Sample Sunday May 27th

As promised, the second half for the story from last week.  Don't go looking for the first half - it's gone.  Hey, I can't go giving away entire stories, you know.


Or rather, I won't.  :-)


                     

Sleet Dreams

Sorry, Gone!  Needed to be faster than that.  You only get a week.

If you want to read this entire story in one, you'll find Sleet Dreams in Fragments.

Osier Publishing   Amazon UK   Amazon USA     Smashwords

Sarah Barnard - Daughter of Lilith

I'm Sarah Barnard, I write fiction – mainly fantasy: mostly what's becoming known as urban fantasy where part of the story takes place in the "normal" world and there are elements of magic and fantasy thrown into the mix. I also dabble in science fiction where I play with Sage and her car that can take her to Ganymede (one of Jupiter's moons, in case you didn't know).

All my main characters tend to be strong, independent women.

I also publish other writer's work through Osier Publishing. There are currently three of us at Osier but one of us is taking a break and we're about to become four, and, I hope, soon to be five – all excellent female writers. Yes, one of them is Morgan Gallagher, and we're proud to have her on board.

Links:

My writing site: http://sarahbarnard.co.uk

Osier Publishing: http://osierpublishing.co.uk

I'm on Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sarah-Barnard/e/B0034P9SZG/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

I'm a writer, with a vagina of my own, not in a jar – I was born with it. It's birthed me two lovely children, and brought me pleasure, and I love it. My anatomy does NOT dictate my talents, does NOT make me less, or soft, or weak. I can write soft, strong, horror, tension, power and magic, light and dark. I write good books because I have a brain and an imagination too. Those are not solely a male domain.

I recall an interview I once read with Sci-fi/Fantasy writer Julian May (I can't remember where, it may even be urban myth but I remember it, it stayed with me). I'd read the entire Metapsychic Rebellion/Saga of the Exiles before I realised she's female. She'd felt forced to hide her gender in order to get published – mainly due to the genre of her writing. It's a sad state of affairs that in some ways this is still the case and that women are being told they can't possibly write horror, fantasy, sci-fi, purely because of anatomy.

Patriarchy is alive and well and thriving in the world of writing and publishing. Shame. I think a good, old fashioned, patriarchy-dragon slaying quest is needed.

Morgan says she's interested in the ideas behind the women in my own Portal Series.

Are they all Daughters of Lilith? Are they Daughters of Eve? How very Narnia.... Did I intend them to be such?

Why do we care so much about these labels anyway? Why do we sit and analyse characters in fiction and attribute mythology to them? We all do it though, don't we?

My own characters came from deep inside my head, with little or no planning to start with – so, no, I didn't intend for the three women to reflect the triple aspect of womanhood so clearly and neither did I intend to represent Daughters of Lilith or Eve. But, somehow they still do. I can see it, my readers can see it. What's fascinating, to me anyway, is the way people react to the three of them. Sam is the Maiden, young, undefined, holding the potential for so much. Kate is the Mother, nurturing and creating the next generation. Lily is the Crone, but not in that old hag sense, in the mature, experienced, powerful woman sense.

Have you read any of the Portal series? Who's your favourite? I bet it's Lily....

It's always Lily. And Lily was a total accident, she created herself. She was thrown onto the page when Kate needed a friend to watch the children. She walked into The Portal Between, did the Jedi mind trick, and took over.

She was, very loosely, modelled on the Lilith legend – born from, and bound to, a living earth; powerful, independent, in control. But passes for normal. I did once have the notion that she was Ametsam's mother (The Portal Between) – making her "The Mother of Demons" But I didn't use that in the end. I toyed with the idea that she is either The Lilith, and immortal, or directly descended from the original Lilith. She's not the first, the latter is debatable. Is she a Daughter of Lilith? Yes, absolutely. She rules, she carves her own path and she does things her way and refuses to answer to anyone. She thrives on her own independence.

Sam doesn't fit into either camp. Sam is a mess, she's damaged so much by the mess of her life that she is still finding out who she is and what she wants when she finally cracks and..... ah, spoilers. Go and read Child of the Portal for that part.

Kate, on the other hand, I could argue either way. She makes her life as she wants it. She exercises her choices and does things her own way. But her choice is to nurture a family, be a homemaker. Does that make her a Daughter of Eve? You might say yes, but I'd argue against that. She has enormous strength and determination. She's choosing the lifestyle that makes her appear to be more passive, but it's HER CHOICE.

