Tuesday, October 7, 2014

My Kind of Heroine: Smart. Sassy. Strong. by Tameri Etherton #Fantasy #AmReading #EpicFantasy




Smart. Sassy. Strong. That’s MY kind of heroine!

I’d like to thank Melissa for having me here today. I’m a little passionate about my heroines and when I saw the call for guest bloggers, I was super excited. As a thank you to Melissa and her readers, I’d like to offer one lucky commenter the chance to win either a $10 Starbucks gift card, $10 Amazon gift card, or a special surprise, and some cool swag. If you’d like to be entered, please be sure to leave your email in the comments. The winner will be drawn at random on Sunday, Oct 12th and I’ll pop in on Monday to leave a comment with the winner’s name.

And now on to one of my favorite subjects: Kickass Heroines.

I love a good, strong, female lead. She can be flawed, broken, or even disenchanted, but she has to have a semblance of strength in her for me to want to go on a journey with her. If her idea of dealing with a situation is to hide in a room and cry, that’s all fine and well, but I’ll be moving on to the next story.



 As you can probably guess, I don’t write those kinds of heroines. Not. At. All.

My gals wield swords and sass, and know what they want out of life. Mostly. Part of the fun of writing is to have them think they know what they want, but to discover it was something different all along.

Take Taryn, the heroine in my fantasy novel, The Stones of Kaldaar.

She thinks she wants revenge on the evil, nasty, no good man who killed her grandfather. Turns out, what she really wants is a family who loves and appreciates her. Oh, and siblings who aren’t trying to kill her, or a father who isn’t trying to sacrifice her to a mad god. They’re a little demented, that family of hers.

But all of that strife teaches her how to be a better person. Her journey is one a lot of us have been on, or are on right now. It’s figuring out who you are in a crazy, mixed-up world, and being okay with what you see when you look in the mirror.

All the while having a sense of humor about life. A little snark is a good thing, right?

Taryn makes mistakes. She gets messy. She even cries. But then she gets up and figures out what’s next. She doesn’t let catastrophe destroy her. I like that in a heroine. Pluckiness and grit.

Sass, strength, and smarts. Taryn doesn’t just rely on her sword to get out of difficult situations; she’s got a mind and knows how to use it. She knows that to succeed in a hostile environment, it will take more than just cunning and charm, yet she isn’t afraid to work her sex appeal when necessary, nor is she afraid to swear like a soldier.
And she never, ever worries that her butt is too big.
When I grow up, I want to be like Taryn.

What traits do you like in your heroines? Do you prefer damsels in distress or the take charge, no holds barred warrior? If you could be any heroine from history, who would it be?

Thank you for stopping by for Melissa’s My Kind of Heroine blog series! I hope you enjoyed getting to know me and Taryn a bit more. I look forward to your comments (be sure to leave your email to win cool stuff).

~Tameri


Title: The Stones of Kaldaar

Publisher: Teacup Dragon Publishing

Date Published: September 3, 2014

Genre: Fantasy

Word Count: 145,000


Some say she’s the one of prophecy,
that she’ll bring balance to the world.
Others say she’s the destroyer,
meant to bring an end to Aelinae.
They’re both right.

Everything Taryn knew was a lie. Her life on Earth, the man she thought was her grandfather, even her age, were all fabrications meant to protect her, to keep her hidden until she could return to her home world. Once on Aelinae, Taryn realizes she has more to fear than the creeping darkness that threatens to suffocate her.

Unwilling to become a pawn in the machinations of her scheming family and the world she now calls home, Taryn sets out to learn about her mysterious powers. Reluctantly, she accepts the help of Rhoane, a man who promises to protect her, but whom she's not sure she can trust.

As tensions mount and her loved ones are threatened, Taryn must confront an ancient enemy and stop a sinister plan to bring back a banished god.

On Aelinae they say there can be no Light without Dark and no darkness without light. If Taryn fails, there will be only Blackness. Absolute. Binding. Without end.

