AAD NOLA Author Spotlight: Kelly Meding

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When you ask people why they read urban fantasy, one of the reasons that comes up over and over again is "strong female protagonists." Yes, there are lots of other reasons, including awesome male protagonists (hello, Harry Dresden), creative and unique world-building (Downside, anyone?), and magical critters of all sorts. But strong female protagonist is one of my top reasons, and it's something I've been thinking about a lot this week.

Some of you may have noticed the Cage Match 2012 happening over on Suvudu.com (handy link: http://suvudu.com/tag/cage-match-2012). When I found out my Dreg City series heroine, Evangeline Stone, was one of the participants, I was excited. Given the competition (as well as being a lesser-known author), I knew she wouldn't have a snowball's chance of making it past round one, but it sounded like a great way to expose new readers to my books and my awesome, strong heroine.

The thing I didn't expect, however, was the way her match (handy link: http://sf-fantasy.suvudu.com/2012/03/cage-match-2012-round-1-the-fool-versus-evangeline-stone.html) was written. Under disadvantages, she's described as "boobalicious." Her "very feminine curves" are mentioned in paragraph one. She's then written as getting distracted by her "sensitive" side over the way her opponent smells—I mean, she's a girl, right? Obviously a whiff of Cute Guy means she'll forget she's in a death match and start dreaming about "masculine things."

At least she goes on to kick his ass in short order. You'd think she'd won, yes? Except her opponent had a friend outside the ring, waiting to ambush her. A hot friend with a "sexy" broken nose (don't ask, I don't know what's sexy about a broken nose). And then Evy falls victim to the ambusher's love charm, and is assumed to lose the match.

Yes, a love charm.

The Cage Match is all in good fun. It's glorified fanfiction, and it's a huge effort from the folks at Suvudu that's done for the love of SF/F. However, the fact that Evy is portrayed based on the model on THREE DAYS TO DEAD's cover, rather than how she actually acts, is disheartening. And it makes me wonder if people who don't read a lot of Urban Fantasy really think all of our heroines act this way.

I am absolutely not saying that a strong female character can't notice that a guy is hot, or even let her attraction to a man (or vampire, or whomever) drive her. She can and many amazing books have very sexually confident heroines. The great thing about Urban Fantasy is the sheer variety available—you can find just about any type of hero or heroine, in just about any kind of paranormal situation. There is something for everyone in this amazing little genre.

I just wish more people saw that. Despite the way the genre has expanded in the last few years, people still boil it down to "sexy hot chick in leather" and all of the negative stereotypes that go along with that. But UF is so much more (even if you can't always tell from the book covers, but that's all part of branding and a completely different blog post). Our strong female protagonists are more than just the bits that make them female. They are brains and brawn and faith and loyalty and tenaciousness and heart. They have individual personalities, and they don't all react the same way to the men in their lives.

So yes, it irks me to see Evy Stone boiled down to a few out-of-character stereotypes (fans of Dreg City know Evy goes weak-kneed for no one, not even the man who holds her heart). It irks me to see other UF heroines in that Cage Match treated differently than the heroes (and I'm not the only one [handy link: http://www.stellarfour.com/2012/03/are-heroines-getting-shortchanged-on.html] ) when they are just as strong and capable.

Tell me about some of your favorite strong female protagonists in Urban Fantasy? What do you love most about them?