And that's where my politics come in.

I'm all about choice, ultimate choice. In this, Ms Gallagher, we are in total agreement. It's an individual's right to choose that's important. But it bumps up against my other set of beliefs, which run along a Pagan path. "Cause no harm." Or, "If it harm none, then do as you will." There has to be that caveat or there is imposition of choice on others and that removes their own choice.

Back to the characters. Lily makes some damned hard choices. She chooses to abandon her child, at least twice, probably more. She knows the harm this does and she does it anyway. Why? The first time was in crisis, the only choice she really had (The Heir) Read it and then tell me she had a true, free choice. What she did took courage, but the choice she made was limited, constrained by the man in her life. She let him dictate what she could, and could not, do. But in later books she's the strong one, the one who holds the answers, the power. She moves from Lilith in name to Lilith in nature, before she becomes very human at the end of Child of the Portal and she chooses to let her power slip away so she can rest.

Being a Daughter of Lilith can be draining, exhausting.  

Next Week's Daughter of Lilith will Be Lori Lopez 

Sample Sunday May 20th

Poverty is a hard ride.  Cold, is a harder one.  Old age, the hardest.  Put all three together and you have the lives of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people trying to survive, trying to get to Spring.

Old people die in the winter months, even when they have heat and light and food.
Sometimes the horror isn't in the big things.  It's in the little things.  In the tiny little parts of small lives, that can keep you alive.  Sometimes, horror is losing your library card.


This is the first have of this story.  As I'm very fond of it, I'll give you the second half, next Sunday.

SNIP - content removed - second half of the story, here.

If you want to finish this story, you'll find Sleet Dreams in Fragments.

Osier Publishing   Amazon UK   Amazon USA     Smashwords

Julie Ann Dawson - Daughter of Lilith

Our very first post on Daughters of Lilith, is by Julie Ann Dawson, of Bards & Sages.  Julie had written the below, in the same time frame that I'd written the first post on this subject. 


If you'd like to buy and read A Game of Blood before reading the post, you can find it here:

A Game Of Blood

In future, I'll try and give a few days notice of the subject matter of the next post, so that reading up can be done, if that is your thing.  


Morgan (everything past this point written by Julie)

 Bio: Julie Ann Dawson’s love for the horror genre began at the age of thirteen, when she found a copy of Stephen King’s ‘Salem’s Lot in the Bridgeton High School library. She earned her B.A. degree in English, Liberal Arts from Rowan University in 1993. Her short stories, poems, and articles have appeared in a variety of both traditional and digital publications, including Gareth Blackmore’s Unusual Tales, Black Bough, The New Jersey Review of Literature, Lucidity, Happiness, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and others. Her other works include the dark fantasy The Doom Guardian and the horror short story collection September and Other Stories. When not writing her own stories, she operates micro press Bards and Sages Publishing.

Apparently, I’m a misogynist.

I got an email recently from a woman who took offense to the fact that there are no “strong female characters” in A Game of Blood. She was rather incensed by it, going so far as to claim she “couldn’t believe a woman wrote this!” This isn’t the first time I’ve heard this accusation. There’s even a review on Amazon.com that points this out. I didn’t set out to write a feminist manifesto when I wrote the story. I wasn’t setting out to tear down any archetypes. I set out to write a paranormal thriller.

As I begin work on the sequel, I look back over the cast of characters and ask myself if I did “slight” my own gender. I honestly think one would be hard pressed to call Jasmyne Sherman, Rodney’s wife, a weak female. She may not pull a gun or get into fist fights, but she’s a successful professional woman who freely shares her opinions. Assistant DA Madeline Carter isn’t meek either; working behind her boss’s back to push her own agenda. Even Ms. Rosalind, the elderly part time receptionist at the police station, commands respect from the officers. Sure, Darius takes advantage of a few teenage girls, but truth be told Darius takes advantage of just about everyone in one way or the other. Women aren’t the only victims in his bizarre schemes. If anything, I would say the presentation of women throughout the book is balanced and realistic for the setting and storyline.

Perhaps that is the problem. These are realistic women and not fantasy role models.

I doubt people would level these sort of accusations at a male author. Anyone familiar with the genre would in fact find far fewer realistic portrayals of women in most thrillers. But I think female readers may place an undue expectation on female writers to create these artificially strong female characters even at the expense of the story. I’m supposed to be offering role models in lieu of believable characters, I guess.

