Acknowledgements
Writing THRAX (Angelbound Origins book 4) was both fun and challenging. Why? In ACCA (book 3), I had a clear character arc. Not so the case in THRAX.
SPOILER ALERT: In book 3, Myla starts off as betrothed and ends up as married.
SPOILER ALERT FOLLOW-UP NOTE: Actually, the cover of Book 3 should really have given the wedding thing away, but still. I respect the spoiler alert.
Back to THRAX. What’s grown over the course of writing this book is the idea of Myla developing into a Queen. This is tricky stuff. The reason? A lot of female-centric stories portray women’s leadership as one of the following:
- Walking around in great outfits while plotting the demise of your enemies
- Throwing cool parties
- Yelling at people
Now I’ve worked in offices for decades, and while lady leaders sometimes do those things, it’s actually pretty rare. True leadership isn’t about haranguing people into doing your bidding. It centers on crafting a vision and inspiring your team to follow that star, and with any luck, to change the world. In honor of all the amazing women I’ve worked with, I wanted to capture their true spirit with Myla and THRAX.
All of which brings up some topics for yours truly about the hero versus heroine’s journey. There’s no way to write about female leadership and not define the heroine’s journey. What is it? Well, I’ll tell you my version, and the easiest way to start is by defining the hero’s journey.
To my mind, the hero’s myth is about protecting society from threat. The hero may bring back a special skill from the forest of the unknown, but it’s always to defend their people. Heroes aren’t fundamentally changing the fabric of life. From a mythological standpoint, I’m talking about Jack slaying the giant… A team going off on its newest impossible mission… Or Austin Powers stopping the latest nuclear warhead from destroying the world. Threats are defused, but the core functioning of society isn’t altered.
For me as a writer, changing the core basis of society is the heroine’s journey. It’s central to female leadership energy, which in turn can be expressed through anyone, man or woman. To define this path, I’ve hunted down and researched a lot of female myths. In my mind, female leadership energy boils down to three traits:
1. Brains over brawn. For example, the Greco-Roman god Zeus gets his way by zapping his enemies with a lightning bolt. And it works: that’s how he roasted the Titans, after all. However, his daughter Athena is the only other deity strong enough to wield that same lightning bolt, but she prefers to use cunning to get her way. For instance, there’s a great story where Athena goes toe-to-toe with Poseidon over who gets to name a new Greek town. Poseidon splits a cliff side with his trident. Badass! Then Athena (who presumably could have borrowed dad’s thunderbolt) drops a seed into that split, which then becomes the first olive tree. What a smartypants. Olive oil forms the basis of Greeks wealth, so the mortals name the city Athens. You go, girl.
2. A heroine focuses on herself first. Here I think about the original Cinderella, aka Ash Maiden. In the Grimm’s version, Cinderella’s main problem isn’t evil family members, but her own grief over losing her mother. Every day, the original Cinderella cries onto a seedling to mourn. From that sapling, there grows a magical tree. Key point: it’s from that tree that Cinderella’s gown and shoes fall, helping her move on with her life. The Prince comes along afterwards. Way afterwards. I translate this as every heroine having her own passion or power outside of her love interest entering the scene.
3. The heroine changes the world. This is in stark contrast to defending from a threat. Heroines reweave society. For this concept, I always think of the classic story of Isis, Osiris, and Horus. Here’s the short version: Isis’s consort Osiris is killed due to his own greed over owning a sarcophagus (I know, dumbass.) Anyway, the death of Osiris knocks the heavens out of balance. At this point, Isis could have floated on her cloud and that’s it. She’s a goddess; who cares if the world falls apart. Not going to affect her. Instead, Isis spends years finding all the pieces of Osiris’s body to magically reassemble him long enough for her to become pregnant with Horus. Once Isis’s son is born, the heavens form a new kind of balance: one with a little less selfishness in it.
KEY POINT: This is the core myth that drives Egyptian culture for 3,000 years, and probably the cultures before it for much longer. The image of Isis with Horus on her knee became the inspiration for the Christian image of Mary and baby Jesus. See why the parallelism made sense in the ancient world? Both figures embody the birth of selflessness and concern for others.
Back to THRAX (again). In crafting this book, I found that Myla has easily mastered items number one and two as listed above. However, number three on this list was a challenge. Eventually, it became clear that Myla’s way of changing the thrax world would to be leading the thrax into a new and more diverse future, one that also supports quasis. Now, this wouldn’t be an overnight change. Like Ash maiden, Myla will need to water that seedling of change for years. But it will happen. And in this book, she starts on that journey.
Speaking of journeys, I have so many people to thank for helping me on the adventure of writing this book. First, there is the amazing team at Inscribe Digital. They believed in me and my vision from the start. Thank you, Kelly Peterson, Larry Norton, Kimberly Lane, and Allison Davis.
Next, there’s the wonderful team at Monster House Books. Arely Zimmermann, where would I be without you? It makes me shiver to even think about. And GIE, thank you so much for your insight, gentle prodding, and teamwork. You’re a marvel.
And I can never forget my readers and bloggers. You guys are the best, end of story. Thank you for every high five, sweet idea, and suggested change. I value each and every one!
Most importantly, heartfelt thanks to my husband and son. Your patience and support mean everything. I love you both with all my heart and soul.