Failure is simply not an option. 

Buy links:


Excerpt:


She kicked Ashanni again, steadying for another attack, but Lliandra’s captain of the guard rushed in, blocking her. “Leave him to me. See to the others.”
“Like hell I will.”
Two more soldiers joined the captain, edging her out.
“Bullocks!” She raced away to find a new victim. About two hundred paces away, one of the fanged creatures bore down on Rhoane. It stretched out a claw, knocking Rhoane’s sword from his hand before rearing up on its back legs, ready to strike.
She raced straight at the creature, pulling her feet up onto her saddle, balancing precariously. When they neared Rhoane, she let out a fierce cry and jumped from the saddle toward the creature’s fanged jaws.
She plunged her sword deep into its throat, and jerked viciously upward. The beast’s head split in two with spittle and foam coating her arms. A horrifying scream rent the air as the thing fell backward, shuddering in its death. Plumes of black smoke came from its mouth and spiraled into the air.
She gagged against the fetid stink.
Rhoane recovered his sword and approached her, his face a raging storm. “What in Ohlin’s name was that? Blood’s truth, Taryn, you could have been killed! What were you thinking?”
She glared at him with open-mouthed incredulity. “What was I thinking? I don’t know, maybe I wanted to kill that thing before it ate you!”
She stormed off to find Ashanni, trembling at the pain that ripped through her. A gash ran from under her left arm to above her ribs, oozing blood down her midsection. “Shit,” she muttered. It must’ve come from the vorlock. When she tried to mount Ashanni, the wound robbed her of strength.
 
Author Bio:
Rocker of sparkly tiaras, friend of dragons, and lover of all things sexy, Tameri Etherton leaves a trail of glitter in her wake as she creates and conquers new worlds and the villains who inhabit them. When not masquerading as a mom and writer, rumor has it she travels to far off places, drinking tea and finding inspiration for her kickass heroines—and the rogues who steal their hearts—with her own Prince Charming by her side.

Author Links:
Email: TameriEtherton@gmail.com


8 comments:

  1. Hey Melissa!

    Thanks again for having me today. This was such a fun post to write and I'm enjoying all the Heroine blogs so far. Such a variety of choices!

    Kickass heroines rock!

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    1. Hello Tameri,
      So sorry I'm late to the party. It's just been a terribly hectic week. Thank you so much for sharing with my readers. I'm a huge fan of sassy heroines my self. :-)

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  2. Hi, Cookie! Miss you a ton!
    Yes, I like my heroines strong, but I confess, I like them to doubt themselves, at least at the beginning. I want to see that lightbulb moment, when they look back at the path they've been on and say, "Wow, I'm a lot stronger than I believed I was!"

    I actually base this on a favorite hero of mine, Horatio Hornblower. He's this badass captain of a ship (over many books, he's promoted to Admiral), fighting the Spanish and leading his men to victory, yet all the time, he second-guesses himself. Instinctively he knows what to do, but his brain is always going, "Really? Is that the best you can do?"

    It probably goes hand-in-hand with one of my favorite sayings, "Let your mind go, and your body will follow."

    BTW, I'm really enjoying your book - but I knew I would!

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  3. Tameri, your heroines seem to have a lot in common with their creator. Isn't funny that I, too, should love fun, smart and sassy heroines?

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    Replies
    1. I would imagine you'd love nothing less, my wild, smart, sassy, and way too much fun friend!

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  4. I do, too, Gayle. If they come out of the gate totally badass, where do they have to grow?

    I love that internal question, "Really? Is that the best you can do?" What a great thing for a character to ask him/herself.

    Yay for loving the book! I've learned so much from you over the years, I just hope I do you proud. :)

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  5. Kitt! You lucky woman, you! You're the winner of the gift card or a print copy of my book!

    Send me your address and what gift you'd like and I'll get it mailed out asap. Thanks again for stopping in to comment. Yay!

    TameriEtherton at gmail dot com

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