I’m often annoyed by what is presented as a “strong” female character, to be honest. The typical strong female character in modern fiction has become a composite caricature: she’s strong and sexy, tough as nails and softhearted, can kick the ass of a man twice her size but still falls madly in love with the hero. The word “sassy” is often bantered about as a compliment, implying that for a female character to really be a “strong” female, it isn’t enough for her to be able to do her job competently. She has to be fashionable and funny while doing it.

I look at the so-called strong female character in movies and cringe a bit. Selene in the Underworld franchise. Black Widow in the Avengers. Would they be celebrated as strong female characters if they didn’t look sexy in their catsuits while kicking ass? Would the characters even EXIST if they weren’t sexy and sassy?

Mitch, the hero in the book, isn’t fashionable. He usually shows up at the police station looking like he just rolled out of bed. Could a female detective as protagonist be considered “strong” and still looks completely disheveled and unkempt? Mitch is often socially awkward, has a gutter vocabulary, and is more inclined to resolve problems with his gun than words. Would a female detective be able to go through the book acting like Mitch does? Or would she need to be “sassy” in order to be acceptable to readers?

I go back and think about the character of Ms. Rosalind. She would not look good in a catsuit. She certainly is not going to do a spinning kick in a pair of heels. But her actions, though not sexy or sassy, are essential to the climax of the book. She’s a powerful woman who doesn’t flaunt her power or even let on that she has it. She doesn’t need to. Like the crone of myth, she possesses a quiet power that commands respect before you even know what she is capable of. 

So my female characters aren’t glamorous and powerful. They aren’t strong and sassy. Instead, they are wives juggling careers and family obligations, young women working toward getting into college, and old women working part-time jobs to supplement their social security. They are single moms looking for romance and distraught mothers who have lost their children under the most horrific of circumstances. They are teen girls struggling with identity issues and middle-aged women struggling to climb the corporate ladder. The hero moves through a world of real women, not caricatures. The hero and villain may be men engaged in a deadly game, but the women are not just sitting around waiting to be saved. They are moving on with their lives, making decisions independent and mostly unaware of what the main characters are doing. 

Ironically, one of the villains for the sequel is a female, a witch who plans to introduce a new era of Enlightenment. She is neither a seductress nor a hag, as is typical of female villains. In fact, she’s rather plain appearance-wise. She could walk by you and you wouldn’t look twice at her. Her methods aren’t sassy or flashy, but calculating. Her goals horrific yet oddly logical. It will be curious to see how readers respond to her, and if I get more emails telling my I hate my own gender.

Post script:

  

My reason for offering this to Daughters of Lilith was to point out that sometimes we women are our own worst enemies in terms of forcing definitions on women. For example, I have been involved in discussions where the men in the group understand my point perfectly, while the women will make comments diminishing my contributions as “mean” or “cruel” because of my “tone.” My demonstration of strength didn’t fit with how they believed women should demonstrate strength. It isn’t enough to demonstrate my knowledge on a topic. I have to do it in a way that is also sweet and kind: requirements not placed on males making the same points and in some cases using almost the same words. So it is my hope that my contribution will encourage women to think not just in terms of how to liberate their own “inner Lilith,” but to be wary about how they may be actually reinforcing the gender roles Lilith sought to cast off.

Book Blurb

What would you do if a 300 year old vampire decided that you would make the perfect Van Helsing for his own twisted game?A series of bizzare kidnappings leads detective Mitch Grogan to the home of the wealthy and eccentric Darius Hawthorne. What he discovers there unleashes a chain of events that not only threatens his life, but also his sanity. Grogan finds himself caught up in a deadly game with a three hundred year old vampire looking for a worthy adversary. But how can a burnt-out cop with a crumbling marriage compete against a centuries' old immortal with unlimited resources and supernatural powers?

More than boredom drives the cunning Hawthorne, however. His attempts to push Grogan to the breaking point are more than cruel entertainment. They also serve as a test to see whether or not the mortal is ready to help him hunt an even more deadly foe:  one that  would see the whole world burn to remove the vampiric corruption from it.

Next Posting will be by Sarah Barnard on her Portal women.

Daughters of Lilith

Lilith copyright  Shane Coppage

Lilith, for those who don't know, is a mythical figure from... well, just about everywhere.  The legends start with her in the Garden of Eden, where she was Adam's first wife.  She was made from the earth, like him, and although she was his partner - she bore him children - she refused to submit to his authority.  She argued that they were made from the same source, the same earth, and therefore they were equals.


Angry, Adam rejected her, and asked for another mate.  God then fashioned Eve from Adam's side ('rib' is a contentious translation) and bade Eve to be Adam's help mate, not his equal.


Lilith went off, in a high temper.  Or was banished: depends which text you read, and how you read it.  Her children were named illegitimate, fae, vampires, or demons; those of the shadows.  Lilith is often depicted as a temptress, a sly person, a poisonous woman.  As opposed to the woman who said 'No' to being told to what to do by her rightful master, the man.


Lilith, despised, slandered, seen as evil... represents in many of the myths and legends all the things women are not supposed to be.  Unlike Eve, whose problem was her very femaleness, her weakness, Lilith is a pain in the butt for being strong.  Eve gets sucked in by the serpent, to eat the apple.  And further, she could persuade Adam to it it also.  In some depictions, the serpent that tempted Eve is actually Lilith, removing all sin from male responsibility in the first place.  The serpent that tempts the weak woman, is in fact, the stronger woman.  Sin, falling from the grace of God, is woman's fault, no matter how you view either Lilith, or Eve.  So women must carry the burden on that original sin (the pain of child birth is often quoted as Eve's punishment for her weakness.)

The Serpent Lilith Tempts Eve (Sistine Chapel)

Eve is weak.  Like Pandora, it's giving into temptation that causes misery and pain to escape the box.  Lilith, however, is active: strong, powerful, treacherous.  Lilith is a protagonist.  She makes things happen.  Lilith's will, her agency, was the problem to start with.


So we have a wonderful dichotomy.  If you are a strong and rebellious women, you're a baddy.  If you are a true helpmate to the male, your 'lack' makes you weak and susceptible to persuasion to badness.  It's no accident that the eating of the apple allowed the children of god in the garden of Eden to notice they were naked (and thus make them cover up their 'shame').  Knowledge, is sinful.  Innocence, is ignorance and obedience.


I've been thinking a lot, lately, about being a woman, and a writer of horror.  Of how people still say things like "Gosh, how can you write horror, you're a woman?"  As if the dark, the darkness, the shadows, are only a male affair.  Despite the best attempts of our famous writers with vaginas, who have written horror in the past.  Despite the supposed march forward of equality.  There are still those who think that writers with vaginas should only write romance, erotica, children's novels, cook books and knitting patterns.  Apart from how annoying that must be if you are a writer with a vagina who writes romances, cookery books and knitting patterns (Hi Kathleen!), there is also the rather one sided view of such things.  It's not as is writers with a penis don't write such things.  Romance, erotica, cook books and knitting books are all written by men.   No one tells Gordon Ramsey he's less of a man, for writing cook books.


But women are still questioned about being writers of horror.  As if writers with vaginas should somehow conform to the Eve image: the helpmate, the other side, pulled from man, and only work on the touchy feely, 'female' side of life.  I don't conform to the Eve image.  I'm more of a Lilith person.  I write about shadows and darkness.  Both as a writer, a human being, and as a creator of female characters, I'm a Daughter of Lilith.


I have no problem with Eve, and her daughters.  I know women who do believe their role is to complete the male partnership in their life, and create a whole unit of family from which to move on, raise children, grow a world, under a Godly life style.  I have no truck with that.  Just like I have no truck with women who wear the veil to show their belief in God.  I just have truck with people - men or women - who insist that women are the helpmate, who require submission, and who think they can legislate woman's bodies and sexuality as being public property.  I am perfectly happy for women to choose to be helpmates, and to fulfill their roles as Daughters of Eve.

Lilith

As long as I get to say 'No'.


As long as I get to say "That's not me."


As long as I get to be a Daughter of Lilith, and we get rid of all the nonsense about being a writer of women who say no, as being somehow not female.


Lots of women in fiction will pretend to be Daughters of Lilith.  They'll even think they are a Daughter of Lilith!  They spend a lot of time in the narrative saying 'no' 'no' 'no' 'no' but at the end of the tale, she falls into the arms of her lover, her protector, knowing she's safe forever.  If she fights through the narrative with her perky breasts and flawless skin, only to find her self in loving arms at the end, safe in the knowledge that her turmoil is over and she has finally found peace and safety... she's a Daughter of Eve.


If she's wondering how long the idyll will last, before life breaks back in and she has to get up and do something, she's a Daughter of Lilith.  


