I saw an interesting post by Katy Perry in Glamour magazine about ten women who changed her life, which started me thinking that I should write a similar post for the blog. Only when I started making the list, I kept thinking about the women in various books who had an influence on me instead! Me as a person, not just me as a writer…So, here’s that post…in no particular order.

1. Jo in Little Women by Louisa May Alcott – our next door neighbor in upstate New York gave me her copy to read when I was maybe seven or eight. This book was the first time I had the concept that you could make money by being a writer. (And I wrote my first ‘book’ at age seven although no one will ever pay me any money for that one LOL.) Other things I gleaned from this were the idea you don’t always get what you want, or at least not easily, but you should never give up. And the guy who seems like The One may not be (Laurie). And when you do find The One, he may not make sense to anyone but you. (Professor Bhaer didn’t appeal to me as a seven year old but he has grown on me.) And scarlet fever can kill you, which terrified me when I actually got scarlet fever, but of course we have antibiotics nowadays.

“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

2. Mara in Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw – I’ve spoken of this book many times. It was the moment I realized you could write your own stories set in the mysterious ancient world. I admired Mara’s spirit, her smarts and her bravery, and I thoroughly approved of the dashing Count Seftu.

3. Trixie Belden by various – oh my, let me count the ways I loved this girl. I wanted to BE this girl. I coveted her friends and her family and Jim (had a big book crush on Jim), and all her adventures. She lived in Upstate NY like I did, which was another bond. I learned from her that adventure is all around you, and to pay attention to details and clues that others might miss.I started reading these books when I was younger than the characters, so they seemed SO grown-up to me…

4. Lessa of Pern, Dragonriders by Anne McCaffrey – smart, tenacious, brave, able to speak to any dragon, rider of Ramoth, the Queen dragon, fiercely self sufficient….running a Weyr, fighting Thread….oh, and then there’s F’lar…

5. Ripley of the Alien movie series – she’s probably my ultimate science fiction movie heroine, although I think she needs more romance (I totally ship Ripley and Hicks). But talk about being in charge, never giving up and  smart…fierce maternal instincts…

6. Sarah Connor of the Terminator series – a close second to Ripley…her world changes in an instant and she rolls right with it, becomes a fighter and a fierce mother…

7. Gillian of Year of the Unicorn by Andre Norton – she saw a chance to help someone else and to perchance better her own life circumstances and she went for it, then never gave up through all the obstacles until the HEA with Herrel. I still reread this one periodically and sigh. I always want there to be more. (Plus Andre Norton’s books were such a huge influence on me that she HAS to be included in this list.)

Thinking it over, I believe the common theme here is that these women never gave up, they took chances, they thought out of the box (whatever box they were in, from Pern to ancient Egypt) and they found romance. (OK, I’ll grant you that Ripley’s Happy For Now moment is a stretch but work with me here.) They were loyal friends and comrades to those around them…some of them were excellent mothers or mother figures…

Do you have fictional women who influenced you along the way?

And since Katy Perry started this, here’s my favorite music video from her: