursue it even when it entails breaking the rules
and loving someone who is ultimately pledged to kill her.
Along those lines, relationships
bring a solid sense of reality to Lusielle's story. Friendship is very
important to her, and her often confusing feelings for the Lord of Laonia
reflect the full gamut of the human emotions that are so familiar to all of us.
But I think that the elements that
make Lusielle most real are her willingness to challenge her fears, her ability
to learn from her experiences, and the confidence that she develops as she
learns. Courage and learning go hand in hand. Sure, there's some powerful magic
in the story, but ultimately it's Lusielle's knowledge, reason and awareness
that make all the difference. See, I think heroines who learn, change and adapt throughout a story are
not just cool, they're also real, because change is required of all of us in
order to better our lives and we thrive only when we learn from our mistakes.
Dora Machado is the award-winning author of the epic
fantasy Stonewiser series and her newest novel, The Curse Giver, available from Twilight Times Books, July 2013.
She grew up in the Dominican Republic, where she developed a fascination for
writing and a taste for Merengue. After a lifetime of straddling such
compelling but different worlds, fantasy is a natural fit to her stories. She
lives in Florida with her husband and three very opinionated cats. To learn more about Dora Machado and her novels,
visit her website at www.doramachado.com or contact her at Dora@doramachado.com. For a free excerpt of The
Curse Giver, visit http://twilighttimesbooks.com/TheCurseGiver_ch1.html.
Subscribe to her blog at http://www.doramachado.com/blog/, sign up
for her at newsletter at http://doramachado.com/newsletter.php,
Facebook
and Twitter.~~~
Next week, Dora will be talking about her villain! Come back and let's support this great author!
-Stephanie Osborn
http://www.stephanie-osborn.com