And she doesn't need to be in horror.  She can be in the romance, in the child's book, in the chick lit book.  I'd argue that Hermione is a Daughter of Lilith, as is J.K Rowling.  Although being a horror writer, I'm really interested in seeing other writers or horror, discuss their female characters in this Lilith paradigm I'm setting out here.


Characters can also be a little bit of both, of course.  Both Lilith and Eve.  Real people are that complex, so characters can be too.  But are the writers Daughters of Lilith?  Is Anne Rice?  (I'd say yes, based on Gabrielle, Lestat's mother, who simply goes feral.)  Is Bella?  I have no idea, as I've not read the books, but from the memes I've seen, she is perceived by some as a Daughter of Eve, happily giving up her all to her hero.  Is she?

Hecate

It's a tricky business, being a powerful woman in a narrative.  Particularly in terms of being sexual, as opposed to sexy.  The Lilith myth has become a short hand for the Dark Women who is very naughty and sleeps around a lot.  Dangerous sex, but sex for the taking.  The dark power is part of her sexuality.  A sexual predator who just happens to be available.  The Woman Who Said No, reduced to the woman with the poison pellet in her pocket, and who shrieks "Yes, yes, yes, do it one more time!"  but refuses to wash the dishes.

We all have to wash the dishes.   No, really.


I'm not interested in powerful women in the narrative who are heroines.  I'm interested in powerful women in the narrative who are heroes.  And who negotiate the challenges of how to be the active person, and the woman, on her own terms.  Who maintains her sense of self and identity, despite her sexuality and her physical attributes.  She may enjoy them, she may not.  But they are hers.  


I'm interested in how writers with vaginas cope with the idea that horror and crime are 'men's genres'.  And how they cope with being writers of 'women's genres'.  It's about the writing, really.


I'd also like to see how Daughters of Lilith cope with being female - having that vagina.  How motherhood can be negotiated.  How sexual feeling and need is part of their own identity, and not the major defining element of who she is in the world.  How to negotiate an 'other half' and still be herself.


And, of course, how this can be negotiated regardless of gender.  Daughters of Lilith have to negotiate how they accommodate a partner, an 'other', a lover, a life... regardless of the gender of the partner.  

How to be sexual, and not a sex toy.  How to have power, and not be a hag.  How to be sexual, have power, and agency, and not be a barbie doll with black hair and a snake tattoo or a broken down old biddy with a twitch.


So, this is an open invite, for all writers with vaginas to sumbit guest posts to this blog, on Daughters of Lilith in written fiction.


I look forward to your early reply.


Morgan


Daughters of Lilith


Female writers who write about dark female characters, strong powers, shadows, pain, women and their working through a world of struggle.  Women who strive to overcome.  Women who survive.  Women who find their sense of self, and maintain it, against the odds.


It's a stab in the dark definition, open to suggestions and corrections.


Edit:  A Daughter of Lilith is not a help mate to another person.  She retains her own agency, and requires that as an equal share, in any partnership.  Caroline Ingles in Little House on the Praire, is a Daughter of Eve.  She fully accepts and understands, and is happy with, being Charles's help mate  This does not mean she is weak, or unhappy.  Laura Ingles Wilder, argues and rescues her husband from bad decisions.  She's a Daughter of Lilith.  It does not mean she is not caring, and a good mother, or a good wife.  Just that she has a different paradigm.


A Daughter of Lilith can be any woman, in any type of fiction.  That's the point!


SUBMISSION GUIDELINES


1)  You must be a writer with a vagina.  Unless you are Joss Whedon.  If you are Joss Whedon, you can submit whatever the hell you want to. 


Crass comments about how you have a vagina in a jar on your desk, or you own your wife's, does that count, automatically negates you.


2)  Submissions under 1000 words.  Must be edited and properly spell checked.  If you leave a mistake in it, a mistake goes out.  Simples!


3)  Up to four images.


4)  You must start with a small preface about who you are, what you write, and give links to your sites.  You may mention up to three works of your own.


5)  You may write about...
             yourself as a writer
                other women as writers
                    your own characters
                        other writer's characters


You may simply pose a question, with your own thoughts, and open it up for debate.  For instance "Is Jane Eyre a Daughter of Lilith?"  


(I'd argue yes, but I can see the argument for her being a Daughter of Eve.)

Daughters of Lilith posts will go out once a week.  

First Come, First Served.

Submissions Here