Writer's Grove

Urban Fantasy (Might) Got Back

From Kevin: I’m very pleased to welcome author Nicole Peeler to the Writer’s Grove. If you haven’t read her Jane True series (which begins with Tempest Rising) I heartily recommend you add it to your list—it’s for your own good. :) Without further ado, here she is!

Howdy y’all! My name is Nicole Peeler and I write Urban Fantasy, just like Kevin does. In fact, I blurbed his book! It’s great, he’s great, and I was thrilled to invite Kevin to join us at the League of Reluctant Adults. Because if he ain’t a reluctant adult, I don’t know who is.

One thing Kevin and I have in common is that we don’t write the typical kickass UF heroine. Indeed, Kevin’s protagonist has a wang, which means he’s a HERO. As for my heroine, she’s not exactly kickass, at least to start. Rather, she’s half-selkie. Which means she’s part seal-shape shifter. And let’s be honest, folks. Just how tough can a seal be?

That about sums it up, doesn’t it? Seals are soft and sweet and the victims of clubbings. They rarely, if ever, are known to club back. Unless you’re a penguin, that is. Then they’re DEATH IN THE WATER.

So besides not being naturally all that intimidating, seals are, as we see in the example above, rather plump. Now, weight in Urban Fantasy is rarely an issue, simply because I can’t think of a single Urban Fantasy heroine who isn’t built like a brick shithouse, a la Red Sonja:

Now don’t get me wrong. I love a foxy lady, and I’m particularly drawn to the long and lean variety, probably because I am of the plump and short genre, myself. But must women really have walnut-cracking asses to be kickass?

I guess it depends on your definition of “kickass.” For some, it means just what it appears to mean: the ability to kick someone’s ass, probably using your spiky, spiky Glamazon boots. But I wanted to play with that definition by honoring the sort of women who are kickass in real life, and yet rarely, if ever, let the soles of their shoes come into contact with another person’s gluteous maximus.

Those women are the ones who get ‘er done, despite being vulnerable. These women are our teachers, like my mom, who at five foot nothing teach emotionally disturbed teenagers ten times her size. Or the women, like my sister-in-law, who nurse in my rough hometown and go to work despite seeing the abuses we heap upon each other as a species. These women are our soldiers, our police officers, our firefighters, and our social workers who, despite not having Red Sonja’s physique, still have Red Sonja’s bravery. And that’s real bravery, people.

Superheroes are supposed to do heroic things: they were drawn that way. But when “real” people do heroic things, now that’s something to stand back and applaud.

So while I never specify exactly what size my Jane really is, she describes herself, variously, as “built for comfort, not for speed,” “cushy,” and the like. She’s definitely short and, while she’s fit from all her swimming, she’s no Twiggy.

But does that mean Jane can’t be kickass? I guess that’s up to my readers to decide. What do you think?

Nicole Peeler is a professor of English literature and creative writing at Seton Hill University, in Greensburg, PA. She also writes urban fantasy novels for Orbit Books. Her third novel, Tempest’s Legacy, just hit shelves in January.

For those American readers interested in Nicole’s fiction, Orbit Books is offering her first book, Tempest Rising, as this month’s Orbital Drop, downloadable on multiple platforms for only $2.99. Click here for more details.